# Home-made Ethernet Cables



## Ring-Ding (Aug 8, 2006)

Hey, I need a crossed ethernet cable, but all I have is 2 straight ethernet cables, and I don't really want to buy a new one, so I was wondering if there was some way I could take one of the cables I have here and cross the wires into a crossed cable.

If so, could someone give me exact instructions on how to do this?

Thanks!


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## jarod (Oct 22, 2007)

If i were you, i won't waste my time on making crossed cables. I will just buy a switch with Auto MDIX or something capability. It eliminates the need to have crossed cables. The DES1008D has this feature


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

Buy a crossover cable if you need it, I wouldn't try to build one. You probably don't have the tools for one thing. :smile:


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## Ring-Ding (Aug 8, 2006)

I understand, but I still want to make my own. Does anybody know of any tutorials for this?

I guess I just need to talk to Done_Fishin, he was telling me he home-made all of his cables, which is where I got the idea to do this in the first place.


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## Old Rich (May 31, 2007)

See how much this helps . . http://www.lanshack.com/make-cat5E.aspx


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## Done_Fishin (Oct 10, 2006)

simpswr said:


> See how much this helps . . http://www.lanshack.com/make-cat5E.aspx


an ideal tutorial, thanks for putting it on line ..

as you can see what you need are lengths of cable that match your requirements plus at least 2 clips for every cable you need to make (always have a spare of two because being human we tend to make mistakes or a wire slips at the last moment) and of course that crimping tool. There are cheap tools which are good for a couple of cables or more expensive tools should you like to make sure that the tool will last for a few years and useful whenever you need it.

Not much else to say except that everyones advice holds true ..

if you only want a couple of cables it's a lot cheaper to buy ready made.
if you need to route a cable through some walls etc or require non-standard lengths PLUS you'll be doing this sort of thing quite often then it makes sense to get cable, RJ45's & a good crimping tool.


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## Ring-Ding (Aug 8, 2006)

All right, thanks for your advice everyone! Heres what I ended up doing:

I took my existing cable, split it in half with wire cutters, stripped the wire down to its copper, then crossed the wires according to your tutorial you gave me. That way, I didn't have to buy any wire, and I also didn't have to buy a premade one. Once I had it the way I wanted, I duct-taped it back up, and it works perfectly.

Thanks!


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## Old Rich (May 31, 2007)

Well . . that's one way to do it . .


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## Done_Fishin (Oct 10, 2006)

you will also have caused yourself the possibility of bad connections, increased electrical noise, reduced usable bandwidth and slowing down your connection due to repeated transfers of data because of corruption.

and of course when you break the cable like that the reliability / quality is impeached too!


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

CAT5 Cable Wiring Diagram

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN CAT 5, TWISTED-PAIR NETWORK CABLES


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## jonnellnieto (Jul 17, 2009)

This gives the TIA/EIA-568-A.1-2001 T568A Wiring that you can use http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable#Category_5e
There is an article here that gives info on how to make Twisted Pair Cable (look at the second page) http://www.serverracksandcable.com/network-cabling-what-is.php


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