Ethernet Cable Connectors

[ASTG]

lately my dad has been setting up his office\garage and hes bugging me about getting the net in there, im thinking of plugging an ethernet cable to the back of my modem and running it to his garage, one of my dads business partners is doing a similar thing with his home office and is buying enough cable for both of us, along with 4 connectors, 2 for him and 2 for us, the only problem is hes nevver attached the connectors before, neither have i but i told him i would figure it out, he just called to tell me that there are quite a few wires on the end of it and it looks complex to him

just wanted to ask if it really as as complimacated as it sounds, and if anyone could give me some tips or maybe point me to a site which goes step by step through doing this (maybe even with a few illustrations, though i know thats just plain pushing it)

cheers,
ben

[Lord Smelly]

OK they cables are straight thru so you need to make sure both ends are the same. you will need a clamping tool and a cable tester would be handy also

Follow this links instructions and you shouldn't have any problems as I use it as a reminder when I first made cables for my office

http://www.aptcommunications.com/ncode.htm

[EMCWheels]

The back of a Dick Smith Catalogue has all common cable connections in it, but it doesn't really have a how to. Proper tools to terminate CAT-5 (LAN) cable can be expensive too. You might find a cheaper "multi-purpose" cable tool will do the trick for cutting and clamping.

The best thing to do is to trim a couple of inches off the outer sheath to expose the 8 wires. There will be 4 twisted pairs, and possibly a shield wire depending on the cable. Un-twist the pairs and line them up in the right order before you trim them to the right length. Be careful that they stay in order when you slip the connector on. Make sure all the wires go all the way into the connector before you crimp it.

You also need to be aware that there are two types of cable, and they require different connectors.

There is solid core, where each of the individual wires is one solid wire (Commonly used for cabling in walls / roofs etc.). It's not very flexible. The prongs inside the connectors that grip the wire when crimped are like a V and go either side of it. It is more common to use this cable she terminating to a wall-plate or punch-down block (See Stinky's Smelly's link)

The other type (very commonly used for pre-made cable) is multi core. The individual wires are made up of lots of tiny wires, which make it very flexible. The prongs inside the connectors are like a knife, and slice into the wire when crimped. This cable is no good for punch-downs.

The connectors work best with the appropriate type of cable, and are not the best with the wrong type of cable.

If you want a "professional" installation, I would recommend getting wall-plates with punch-down sockets. You the run the long cable between these, and use pre-made cable to go from your ethernet ports to the wall-plates.

[alex zorrilla]

Ditto on what Smelly and EMCWheels said.

Do not be surprised if it takes a little getting used to, though. At least if you mess up, you can always cut the end off the cable and start over, provided you have not already crimped the connector onto the cable.

[Dawnman]

Just incase you haven't found the cable layout it goes like this:-

Clip underneath right to left whte/orange orange white/green blue white/blue green white/brown brown.

I suggest getting a router/switch, that way everyone can use it.


MY apologies if I'm just repeating stuff.

[ASTG]

thanks everyone, tomorrow ill be getting the cables and hopefully ill sort this out, after reading smellys link a few times and reading all your input i think i understand what ill be doing and ill let you all know how i go,

thank you all,
ben

[ASTG]

I just tried connecting a short ethernet cable (i had one lying around) from the back of my modem to my laptop, just to test if it works, for some reason it isnt, im using a motorolla surfboard cablemodem with optusnet, ive used the modem on the laptop before only with the usb instead of the ethernet cable, can someone tell me how i can get it working? ive tried installing the drivers a couple of times but no luck,

im leaving the modem plugged in to my computer through usb at the same time its in the laptop with the ethernet cable, does this make a differance at all?

[ASTG]

Just a little more info on this new problem, ive played arounfd with it a bit, now m OC is connected through usb and laptop is through ethernet (as before) Pc is workign, obviously since im posting this message, and on the laptop it does detect the connection, when i unplug it theres a small message saying "A network cable has been unpluged" and in Network Connections, i see the connection, plugging it in shoes its enabled, unplugging shows the connection disabled, but for some reason internet explorer still thinks im offline, ive tried unclicking the work offline thing, but it still isnt working..... any clues?

[jokiin]

From memory your modem is one or the other (USB or Ethernet) not both at the same time, you would do better to connect a router/switch to your modem to handle the connection and connect your PC's from there.

[ASTG]

thanks jok11n,

i disconnected the usb part from the back of the modem, and the ethernet thing worked on the laptop, then i had a couple of problems with my pc, usb didnt work on pc even after disconnecting the ethernet or reinstalling drivers, i just managed to get the ethernet running on there instead, so im glad thats worked out.

as for the router, ill havce to eventuallly buy one but for now ill have no problem unplugging the ethernet from my pc and plugging in the cable for my dads computer whenever he needs to use it, he wont need it much anyway, just 2 to 5 hours a week, so i can cope with that and ill get a router later on,

could someone maybe recommend a cheap router, something simple all i need it for is to connect 2 (maybe 3) computers to the net through the same modem, also networking isnt really my strongpoint if i walk into a shop do i get any type of router or would i need to look for something specific?

[SA000584]

lately my dad has been setting up his office\garage and hes bugging me about getting the net in there, im thinking of plugging an ethernet cable to the back of my modem and running it to his garage, one of my dads business partners is doing a similar thing with his home office and is buying enough cable for both of us, along with 4 connectors, 2 for him and 2 for us, the only problem is hes nevver attached the connectors before, neither have i but i told him i would figure it out, he just called to tell me that there are quite a few wires on the end of it and it looks complex to him

just wanted to ask if it really as as complimacated as it sounds, and if anyone could give me some tips or maybe point me to a site which goes step by step through doing this (maybe even with a few illustrations, though i know thats just plain pushing it)

cheers,
ben

Sounds like you want to go wireless......why would you want cables running everywhere. Much easier

[Lord Smelly]

If you want cheap this will do the trick for you
http://www.eyo.com.au/prod_M-RP614_proddesc_Netgear_Cable_DSL_Router_Gateway_w_ 4-Port_RP614.html

If you wanted to spend a little more then this is what I would suggest
http://www.eyo.com.au/prod_M-BEFSR81_proddesc_LinkSys_Cable_DSL_Router_w_8-Port_Switch_QoS_BEFSR81.html

[Dawnman]

I agree

I have been running the Netgear RP614 V2 for three years now and it has not failed me yet. :D

[ASTG]

SA00.... witreless is not a good option for this, we've tried it outand it didnt work out well, getting thew signal or whatever it is, out of my house into the garage which is built out of solid bricks, and when my dad converted it into an office its also a test kitchen/lab, so he had renovators put up this really thick white walls which is made out of metal and whatever else is in there.... the signal doesnt get rthrough basically.... so wires are the easiest way..

and thanks smelly, i might go out and buy the cheaper one next week, i assumed theyd have cost an bit more than 75

[Lord Smelly]

why go out when you can buy from the comfort of your own home ;)

[SA000584]

SA00.... witreless is not a good option for this, we've tried it outand it didnt work out well, getting thew signal or whatever it is, out of my house into the garage which is built out of solid bricks, and when my dad converted it into an office its also a test kitchen/lab, so he had renovators put up this really thick white walls which is made out of metal and whatever else is in there.... the signal doesnt get rthrough basically.... so wires are the easiest way..

and thanks smelly, i might go out and buy the cheaper one next week, i assumed theyd have cost an bit more than 75


Ok...only a suggestion. My house is made out of solid brick as well. I have an extension, so with wireless signal goes through a double brick wall and then 2 other brick walls, when I have my notebook in my bedroom. This works no probs. It may be other instruments/electronics that is interfering with the signal rather than a brick/metal walls.

[ASTG]

why go out when you can buy from the comfort of your own home ;)
i dont really like the idea of buying online, i buy off ebay alot and i smetimes buy dvds online when they arent sold in aus, but i dont feel comfortable doing it, i like to see exact;y what im getting and speak to a person face to face if something goes wrong, as opposed to emailing them when something goes wrong,

and SA00... it could be something in the kitchen, my dad doesnt know much about computers but he does have some pretty sophistimacated doohickeys in there to run various tests on whatever he makes, i dont understand what it all does but its possible there is something in there interefering with the signal, its something i never really thought of but does make sense

[Lord Smelly]

i dont really like the idea of buying online, i buy off ebay alot and i smetimes buy dvds online when they arent sold in aus, but i dont feel comfortable doing it, i like to see exact;y what im getting and speak to a person face to face if something goes wrong, as opposed to emailing them when something goes wrong,


Each to their own BTPH, personally I have had much better and professional service from EYO than my local retailers. I can see where you are coming from also

[ASTG]

okay i managed to connect all the cables and everything works fine

today i stopped by dicksmith and bought a D-Link DSL-504t

now i plugged in both computers and the modem, a few different ways with different results

Firstly my computer in the first slot, the modem in the second other computer in the 3rd, my computers internet worked, other computer didnt, my computer first slot, other computer second modem in the 4th and then 3rdslot,. no computers have an internet connection, i played around with everything either my computer has a connection and other computer doesnt or neither computer has a connection

can someone tell me exactly what to do as the manual provided isnt too helpfull

edit: also, when wiring the cat5 cable i was told that when goign straight from one computer to another i shoudl wiring everything straight (e.g. red white blue wires to red, white blue) amnd when going through a router i need to wire red, white blue to blue white, red,

is this right>?

[Dawnman]

I just looked up the device. It looks like an adsl modem router. Does it connect to the phone line? If it does you have the wrong bit of kit . The routers mention above by smelly and myself are what you are looking for, an ethernet router not adsl .

Just to clear things up. Does your existing modem connect to the phone line? If so just swap the rj11 from that to the new device and unplug the origianl modem since it is now redundent.

This bit got editted in after I wrote the message below.


It will all be in the doc that came with the router.

You should have a port seperrate from the rest for the modem to plug into ( My Netgear has a diagram on the bottom depicting this port as internet ) and then you will need to configure the router, Netgear usually use 192.168.0.1 for the gateway and router setup pages. Most routers have a setup wiazrd that does all/most of the work for you.
If you use DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) just set the ports on the computers to get automatically for address and dns.

From machine to machine you will need a cross over cable ( the site mentioned above should help with that). Everything else you are likely to need is just a plain patch lead.

That should be it.