Russell noted how much cheaper Ethernet cables are at The Home Depot as compared to someplace like fry’s. The first thing that popped into my mind? Why not make your own? It may seem daunting, but really, with the whole internet at your fingers, it’s only a google search away. Try it. There’s a search box at the bottom of the page. Type in “Ethernet Cable Termination Diagram”.
What did you find? Links like these…
LanShack. Not only diagrams but best practices for networking as well.
AptCommunications. Excellent color coded diagrams and instructions/explanations
duxcw. Short and sweet
If you have a pre made patch cable lying around, and who doesn’t, you can even just copy the wiring scheme from that. And truthfully, for patch cables, all you need to do is make sure the pin out is the same at both ends and the scheme doesn’t matter.
And really the parts are a whole lot cheaper. Especially if you have a lot of cabling to do. It gets even cheaper if you have somewhere to pick up free cable. Lots of places that do networking will throw away their scraps and most often those scraps are more than long enough for patch cables.
Sure, if you only need one cable, it’s probably easier to just buy it, but if you’re networking your house and need custom lenght cables, DIY cable making is the way to go.
Technorati Tags: cat 5, cable, networking, ethernet, diy
About Shane Ede
I agree – which is why we were having fun with cat5, ceiling tiles, and crimpers in my new basement. W00t
Yeah, I learned that just making the cables the same at both ends is problematic when you want to swtich to gigabit. Gigabit specifically requires a certain pattern for max speed as it is very easily reduced to overpriced 100mbit ethernet with a poorly wired cable. Do yourself a favor if you’re making wires and make sure you’re using a gigabit compliant wiring scheme, you’ll thank yourself later. I sure wish I’d known this years ago when I was just making cables “the same on both ends”, oh well whats an afternoon knifing the ends of cables and redoing them between friends? Just my 2 cents on the whole issue.