[kwlug-disc] Recommendations on ethernet cable tool sets, kits?

[Cedric Puddy]

Hi William!

I would either put a keystone jack on the end of that cable, and use a
patch cable (always seems to be lots of 1' patch cables around anyway), or
just toss it.  When most fresh patch cables are between $1.20 - $5.00, how
long do you need to spend debugging, before you would have been better of
just going with a cable that was a sure bet?  In the personal world,
perhaps.... but if it were for a client, I would feel compelled to credit
back any time I spent on something like that, and it the cost of labour
would probably exceed the value of the patch cable within the first minute
or two.

I'm not sure where all the "dead" cables might be coming from, unless you
are talking about just "cables with broken clips" -- but that doesn't
change the observation that installing male RJ45 ends is dodgy.  Also, if
putting fresh male RJ45 ends on, be sure that you are doing it into
stranded cable; solid conductor cable (what you generally use in walls)
isn't intended for male RJ45 ends (the little spike that is supposed to bed
down in to the cable strands can instead just slide around the round solid
conductor, giving you a weak/inconsistent electrical connection, and it can
be very had to visually see that it's not right, and it will usually pass
continuity tests, but will then cost you days or weeks of frustration when
you try to use it for actual data communications, and lead you to believe
you have a dodgy switch, NIC, router, internet feed, etc.).

Some of cable guys I work with, especially when installing CAT6, most
especially for longer runs, are quite concerned if the cable gets run over
or people even walk on it at the job site; I think that's going a bit far
for the most part, but it does remind us that the rate of twist, the exact
relationship of the conductors inside that jacket is of utmost importance
to the signal integrity of the cable (the helical twist, combined with
differential signalling, gives the cable it's ability to reject external
electromagnetic noise; if you crunch on the cable, or torque it such that
the relationship between the conductor changes, then it's ability reject
noise drops).

As far as "show and tell" goes - this is a picture showing the crucial bits
of wiring a keystone jack: https://goo.gl/images/zh6Mfw

For that matter, youtube has lots of videos, I would wager (have not
looked, but ... they've got everything else!)

Arrange the conductors by colour (the cabling industry tenders it's apology
to colour blind people, as always) on the jack, maintaining the twist to as
close as possible to the connection point, punch it down, continuity test,
and enjoy!

  All the Best,
  -Cedric


On 29 January 2018 at 14:40, William Park via kwlug-disc <
kwlug-disc at kwlug.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Jan 29, 2018 at 09:42:17AM -0500, Cedric Puddy wrote:
> > 2) IF YOU ARE CRIMPING MALE RJ45 ENDS ON A CABLE, YOU ARE DOING IT WONG
> AND
> > SHOULD JUST STOP.  INSTALL KEYSTONE JACKS AT ALL TIMES.
>
> Keystone Jack is the female side of things.  What do you do if clip on
> the male plug breaks off?  We got boxes full of "dead" cables.  Nothing
> really wrong with the wires, just the clip is gone.
>
> Can you do "show and tell" on this topic?  I have to see how they work.
> Email doesn't really work for me.
> --
> William Park <opengeometry at yahoo.ca>
>
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