Wiring Cat6 ethernet

[johnjtraynor]

I had asked for assistance several days ago on a poor LAN speed, and got lots of good help. It turned out that I had a bad set of cable terminations on my network. I had to order several pieces of equipment in order to fix the job, but I have a couple of questions. First, what does it mean if my LAN cable tester is saying seven and eight are not connected at one end, and four, seven, and eight are not connected at the other? Second, is there a difference between keystone jacks made for CAT5E and keystone jacks made for CAT6? Thanks, your feedback appreciated.

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

RJ-45 is RJ-45. There is no difference in the jacks at all.

 

[jimmysmitty]

If it is saying there is no connection that means that either in the keystone jack or the head is not making proper contact. It could also mean there is a break in the cable but most testers state if it is a break rather than no connection at a certain end.

As for the keystone jacks themselves, not really. CAT5 and CAT6 are actually very similar except CAT6 has a tighter twist to it and some other minor changes. You can use any CAT head or keystone and it will work with it. I used CAT5 on CAT6 keystone heads without any issues as the pinout is still the same.

CAT6 heads are slightly different but only in that they have a guide for the cables you put on before you put the cables in the head.

 

[InvalidError]

If your tester says 'Not Connected' then it means you either have bad crimps or your isolation displacement connectors did not bite properly. If you did homebrew connector, did you use the correct crimps for the cables? Crimps for solid wires are different from those for stranded wires: solid wire crimps have offset teeth the solid core is intended to slip between so the wedges can bite through the isolation to make contact while stranded wire crimps have sharp points lined directly with the center of the wire to pierce right through the middle and wedge themselves between wire strands. If you use the wrong connector type, strands will slip between solid isolation displacement wedges and often fail to make contact and if you use piercing crimps on solid wire, only the tip of the crimps will touch the solid core, which will also result in poor or intermittent connections.

Keystone jacks for in-wall wiring are usually designed for solid wire IDC. Did you use stranded wire cables? In that case, you will need piercing connectors, not displacement.

 

[jsmithepa]

Solid vs stranded / crimp vs punch-down...

For in-walls you should use solid copper wiring and punch-down RJ45 which are easier to connect.

The RJ45 should be color coded for EIA 568a or 568b connections, pick one and stick with it throughout.

 

[johnjtraynor]

Thanks all. To be clear I am trying to fix existing cat5e wiring in the wall and hoping not to have to fish wires. I'm hoping it is just the terminations the installer did a few years ago. Hopefully I can just punch down on new keystones and problem solved.

Some cables are showing 8x8 and high speed iperf tests of 700Mbps + but some are not, and the connection on those cables is being negotiated down to fast 10/100 Ethernet.


I am using a cheap Tonor rj45 tester with small led lights 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-g. I don't want to spring for a better tester. I tested the Tonor tester on new cable and it reads 8x8.

For the cable to my office, On the far remote (PC) end of the cable I am using the unit with the battery and it is is flashing in sequence 1-2-3-4-5-6-_-_- and on the near "router" end of the cable the smaller unit is saying 1-2-3-_-5-6-_-_-

1) Does it matter which end I read from?

2) Are the 7 and 8 open circuited or shorted and the 4 is just bad at the router end? Or am I misinterpreting that? Will I need to repunch both ends?

3) does "1" on the tester always correspond to the #1 position on the keystone jack (orange&white for B wiring?)

Thanks in advance

John

Rereading responses above suggests 7&8 are not terminated correctly in the office and not contacting. At the router end 7&8 are not "hearing" the powered end "ping" and 4 is not making contact. So I probably have bad 7&8 upstairs in the office and a bad 4 termination at the router. If I switched the powered tester to the router end I would see 1-2-3-_-5-6-7-8-_- at the router end and 1-2-3-_-5-6-_-_- at the office end. Is that right?

 

[jimmysmitty]

1. No it will say the sane thing on each end for the ends that have issues.

2. You will need to repunch both ends as both ends look to have issues.

3. 1 should always correspond to pin 1 on the Ethernet head which for B is Orange/White

 

[johnjtraynor]

Why is 4 only out on one end?

 

[jimmysmitty]

4 being out only on one end means that only one end is probably not making proper contact and the signal is able to hit the line but never is received on the other end. 7 and 8 on the other hand have another issue and it is possible that the end that is sending the signal is unable to do so on 7 and 8 so the other end does not see them.

The way a tester works is the bigger part sends a signal and the smaller end receives it then bounces back. If there is a break between the tester sending the signal and the receiving end it will still show that line on the signaling end but not on the receiving end. More advanced ones can even tell you the approximate distance from the signaling end to the possible break in the cable. If the signaling end does not see a line than neither end will show up.

 

[DeadlyDays]

cut off both ends, strip, and crimp new ends on both sides, retest.

 

[InvalidError]

To be clear I am trying to fix existing cat5e wiring in the wall and hoping not to have to fish wires. I'm hoping it is just the terminations the installer did a few years ago. Hopefully I can just punch down on new keystones and problem solved.

Check which type of wire (solid or stranded) you have in there, you need different termination styles depending on which one you have. Properly terminated cables should not randomly fail like this, even less so to such an extent, so I suspect the wrong termination type got used at one or both ends. Solid wires should be terminated using isolation displacement crimps while stranded wires should be terminated using piercing crimps.

 

[Albert egerton]

The difference between cat5e and cat6 is in the transmission speed and available bandwidth from cat5e cable 100 MHZ and 200 MHZ from cat6. We can use cat5e jacks with cat6 cable and they will work but the Cat6 will only function at Cat5e level. Only wire both ends according to the standards -568A or 568B. There is no need to worry cat6 is the newer version of ca5e.

 

[johnjtraynor]

I haven't fixed the terminations yet. However I noticed that for at least half of the rooms 7 and 8 are not connected. Why would the installer terminate 1-6 with 5E but not connect 7-8 ?

 

[jimmysmitty]

I haven't fixed the terminations yet. However I noticed that for at least half of the rooms 7 and 8 are not connected. Why would the installer terminate 1-6 with 5E but not connect 7-8 ?

He shouldn't have. CAT 5e, all CAT versions, require all 8 lines to be connected. He probably just did a poor job or his punchdown tool could be old. You might also want to check with another tester to be sure though because the odds of that seem pretty low.

 

[johnjtraynor]

I haven't fixed the terminations yet. However I noticed that for at least half of the rooms 7 and 8 are not connected. Why would the installer terminate 1-6 with 5E but not connect 7-8 ?

He shouldn't have. CAT 5e, all CAT versions, require all 8 lines to be connected. He probably just did a poor job or his punchdown tool could be old. You might also want to check with another tester to be sure though because the odds of that seem pretty low.

I actually looked at the patch panel (tight space) and 7 and 8 aren't even connected for half the rooms. It is as though he planned half the rooms for 10/100, but he could have done that with 4. Confused.

 

[jimmysmitty]

I haven't fixed the terminations yet. However I noticed that for at least half of the rooms 7 and 8 are not connected. Why would the installer terminate 1-6 with 5E but not connect 7-8 ?

He shouldn't have. CAT 5e, all CAT versions, require all 8 lines to be connected. He probably just did a poor job or his punchdown tool could be old. You might also want to check with another tester to be sure though because the odds of that seem pretty low.

I actually looked at the patch panel (tight space) and 7 and 8 aren't even connected for half the rooms. It is as though he planned half the rooms for 10/100, but he could have done that with 4. Confused.

Seems more lazy to me. I see no reason to not do 1Gbe to every room. 100Mbe is just not fast enough if you are running on a network. Sure it wont matter if you only have 100Mbps internet but if you plan a network and to have shared access files a 100Mbe network will choke.

 

[InvalidError]

I haven't fixed the terminations yet. However I noticed that for at least half of the rooms 7 and 8 are not connected. Why would the installer terminate 1-6 with 5E but not connect 7-8 ?

If by not connected you mean that the wires are not even inserted in the termination block and behind the jacks, then it could be that the installer left that pair out for a 10/100Mbps + phone setup.

 

[johnjtraynor]

InvalidError gets a cookie.

Before reading this last comment I had just taken the wall plate off in my office. It was a combination rj11 rj45 plate. Sure enough the installer wired 1-6 on the rj45 and 7-8 on the rj11. Crawling in and looking at the patch panel the 7s and 8s are wire nutted together at the panel. He was using 7-8 for phone!

Why was I getting gigabit speed ion 2 rooms ?

Those were the rooms that had previously had rj11 existing phone lines, so he connected all 8 connections in those rooms!

Since we have two Ooma Telos with wireless handsets I never thought to check what the rj11s were wired with.

So tonight I will get punch drunk reconnecting 7 and 8 in a B configuration in all the rooms. Now I just hope those keystones I bought are for solid wire cable.

Hmmmmmm