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Recently I started to make my own Ethernet cables and wanted to share how to do it with all of you so that you can too! If you are unaware, there are standards to Ethernet cables and each standard has it's benefits.
For the longest time cat5 or cat5e were used in the United States as the default. They were fast and reliable. Then Cat6 came to the party a few years back. It took the max bandwidth from 100MHz to over 250MHz which is a lot. To help visualize it I drew you a diagram.
Picture that the speed limit is 60mph or 96.54kmph (for everyone not in the US lol). Cat5/Cat5e is like going from a 4 lane highway to a 10 lane highway (cat6). The speed is the same but you can fit more data streams at that same speed through it.
Think of Cat6 like 5G speeds on your cellphone and cat5e is 4G speeds. They are both fast but if you have the connection and equipment to pick up those speeds they are totally worth it!
First things first though... items needed:
Cat6 cable: Amazon link
Cutter/Crimper: Amazon Link
Ethernet Connectors: Amazon Link **
Colorful Cable Boots: Amazon Link
**I highly recommend getting passthrough Connectors. It makes it easier so you don't have to cut the lengths exactly. More on that below**
For this walkthrough I am making a cable for my local NAS and I want it to have Purple cable boots.
Step by Step Guide
Step 1: Get your cable, boots and connectors ready
Step 2: Put the cable boots on both ends.
Step 3: With the Crimper/Cutter tool strip the outer sheathing away at about 1.5 inches.
Step 4: Separate all the wires and cut out the inner plastic 'plus sign' guard
Step 5: Untwist the cable pairs and make them as straight as you can
Step 6: Squish them all in the correct order. In the US use T-568B and basically everywhere else use T-568A. For this guide I am using 'B'
Step 7: Nicely and smoothly push the wires into the connector. If you have a passthrough connector make sure the wires are coming out the other end at least some. (I don't have passthrough connectors so in that case make sure they are all equal lengths and that they are all pushed all the way in. Once I had them all in order I trimmed them so they would all be the same length.)
Step 8: Put the connector into the Crimper and squeeze to lock it into place.
Step 9: Make sure all 8 cables are making contact and in the right order
Step 10: Push the cable boot onto the connector
Step 11: Do the other end of the cable exactly the same way
And that is it. It truly isn't that hard at all. It is a lot cheaper to make your own cables IF you need a lot. The 4 parts I listed above came out to $138. But I can make 50 cables that add up to 1,000 feet in length.
If you do have to buy cables already made then I highly recommend www.monoprice.com. Or if you need any cable then head to Monoprice. If you were to buy 10 cat 6 ethernet cables that were 100 feet each it would come out to $158. Or 50 cables at 25 feet each would be $234.50.
If you need a quick reference here are the two cable layout guides.
Link to pinout images.
Things to Note:
If you are going to make your own cables for any of the various reasons then make sure the cable and connectors are all rated for cat6. And everything they are going to plug into. You don't have to worry too much as cat6 is backwards compatible but if you are using say a 10/100Mbps switch and not a gigabit switch then you are limiting yourself to that 10/100Mbps speed regardless of the faster cable.
I like these Netgear switches. They are gigabit speeds and have 8-ports and are unmanaged for everyday people. The color lights above the cables tell you what speeds they are on too which is nice.
** EDIT**
To be clear, in step 9 where you see the "exposed" wires outside the clear plastic connector. That is not how it's supposed to be in an ideal setup. The plastic sheathing that is around the cable should go up inside the clear plastic connector. However I didn't get the passthrough connectors like I wanted to make that happen and I have fat fingers so holding them all straight and inline while getting it that close was not going to happen. This is how it SHOULD look in an ideal setup. Again for everyday homeowner it won't make that big of difference.
obviously the ends sticking out would get cut off when it's crimped but you see the blue outside sheathing goes right up to the gold plated tips? That is how it's supposed to look
