|
Make Your Own Network Cables Step 3 - Attaching the plug We are now ready to attach the plug onto the end of the cable. Inserting the cable into the plug Ready with your patience? You now need to insert the cable into the plug and ensure that the wires stay in the order you just arranged. As you insert the wires into the plug, you'll notice small grooves, one for each wire, in the plug. Because the wires aren't perfectly straight, you'll likely get the wrong wires in the wrong grooves the first few tries. Be very careful here or the cable simply won't work.
Once you are absolutely certain the wires are in the right grooves, one wire to a groove and in the proper order, you now must make sure that the wires are pushed ALL the way into the plug. Again, if they aren't, or are even just a millimeter or two short, the cable won't work. Crimping Now you are ready to complete this end of your cable by crimping the plug onto the end. Insert the cable and plug assembly into the crimping tool. Notice that our tool has an opening for both an RJ45 plug and an RJ11 (phone) plug. Now close the handle firmly just once. If the crimp is done correctly, you should be able to pull on the plug with significant force and it won't come off.
Again, the biggest issue for us in making our own network cables was initially not ensuring that the wires were pushed ALL the way into the plug before crimping. And, once you make a bad crimp, forget it. Cut the wire and start again. Prepare the other end the exact same way for a straight-through cable or with the other wire standard (see Step 1) for a crossover cable, and you've made your first network cable. Testing Now all that's left to do is try your new network cable in your home network. Remember that you can plug cables into and out of hubs and switches without turning them off, but it's always recommended you turn off a computer before removing or inserting a network cable. Further still, if your network cable doesn't work at first, make sure that you have turned everything off on the network and back on. If it still doesn't work, check again that the order of the wires is correct and that the wires are inserted all the way into the plug. One final note. If you are making both straight through and crossover cables, make sure to mark them clearly. It can be very, very frustrating if you're not sure what type of cable you are using once you start running into trouble on your home network.
All content © 1998-2007 by homePCnetwork, inc.
|
