Common mistakes when building network cables

When building network cables people often get confused about what's important. It's not hard to see why though. With the money spent in marketing the cable industry most manufacturers want you to think that one particular quality or another that they feature is more important than something else. It's just not true though. Chances are, 90% of the cable manufacturers you are able to buy from are going to be within 5-10% of each other quality wise. So what's really important? Well first off something you should know about CAT5 network cable vs CAT 6. CAT 6 is capable of transmitting data much faster. However, unless you are using the correct components, you will spend extra money on cable and then receive no added benifit! Your connectors for instance... What good is spending all that extra money on nice cable if you are going to bring down it's quality by using cheap connectors? 2nd, pinout. Just straight through won't cut it. There is a particular network cable pinout and the conductors are twisted in pairs to maximize overall quality. Get it right! 3rd, the strain relief. When you crimp the RJ-45, make sure you crimp the pvc (or plenum) jacket of the cat5 or cat6 that you are using. Some folks will strip the jacket to far back and crimp the RJ45 to only the individual conductors which will provide you no strain relief. the cable is much more likely to fall apart with this type of construction. 4th, use a quality crimp tool. Poor quality crimp tools can quickly become damaged and the teeth used for actually crimping the gold contacts can come off center and cause the crimp to miss contact with the conductors. If this happens that it will likely not be fixable and you will have to cut off the connector and try again. For more info on computer cables be sure to visit our homepage. Articles and items available.