RJ-45 Connectors: Do any of you have good experiences attaching those little RJ-45 connectors onto CAT6 cable? Yesterday, I ran a cable into another room to connect a computer via...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Do any of you have good experiences attaching those little RJ-45 connectors onto CAT6 cable? Yesterday, I ran a cable into another room to connect a computer via cable, rather than Wi-Fi. It took several attempts to get those eight tiny wires into the plug, but it finally worked. Today, it was working intermittently, so I got out the tester. One of the wires lit an orange light, rather than green, so there's a bad connection.

I ordered some of these from Amazon because the little wires pull right through the plug, and you can easily see that all the wires are where they should be.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FI9VU2/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

jerryc41 wrote:

Do any of you have good experiences attaching thos... (show quote)

I have some experience making my own CAT 5 cables. The trick was to not unwind the twisted pairs, we cut the sheathing very close to the connector, we would grip the twisted pair wiring very tightly with a thumb and forefinger and use the thumb and forefinger of the other hand to seperate and comb the end of the wire straight, then cut it close to where the only untwisted wire would be inside of the connector. I am sure that you know that there is a correct order for the colored wire that should be observed.

Hopefully you pulled enough wire so that you had some excess so that if you made a mistake you had wire left over to correct it. That wire is solid core wire and very thin, too much bending will break the individual wires, that may very well be your problem if this is the first time you have attempted to make wire connections.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Blurryeyed wrote:

I have some experience making my own CAT 5 cables.... (show quote)

I've done this before, and I've seldom gotten it right on the first try. Yes, lots of excess wire. I'm assuming that the fault was the connection in the plug, rather than a break somewhere in the wiring. I'll try again tomorrow when the new plugs arrive.

What's also annoying is the plastic divider inside the cable - trying to cut that out without damaging the wires.

geclevel Loc: Springville, Utah

jerryc41 wrote:

I've done this before, and I've seldom gotten it right on the first try. Yes, lots of excess wire. I'm assuming that the fault was the connection in the plug, rather than a break somewhere in the wiring. I'll try again tomorrow when the new plugs arrive.

What's also annoying is the plastic divider inside the cable - trying to cut that out without damaging the wires.

There is a special wire stripper for this cable which has a blade set to cut just right thickness. Will not reach the inner wires.
Also ensure you have a good crimping tool.
I have done hundreds of connection repairs and without the right tools it can be a nightmare.

BigBear Loc: Northern CT

jerryc41 wrote:

Do any of you have good experiences attaching thos... (show quote)

Connecting those wires is what I do for my day job.
The mod end connectors are a little difficult to put on, but with practice you can become proficient as well.
Out of the 4 pairs in the cable, only 2 are used for the actual communications which are pins 1-2 and 3-6. Of you are connecting direct from computer to computer, you have to cross one end. Orange on 1-2 and green on 3-6 on one end and green on 1-2 and orange on 3-6.

medavis43 Loc: Folkston, GA

When my daughter made a new cable for me, we bought a special tool to attach the RJ45 jack to it at Radio Shack. Darn thing was $40 so we used it once and returned it and said we got the wrong thing. Sometimes being a "girl" comes in handy.

UP-2-IT Loc: RED STICK, LA

Blurryeyed wrote:

I have some experience making my own CAT 5 cables.... (show quote)

Sounds like you got it Blurry.

ted45 Loc: Delaware

jerryc41 wrote:

Do any of you have good experiences attaching thos... (show quote)

I used these briefly. In order to pull the wire all the way through the connector is slightly thicker than a normal RJ45. That extra thickness makes it difficult to use the connector on some devices. Once they are forced into the receiving socket it is sometimes extremely difficult to disconnect them. I found them to be more trouble than they were worth.

Blurry has it right; don't untwist more than 1/2 inch of wire and insert them carefully. It just takes practice.

BigBear Loc: Northern CT

Blurryeyed wrote:

I have some experience making my own CAT 5 cables.... (show quote)

Blurry, You're hired !!
When can you come to CT ??

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Update: I got those EZ-RJ connectors, and they are easier to wire. You cut off 2" of insulation and then run each wire into and through the connector. It's tedious and annoying, but you can tell right away if the wires are in the right locations, and they don't pull out while you're trying to get the others in.

I think I caused myself unnecessary work - never a good thing. I used a tester to see if the plug I had attached was making eight good connections. One or two of the eight lights seemed to be more orange than green, so I thought it was a bad connection and cut off the plug. Then I tested a known, good cable, and it showed the same one or two orange lights. I guess as long as the lights aren't red, the connections are OK.

In the future, I think I'll try to buy the length of ready-made cable that I need.

RicknJude Loc: Quebec, Canada

You're a tough guy Jerry. It's easy if you need a 6 or 10 footer. Got to be a do it your selfie to go from room to room. I learned a lot from the thread. Thanks. I'm gonna see if my wife can do it. She has tiny fingers and better eyes. :lol: