Terminating CAT6

[Mike Henderson]

Mikes: so run the cable and do female ends. then a 3' factory cable from that female end to the modem and then the same at the access point. The reason I don't want to order a pre-terminated cable is I can drill smaller holes for just the cable thru the breeze way into the house. This sound about right? Might actually be something I can do.

You're right about the smaller hole. I drilled a bit larger hole - big enough to fit the RJ45 through - and then caulked it.

Mike

[Jim Becker]

I need to run a new cable from the shop to the house and have been putting it off because I know nothing about how to terminate the ends into the jack after I pull it. I want to use my extender as a wireless access point for better wifi in the house. Suggestions for tools that make it easy (or easier) to terminate the ends into the jacks?

My solution for that was to buy a pre-terminated, exterior rated Ethernet cable off Amazon. The slack is just coiled in my shop before it connects to my mesh node.

[Frank Pratt]

Suggestions for tools that make it easy (or easier) to terminate the ends into the jacks?

We use the Fluke JackRapid. Perfect termination every time, easy to use.

https://www.flukenetworks.com/dataco...Punchdown-Tool

[Frank Pratt]

The idea that male ends are unreliable on one part of the cable but, reliable on the drop cord portion of the path seems a little silly. Not to be harsh but, I assume what we are saying is that the male end terminations are not being done correctly and the successful drop cord is a factory cord that one doesn't need to terminate themselves(?).

The pre-terminated patch cables have stranded wire and are factory made to specs. Field cable has solid wire and terminating it with a male RJ45 plug automatically puts it out of TIA/EIA-568 specification. I'm not saying it can't work, just that if you want to maintain the greatest chance of the link working as it should all the time, every time, one should follow the specs. Another reason we don't do it is because the engineers will not sign off on it if it is out of spec, even if it does work.

When we did do those "illegal" terminations, failure rate was high, maybe 1 in 100 would have to be reterminated at some point down the road. Glenn, I'm sure with the volume that you do, you've become skilled enough to get a reliable result.

[Derek Meyer]

That JackRapid tool looks amazing. We use Leviton keystone jacks so I might have to look into that.

I like the EZ-CAT6 ends as they are much easier to work with than standard ends. I found that bad terminations are still possible, though. It took me a while to get familiar with the tool, but my success rate with them is much higher now than it was with standards CAT 6 ends.

For cabling and supplies, try BestlinkNetware.com. They are a supplier with a factory in China that they bring product over from every few months. I've been buying from them for over 20 years and have been very happy with their quality and pricing. They sell all kinds of patch cables and bulk wire, as well as jacks, tools and other accessories. The minimum order is $10 (there is a processing fee of $1.50 for orders below $10) and shipping is reasonable.

I use a Fluke Linkrunner at home to test my terminations. It can test network and coax cables, and will measure length and report any opens, shorts or cross-links in the cable. At work we use a Fluke CableIQ, which can also do a data rate test and tell you if the cable will pass gigabit speeds, 100mb speeds or only 10mb speeds. That meter with the toner and accessories was around $2000, though, so it's definitely a professional-grade tool for people who do lots of network wiring.

[Ole Anderson]

Lots of good information here, thanks. Fortunately I only needed to run 6 cables, 3 to access points, two to PC's and one to our video switcher. Three other devices are in the same room as the 16 port switch and use factory cables. Other than crossing a few wires, which the tester found before I tried to get a signal, the first four wires were fine. Looking back I should have at least added a 16 port patch panel to the rack instead of trying to go directly into the switch with field terminated cables. That would at least have that end covered. Hopefully the female jacks and factory jumpers will solve the problem. I would have thought that terminating a second time would have solved the problem, just my bad luck/skills kicked in though. My failure rate was WAY higher than 1/100.

Edit: Terminating the CAT6 with EZ-RJ45 male connectors SEEMS like it is foolproof as long as you don't nick the wire and you have them in the correct order. Plug design seems quite foolproof and any crimper is going to seat the pins correctly as long as they are flush. Not sure where it can go wrong but is sure does.