What termination?

Type_R · 6 Oct 2019 at 06:32

A new refurbed property has seen all the bedrooms upstairs (4) have cat5e installed to them with a RJ45 faceplate. All these cables have been fed internally (hidden) to the study at the front of the house. The cables have been left unterminated by the electrician, so the question is what do I terminate them as? They will be used to connect to a switch.

Crossover or straight?

thanks.

Avalon · 6 Oct 2019 at 06:41

Straight - crossover is normally only used if you were connecting two PC’s together without a switch. That said modern switches auto sense anyway, so it’s a moot point.

Steveocee · 6 Oct 2019 at 08:34

There is very little if any to use crossover now.

pepp77 · 6 Oct 2019 at 08:36

Yeah, auto sensing on network ports has been around for quite a while now, so crossover cables havent been needed in ages.

You just need to check whether the sockets have been terminated as T568A or T568B - and do the other end accordingly.

Type_R · 6 Oct 2019 at 09:29

pepp77 said:
Yeah, auto sensing on network ports has been around for quite a while now, so crossover cables havent been needed in ages.

You just need to check whether the sockets have been terminated as T568A or T568B - and do the other end accordingly.

thanks will check them out

Zefan · 6 Oct 2019 at 09:40

Consider feeding them to a patch panel, it'll likely make life easier.

Type_R · 6 Oct 2019 at 14:58

This is what the face plate termination looks like...

568A?

Type_R · 6 Oct 2019 at 16:01

arfoll said:
That's T-568B (see white/orange == 1, orange ==2 instead of green), it's perfect and pretty much the way everything is wired up nowadays. Now just go grab a bunch of cat6 T-568B patch cables (bothering with cat5e seems pointless nowadays).

So forgive my ignorance....I still need to terminate the other end of these cables. So I am terminating to a 568B? As in the other end of this cable coming to the faceplate for it to be straight will have all the wires in the same slots?

Donnie Fisher · 6 Oct 2019 at 16:19

Yes. If you work to everything being wired to t-568b you shouldn't go wrong.

I personally would have each of the cables wired into faceplate like you have in the rooms. Or a quad outlet faceplate ... Whatever suits. Wire it up the same way you have shown in the picture.

Then all you need to do is take a short cable from the switch in the study and plug it into the right socket for each room. Job done.

Type_R · 6 Oct 2019 at 17:01

Donnie Fisher said:
Yes. If you work to everything being wired to t-568b you shouldn't go wrong.

I personally would have each of the cables wired into faceplate like you have in the rooms. Or a quad outlet faceplate ... Whatever suits. Wire it up the same way you have shown in the picture.

Then all you need to do is take a short cable from the switch in the study and plug it into the right socket for each room. Job done.

That sounds like a very good plan! Thank you!

bledd · 6 Oct 2019 at 18:56

How many cables is it?

Terminate them into a patch panel.

Type_R · 6 Oct 2019 at 19:02

bledd said:
How many cables is it?

Terminate them into a patch panel.

About 8 cables...curiously some are orange (cat6), some are grey (cat5e)...but only 4 faceplates upstairs...yet 8 cables...no idea what the grey ones are for or where they go!

Caged · 6 Oct 2019 at 20:13

Check the back of the telephone points.

If the 8 cables all come out a double gang backbox that hasn't had a faceplate put on it then I would probably get an 8 keystone outlet and combine it with a socket extension to give you a bit more depth, and terminate onto keystone jacks.

Type_R · 7 Oct 2019 at 08:12

Caged said:
Check the back of the telephone points.

If the 8 cables all come out a double gang backbox that hasn't had a faceplate put on it then I would probably get an 8 keystone outlet and combine it with a socket extension to give you a bit more depth, and terminate onto keystone jacks.

There are no telephone points anywhere in the house

I'll post a photo of the cables and let the OCUK experts work out what is going on.

bremen1874 · 7 Oct 2019 at 10:23

Why do you have Cat6 cables terminated using Cat5e modules? It'll work, but it looks like they've just used what thay had kicking around.

Type_R · 7 Oct 2019 at 10:57

bremen1874 said:
Why do you have Cat6 cables terminated using Cat5e modules? It'll work, but it looks like they've just used what thay had kicking around.

Not surprised seeing as he was a subcontracted electrician for the builder who did the work. It’s only 4 faceplates...might change them myself to cat 6.

bremen1874 · 7 Oct 2019 at 11:07

It's amazing how bad most electricians seem to be at installing network cabling. At least what you've got there looks like it'll work okay. I wouldn't bother changing the modules unless they cause an issue (unlikely).

Hyburnate · 7 Oct 2019 at 11:10

bremen1874 said:
It's amazing how bad most electricians seem to be at installing network cabling. At least what you've got there looks like it'll work okay. I wouldn't bother changing the modules unless they cause an issue (unlikely).

They wouldn't certify to Cat6 standard, but yes they'll work at Gigabit speeds.

That's a pretty crap termination too.

Type_R · 7 Oct 2019 at 11:17

Hyburnate said:
They wouldn't certify to Cat6 standard, but yes they'll work at Gigabit speeds.

That's a pretty crap termination too.

Thanks, I have no desire to change them if they still work at gigabit speeds. Its unlikely my sister will need anything more hefty at any point.