[TriLUG] OT: Home Depot and Cat 5

[Keith Johnson]

At 12:24 PM 10/5/2004, you wrote:
>I have an additional question. I have a 150' cat5 cable hand made by my
>vendor. It doesn't work. A friend told me that with long runs there's a
>special wiring method than with short runs, in order to limit capacitance or
>inductance or some such.
>Anyone know about that?

That's nonsense -- If you're using quality cable, you haven't exceeded the 
ethernet length spec's, and the connectors are attached properly (i.e. 
don't untwist 10" of cable in front of the connector), a 150' cable length 
does not require any "special" construction techniques.


>One thing I can tell you is that the non-working cable has only 4 conductors
>crimped. For long cables, should all 8 be crimped?


The twist ratio is different on each pair to minimize interference between 
pairs -- so the fact that only two pair are crimped is of no consequence 
unless you need the other pairs for something like POE equipment or a 
1000baseT setup.

Did the cable ever work? If yes then you probably just have a busted wire, 
probably near one of the connectors. If it never worked then it's either 
built wrong or it's the wrong cable type (cross-over vs straight-thru) for 
whatever you're hooking up.

kj