Cat5e RJ45 wall socket wiring - aacurate picture?

[David]

It is a while since I wired up an Ethernet wall socket.

For belt and braces, I decided to check the wiring colours on the Internet and on the back of the socket.

Wiring colours for T-568A and T-568B for making up patch cables seem to be plentiful and accurate.

However each picture of the back of a Cat5e jack seems different and doesn't seem to match the jack socket that I have.

Are all makes different in the allocation of the pins?

Or am I just unlucky in my hits for pictures? Most just seem to be blogs with a simple photo and no explanation.

Oh, and I had to take a photo of the back of the socket and enlarge it on my phone because the writing and colour chart were so small. I must have had a chart when I did the original wiring up but $DEITY knows where that is now.

Cheers

Dave R

[David]

Just to confuse me:

shows a different layout to the socket that I have.

That shows the Blue and Brown pairs on the left and the Green and Orange pairs on the right.

My latest batch show Blue and Orange pairs on the left and Green and Brown pairs on the right.

This is for the 'B' wiring variant.

So diagrams such as

seem to be potentially misleading

Cheers

Dave R

[Fredxx]

I've tended to use the B variant. Though can't recall why!

YMMV

[spuorgelgoog]

Yes.

I know where mine is; in the telephones-and-data wooden box.

I also have a sample of cable as I got some where the orange pair looks brown and the brown pair looks orange. I can see they're different colours, but can't tell which is orange and which is brown unless I have a labelled sample to compare with.

Owain

[T i m]

On Sun, 30 Jun 2019 08:48:46 -0700 (PDT), [e-mail] wrote: <snip>

Shirley it doesn't matter what colours the wire pairs are, as long as they match the usage of a std Cat5 type cable?

eg. They maintain the pairing across the two ends across the entire cable (1-2, 3-6, 4-5, 7-8 etc)?

Cheers, T i m

[Mike Clarke]

The mapping between the pins and the corresponding connections on the back of the socket is not standardised and different manufacturers may well have different layouts. So don't blindly follow images you find online. Just follow the colour scheme shown on the back of your socket and don't worry that the positions don't match those on other brands of socket.

"Normal" practice appears to follow the T-568B standard but the main thing is to be consistent and use the same at each end.

[spuorgelgoog]

Exactly. But looking at them without a reference I can't tell which is brown and which is orange!

So unless the ends of the cable are next to each other and I can do like-for-like ignoring the colour, I'd be quite likely to cross brown and orange pairs. I don't know if that stops the ethernet witchcraft working.

Owain

[Dave Liquorice]

There might two that are the same between makers but I've yet to find any... Follow the markings on the back of the socket, preferably the

568B scheme as that is what is used for cables these days.

Provided you have the same convention at each end of a cable the electrons don't care. However having different colours for the same pair between cables is just asking to confuse a human.

[T i m]

A continuity tester could tell. ;-)

It may not, depending if they were on pins 1-2 and 3-6 or not (as you may then get 100Mb / something). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Dave Liquorice]

which is

If you have access to both end or short one of the orange/brown pairs at the far end. Difficult if the far end is terminated. Could of course make up a plug/socket with appropiate short.

witchcraft

For 568B orange is 1-2 and brown 7-8, swapping them end to end of a single cable will break ethernet. (3-6 is green, 4-5 blue)

[Chris Bartram]

Very much this. Pinouts on the back of sockets vary wildly. Just follow the leaflet that comes with it or the markings on the back and use 568B.

[T i m]

<snip>

Not with a long Ethernet cable to bring the terminated end back where you are. ;-)

I used to have an open lead (the remains of a patch cable) where one end was a RJ45 and the cut end terminated in a chock-block, to act as a breakout / test point. It could also be used to create discrete 'shorts' as you say, to then buzz out the other end.

I would have thought swapping either of the main two basic pairs (1-2 in this case) would break it?

I wasn't sure if swapping the other pairs around would do (other than just dropping it back to 100Mb/s whatever)?

Cheers, T i m

[John Rumm]

568B is the preferred one usually these days

There is no standard for this - although some layouts are fairly common.

Some sockets are easier than others.

These I find really clear and easy to wire. On 558B colours that makes it less confusing, and terminals that get a good grip on the wires before you punch them down, so its very easy to position them all before punching nay of them down.

[David]

What leaflet would that be? :-)

I had to resort to taking a photograph of the minuscule markings on the back of the socket (using my phone) and then enlarging it to confirm the colour layout.

All punched down and tested now, and just being fitted into the floor socket.

Cheers

Dave R