So now that we've talked
about the different cable types,
their categories, and the connections,
we need to talk about how to actually wire these cables
into the connectors to allow us to connect these things
to our devices using the right pinouts.
On the exam, it would be completely fair of them
to ask you to create a straight-through cable
or a crossover cable because one of the exam objectives
states that you should be able to troubleshoot
common cable connectivity issues using the appropriate tools
such as a cable stripper, cable crimper, and cable tester.
So to ensure you're ready for that,
we need to talk a bit more about the way the ends are wired
and the proper sequence
for the pinouts of these connectors.
Now, I just mentioned a term
that you should be familiar with
from back in your A+ studies,
but like I promised before,
I'm going to do a quick refresher of this term
to make sure everybody's on the same page.
Now that term is a straight-through cable.
A straight-through cable is also known as a patch cable.
This type of cable contains the exact same pinouts
on both ends of the cable.
This is why it's known as a straight through,
because pin one on one side goes straight on through
to pin one on the other side of the cable.
Now to keep everyone consistent when we make cables,
you're going to find there's a standard pinout
known as a 568A and a 568B standard.
Now, 568B is the standard that's preferred
for wiring jacks inside your buildings,
and most people are going to use a 568B to 568B wiring scheme
for straight-through patch cables.
Now, what does that look like?
Well, if we count our pins from one to eight,
we're going to have a color scheme of orange white, orange,
green white, blue, blue white, green, brown white, brown.
That is going from pins one to eight.
So both sides of our cable will match up
and this will create a straight-through patch cable.
These patch cables are used to connect a DTE to a DCE.
Now, what is a DTE and a DCE?
Well, a DTE is a data terminal equipment,
which includes things like laptops and desktops,
servers and routers.
These are all considered endpoint devices
that connect to a piece
of data communications equipment or DCE.
Now, a DCE is things like a switch,
a modem, a hub, or a bridge.
If you're connecting a DTE to a DCE or a DCE to a DTE,
you can use a straight-through cable.
Basically, any terminal device
can connect to any communication device
using one of these patch cables.
But if I wanted to connect a switch to another switch,
since they're both data communication equipment,
I have to use a different type of cable
known as a crossover cable.
Anytime you connect a DTE to a DTE,
a terminal to a terminal,
or a DCE to a DCE,
communication equipment to communication equipment,
you have to use a crossover cable.
So if I connect a computer to a laptop,
that's going to need a crossover cable.
If I'm connecting a computer to a switch,
I don't need one, I can use a patch cable.
So, what makes a crossover cable so special?
Well, a crossover cable is going to take
your send and receive pins from that cable
and swap those on the other end
when you create your connector and you pin it out.
So on one end, you're going to need to have a 568B,
and on the other end, you're going to have a 568A.
This is used to connect a workstation to a workstation
or a switch to a switch.
Now, in general, you should always use a crossover cable
when you're going from a switch to a switch.
For the exam, I want you to remember
that a switch to a switch requires a crossover cable.
The reason I'm making a big deal about this
is that in the real world, this isn't always the case.
Now, this is because most modern switches
have something known as MDIX,
which stands for Medium Dependent Interface Crossover.
Essentially, MDIX is an automated way
to electronically simulate using a crossover cable
even if you're using a straight-through patch cable.
Essentially, your modern switch, if it supports MDIX,
will allow you to use a patch or straight-through cable
and it will switch the pin out electronically
inside itself to make it work.
But for the exam, you should always assume
a switch is going to be an older device
that does not support MDIX,
unless the question specifically states
that the switch is using MDIX.
Now, we'll talk about this more
when we go to troubleshooting way in the end of this course,
but for right now, I wanted to bring this up
because it's something that is going to come back
and bite you if you don't remember it.
Remember when there are two switches
and they're not communicating,
it's usually because somebody is put a patch cable there
or a straight-through cable there
instead of doing a crossover cable
and that switch doesn't support MDIX.
If your switch doesn't support MDIX,
you have to use a crossover cable
to make those devices talk.
All right, let's look at the pinout a little bit closer.
And this time, let's look at our 568A
and 568B wiring standards.
Remember, 568B is the standard we use
for all our interior wiring
and for both ends of a straight-through cable or wall jack.
But if we want to do a crossover cable,
we're going to use 568B on one end
and 568A on the other end.
When you do this, you're going to start with 568B on one end
and then switch out pins 1, 2, 3, and 6 on the other end
so that we have our transmit
and receive pins in a different place
when we create that crossover cable.
Essentially, your orange and your green pairs
are going to swap places.
Now, do you have to memorize this?
Yes, unfortunately you do.
In the real world,
you really don't have to have it memorized
because you can carry your smartphone with you
or a small chart in your pocket,
and whenever you're going to make a cable,
you could pull it out of your wallet and look at it.
But for the exam, you need to know this pattern.
As I said before, they may give you a question that says,
"Wire up the correct pinout for a 568B connector."
Then you're going to have to drag and drop
the color of the wire to the right pin
as part of a simulation, or they could be really mean
and just ask you to create a patch cable
or a crossover cable,
and you're going to have to drag and drop the right wires
into the right spots in an RJ45 connector
from pins one to eight for both sides.
Now, why am I bringing all that up?
Well, because I wanted to show you
a couple of the tools we use
when we're building out these cables.
Whether you're making a straight-through or a crossover,
these are going to be the tools you're going to use.
So here in front of me,
you'll see I have this one little kit
that I've put together.
Now, you can get everything you see here
for about $10 on Amazon if you're located in the US.
It'll come with 100 of these end connectors,
which is what you put onto the cable on both ends
to plug it into the computer, the switch,
or the patch panel.
You'll also see we have the wire stripper.
This is going to be able to allow us
to strip off the outer sheath of the cable
so we can get to those inner eight wires
to be able to push them through into the connectors
and then crimp them.
And as you can see here, we have an RJ45 crimper.
You'll see that it has a cutter here at the bottom,
and you can put it in there, squeeze it together,
and that will cut your cable.
And then up here at the top, we have three different sizes.
The one in the middle is RJ45,
which is an eight-wire pin or 8P as it's called.
We have a six pin, which is going to be used for phone cables.
That would be something like an RJ11.
And then on the right side here, we have a four pin,
which should be used for some very strange connections
that honestly I've never used.
I've always used either the phone with the six pin
or the network with the eight pin.
And that's what we're going to be focused on here today.
Now over here, you'll also see that I have a cable tester.
And so when I'm done making my cable,
I want to be able to test it and make sure it works properly.
And to do that, you simply are going to take it.
You're going to plug in the RJ45 connector
into the receiver here and the sender over here.
And then on the front of it,
we'll be able to see those cable connections,
those pins from here over to the other side.
And so if we're doing a straight-through cable,
it's really easy 'cause one needs to match one
and two needs to match two.
But if we're doing a crossover,
we need to remember those different pinouts
because it's going to look a little different.
So let me show you how this works with a real cable.
So if you want to make a cable,
you're going to start out with bulk cable.
And so I have right here a nice piece of cable.
It's about maybe two feet long.
And you can see here on this end
that all those little individual wires are inside of it.
Now, what I want to be able to do
is pull those inside wires out
and remove this outer sheathing
so that I can work with them and make a cable.
To do that, I'm going to use my wire stripper.
All you have to do is pinch on here, go down,
put it in there,
and then you're just going to run your finger around like that
and that's going to cut the outer sheath only,
and then I can just pull it off.
And now you can see those pairs of cables
and we call them twisted pair
because they literally are twisted pairs.
You could see here is the brown and the brown white.
Here is the green and the green white,
the blue and the blue white,
the orange and the orange white.
Next, what we're going to want to do
is we're going to want to unwrap those cables
and we're going to try to flatten them out as best we can.
What I like to do is I like to cut off the excess
that I don't need.
To do that, you're just going to put them in the crimper
and cut down and they'll get cut off.
Now at this point, what I want to do
is I want to put those into the end of the connector.
And to do that, you're just going to slide them in
and each of those is going to end up
getting into the end of those pins here in the end.
Once you have it into the right position,
you're going to put it into the crimper
and all you have to do is push down.
And now you have a cable end
that's made on the connector and it's nice and solid.
You'll do the same thing on the other side.
And then you want to test the cable.
So let me go ahead and fast forward here a little bit
to a ready-made cable.
And I'm going to take my cable tester
and a ready made little patch cable
that's a straight-through just for this demonstration.
Now, this does come apart so that I can have a long cable
and have it on one end and the other end if I need to.
What I'm going to do is I'm just going to flip this around
so you can see it a little better.
Now I'm going to connect that in.
Now, when I turn this on,
you're going to see that that straight-through cable,
they are going straight through
and each pin is matching up with its own.
And this tells me that the cable's good. It's that easy.
Now, if it was a crossover cable,
we'd be matching up pins 1, 2, 3, and 6
with the other side that matches up appropriately.
But this was a straight-through cable, it's a patch cable,
and you could see that it worked and it's working just fine.
Now, do you have to be able to do this for the exam?
Do you have to be able to make a cable?
Well, no, because you're going to be taking the exam
on a computer, and so they can't hand you these tools
and ask you to make the cable,
but they can ask you to do this in a simulation.
So I might give you eight different colored wires,
that orange white, orange, green white, blue, blue white,
green, brown white, brown,
and you might have to pin them into the right pinouts,
one through eight,
for either a straight-through or a crossover.
And if so, you need to make sure you memorize both halves
and be able to drag them and drop them into the right place.
By doing that,
that will make sure that you know how to do this.
Now, in the real world, how often are you going to make cables?
Well, it depends on your job.
I'll tell you, when I first started out 20 years ago,
I ran networks for a living and I made cables all day long.
The reason was cables that are pre-made
were very expensive back then.
So I could buy 1,000 feet of bulk cable
like I showed you with that gray wire,
cut it, trim it, and make the cable
in just about 30 seconds to 60 seconds
because I did it all the time
and I could charge my customers a dollar a foot
for running those cables.
So I made a lot of money doing that.
Nowadays though, it's so cheap to buy ready-made cables.
And so because of that,
for something like a patch cable like this
that's, you know, a six inch cable,
I wouldn't spend my time making it
because I can buy this for about 10 cents.
So it's just a lot easier to buy them ready-made.
The same thing with the three foot cables,
the six foot cables, the 10 and the 15 foot cables.
Really when I start making my own cables
is when I get into some weird lengths,
like 57 feet or something like that.
Now the other thing to remember when you're making cables,
don't go over 100 meters
because a Cat 5 cable can only go 100 meters
before you start losing signal.
And so I like to keep my cables down under 90 meters.
That way I have a little bit of leeway
and I don't have any problems.
So if you keep all that straight in your head,
you'll do great on the exam.
And again, if you want to try this stuff out,
it's not that expensive.
For $10 on Amazon,
you get everything you need in one convenient kit,
and you can go ahead and play with this at home,
and it'll give you a cable tester, a crimper, a stripper,
and about a 100 of those end pieces to start playing
and making your own cables and trying this out.