It's not as complicated
as you think. Follow our
step-by-step guide to
make your own cat5 cables.

Cat 5 wiring and pinout information

There are many types of Ethernet and this page should give you a clear idea of each of them. If you’re planning on making your own cable then here are a few tips to get you started:

  1. For standard 10/100 cable you’ll need UTP (unshielded twisted pair) category 5 cable
  2. Cat 5e is for gigabit, or 1000BaseT operation
  3. Cat 6 and 7 is more future proof
  4. Braided cable is much better for shorter lengths (Sub 30 metres) as it’s more resilient and flexible
  5. Solid cable is meant for longer runs where the cable will not be moved
  6. Plenum rated cable is for use in air circulation space, such as a false ceiling

When you receive your cable, depending on what type you purchased you will need to check the wires within the cable. You should notice 4 sets of paired wires : Blue – blue/white, brown – brown/white etc. Sometimes the striped wires are left white and the only way of knowing which colour they are is by looking at the coloured wire they’re paired with. However, most cables are now supplied fully coloured. So why are wires paired and twisted? It’s not just for neatness, they’re twisted to cut down on noise and interference.

The plug that actually fits on the end of the cable, called an RJ45 plug comes in a few variations and it’s important to get the right type for your cable. If you’re using braided cable you must have an RJ45 cable suitable for braided cable otherwise the crimper won’t be able to pierce the wire and make a connection. Similarly, with solid cable the RJ45 plug uses fingers that grab the wire from both sides, and won’t work effectively on braided cable. It’s pretty much impossible to tell the difference between these two types of plug unless you look at the packaging, so keep them separate!

Standard straight through wire (Both ends the same)

Straight through wire for T568A

Straight through wire for T568A

Power over Ethernet (PoE)

Power over Ethernet is used in many variations before IEEE standardised 802.3af. 802.3af is the ability to supply an endpoint with 48V DC, up to 350mA or 16.8W. The endpoint must be capable of receiving power on either the data pairs, or the unused pairs and it can be used in any Ethernet configuration including 10Base-T, 100Base_TX and 1000Base_T

PoE power delivery

Protocol Details