-: So, we've already talked about how to make cables, 2 2
at least from the perspective 3 3
of knowing the right colors for the right ends. 4 4
If you want a straight through cable, for instance, 5 5
you want to make sure you have orange/white, orange, 6 6
green/white, blue, blue/white, green, brown/white, brown, 7 7
on both ends of your cable. 8 8
Then, if you want a crossover cable 9 9
you're going to have that on one side, 10 10
but on the other side, you're going to use 11 11
green/white, green, orange/white, blue, blue/white, 12 12
orange, brown/white, brown. 13 13
And really, what we're doing there is we're switching pins 14 14
one, two, three, and six, 15 15
with pins one, two, three, and six 16 16
on the send and receive side of the cable. 17 17
Now, why am I bringing all that up? 18 18
Well, because I wanted to show you a couple of the tools 19 19
we use when we're building out this cables. 20 20
Whether you're making a straight through or a crossover, 21 21
these are going to be the tools you're going to use. 22 22
So, here in front of me, you'll see 23 23
that I have this one little kit that I've put together. 24 24
Now, you can get everything you see here 25 25
for about $10 on Amazon if you're located in the US. 26 26
It'll come with 100 of these end connectors 27 27
which is what you put onto the cable on both ends 28 28
to plug it into the computer, the switch, 29 29
or the patch panel. 30 30
You'll also see we have the wire stripper. 31 31
This is going to be able to allow us 32 32
to strip off the outer sheath of the cable 33 33
so, we can get to those inner eight wires 34 34
to be able to push them through into the connectors 35 35
and then crimp them. 36 36
And as you can see here, we have an RJ45 crimper. 37 37
You'll see that it has a cutter here at the bottom. 38 38
And you can put it in there, squeeze it together, 39 39
and that will cut your cable. 40 40
And then, up here at the top, we have three different sizes. 41 41
The one in the middle is RJ45, which is an eight-wire pin 42 42
or 8P as it's called. 43 43
We have a six pin, 44 44
which is going to be used for phone cables. 45 45
That'll be something like an RJ11. 46 46
And then, on the right side here, we have a four pin, 47 47
which would be used for some very strange connections 48 48
that honestly I've never used. 49 49
I've always used either the phone with the six pin 50 50
or the network with the eight pin. 51 51
And that's what we're going to be focused on here today. 52 52
Now, over here, you'll also see that I have a cable tester. 53 53
And so, when I'm done making my cable, I want to be able 54 54
to test it and make sure it works properly. 55 55
And to do that, you simply are going to take it, 56 56
you're going to plug in the RJ45 connector 57 57
into the receiver here and the sender over here. 58 58
And then, on the front of it, we'll be able to see 59 59
those cable connections, those pins from here, 60 60
over to the other side. 61 61
And so, if we're doing a straight through cable, 62 62
it's really easy cause one needs to match one 63 63
and two needs to match two. 64 64
But if we're doing a crossover, we need to remember 65 65
those different pinouts 66 66
because it's going to look a little different. 67 67
So, let me show you how this works with a real cable. 68 68
So, if you want to make a cable, 69 69
you're going to start out with bulk cable. 70 70
And so, I have right here a nice piece of cable. 71 71
It's about maybe two-feet long. 72 72
And you can see here on this end 73 73
that all those little individual wires are inside of it. 74 74
Now, what I want to be able to do 75 75
is pull those inside wires out 76 76
and remove this outer sheathing 77 77
so that I can work with them and make a cable. 78 78
To do that, I'm going to use my wire stripper. 79 79
All you have to do is pinch on here, 80 80
go down, put it in there, and then you're just going 81 81
to run your finger around like that. 82 82
And that's going to cut the outer sheath only. 83 83
And then, I can just pull it off. 84 84
And now, you can see those pairs of cables. 85 85
And we call them twisted pair 86 86
because they literally are twisted pairs. 87 87
You can see here is the brown and the brown/white. 88 88
Here is the green and the green/white. 89 89
The blue and the blue/white. 90 90
The orange and the orange/white. 91 91
Next, what we're going to want to do 92 92
is we're going to want to unwrap those cables. 93 93
And we're going to try to flatten them out as best we can. 94 94
What I like to do is I like 95 95
to cut off the excess that I don't need. 96 96
To do that, you're just going to put them in the crimper 97 97
and cut down and they'll get cut off. 98 98
Now, at this point, what I want to do 99 99
is I want to put those into the end of the connector. 100 100
And to do that, you're just going to slide them in. 101 101
And each of those is going to end up getting into the end 102 102
of those pins here on the end. 103 103
Once you have it into the right position, 104 104
you're going to put it into the crimper 105 105
and all you have to do is push down. 106 106
And now, you have a cable that's made on the connector 107 107
and it's nice and solid. 108 108
You'll do the same thing on the other side 109 109
and then, you want to test the cable. 110 110
So, let me go ahead and fast forward here a little bit 111 111
to a ready-made cable. 112 112
And I'm going to take my cable tester 113 113
and a ready-made little patch cable 114 114
that's a straight through. 115 115
Just for this demonstration. 116 116
Now, this does come apart so that I can have a long cable 117 117
and have it on one end and the other end, if I need to. 118 118
What I'm going to do is I'm just going to flip this around 119 119
so you can see it a little better. 120 120
And I'm going to connect that in. 121 121
Now, when I turn this on, 122 122
you're going to see that that straight through cable, 123 123
they are going straight through. 124 124
And each pin is matching up with its own. 125 125
And this tells me that the cable's good, it's that easy. 126 126
Now, if it was a crossover cable, we'd be matching up 127 127
pins one, two, three, and six with the other side 128 128
that it matches up appropriately. 129 129
But this was a straight though cable, it's a patch cable. 130 130
And you can see that it worked and it's working just fine. 131 131
Now, do you have to be able to do this for the exam? 132 132
Do you have to be able to make a cable? 133 133
Well, no, because you're going to be taking the exam 134 134
on a computer. 135 135
And so, they can't hand you these tools 136 136
and ask you to make the cable. 137 137
But they can ask you to do this in a simulation. 138 138
So, I might give you eight different color wires, 139 139
that orange/white, orange, green/white, blue, 140 140
blue/white, green, brown/white, brown. 141 141
And you might have to pin them into the right pinouts 142 142
one through eight, for either a straight through 143 143
or a crossover. 144 144
And if so, you need to make sure you memorize both halves 145 145
and be able to drag them and drop them into the right place. 146 146
By doing that, that will make sure 147 147
that you know how to do this. 148 148
Now, in the real world 149 149
how often are you going to make cables? 150 150
Well, it depends on your job. 151 151
I will tell you, when I first started out 20 years ago, 152 152
I ran networks for a living. 153 153
And I made cables all day long. 154 154
The reason was, cables that are pre-made 155 155
were very expensive back then. 156 156
So, I could buy a thousand feet of bulk cable 157 157
like I showed you with that gray wire, 158 158
cut it, trim it, and make the cable 159 159
in just about 30 seconds to 60 seconds 160 160
because I did it all the time. 161 161
And I could charge my customers a dollar a foot 162 162
for running those cables. 163 163
So, I made a lot of money doing that. 164 164
Nowadays though, it's so cheap to buy ready-made cables. 165 165
And so because of that, for something like a patch cable 166 166
like this, that's a six-inch cable, 167 167
I wouldn't spend my time making it 168 168
because I can buy this for about $0.10. 169 169
So, it's just a lot easier to but them ready-made. 170 170
The same thing with the three-foot cables, 171 171
the six-foot cables, the 10 and the 15-foot cables. 172 172
Really, when I start making my own cables 173 173
is when I get into some weird lengths 174 174
like 57 feet or something like that. 175 175
Now, the other thing to remember when you're making cables, 176 176
don't go over 100 meters. 177 177
Because a Cat 5 cable can only go 100 meters 178 178
before you start losing signal. 179 179
And so, I like to keep my cables down under 90 meters. 180 180
That way, I have a little bit of leeway 181 181
and I don't have any problems. 182 182
So, if you keep all that straight in your head, 183 183
you'll do great on the exam. 184 184
And again, if you want to try this stuff out, 185 185
it's not that expensive. 186 186
For $10 on Amazon, you get everything you need 187 187
in one convenient kit. 188 188
And you can go ahead and play with this at home. 189 189
And it will give you a cable tester, a crimper, 190 190
a stripper, and about 100 of those end pieces 191 191
to start playing and making your own cables 192 192
and trying this out.