I have some cat5 cables in my attic in need to splice . they have been up there for 10 to 15years so no sure if cat5e or cat5.
I'm looking at a tool-less connector on amazon, but the color coding has a orange-green line I do not see in my cable
Wiring – How to connect the cat5 cable to connectors having an orange-green line
ethernetwiring
Related Solutions
The yellow cables are probably Cat5e, which has 4 pairs of wires. (The beige cables are probably Cat 3, which might only have 2 pairs of wire). A single phone line only requires 1 pair, so as you can see the other pairs are just twisted off.
You definitely can reuse the cable for ethernet access, but you will lose the phone jack obviously.
Here are some things you should know about working with ethernet cabling:
- Unlike phones with are relatively low-bandwidth, ethernet cables need to be in good condition with the pairs twisted around each other properly and with properly terminated connections. The mess you show is fine for phones but will cause lots of interference with ethernet data. If you want to reuse the cabling for data you need to cut back the cable all the way to the yellow sheathing and start over with new CAT 5e terminations. The proper way to do it is to terminate all the cables at a patch panel, but you could also just crimp a regular RJ-45 on the end and connect them that way. You cannot just twist the wires together and expect to get a good signal. Also, at the other end of the cable (in the room with the jacks), you will need to do the same thing: cut back the cable to where it's clean, and start over with new RJ-45 jacks.
- Also unlike phones (and household electricity), you cannot split a cable into 2 cables just by joining the same color wires. If you have more than two devices you want to connect, you need to use an ethernet switch, which is a small appliance that will properly route the data packets between 2 or more devices.
There are various types of cable clips that use adhesive to hold them in place, such as these
If you are concerned about damaging the finish when they are taken off, some brands have pull strips that claim to avoid paint damage.
Images and links are for illustration only, not an endorsement of goods or sources.
Related Topic
- Electrical – Run cat5e/coax parallel to power conduit
- Electrical – What kind of wiring/service are these wires for and how to test them to find out
- Connect to pre-wired Cat5e (no clear demarc point)
- Wiring – Re-wire Cat5e RJ11 jacks to RJ45 ethernet
- Wiring ethernet cable from AT&T fiber Modem to a specific room
- Wiring – How to run an additional coax cable into into the attic for a TV antenna
- No signal when cabling a female wall plate
- I have a CAT5e cable with only 3 pairs (6 wires working) and need to do POE over it
Best Answer
That's not "orange/green", it is T568A vs. T568B
Cat 3/5/6 cabling can be connected in two "flavors" - T568A and T568B. The cable (without ends attached) is the same and they are functionally identical. The only question is the sequence - Blue/Orange/Green/Brown vs. Blue/Green/Orange/Brown. Most connectors & jacks include color-coding for both types, marked "A" and "B", so that you can mix & match parts from different brands and have everything work together. You can actually see that in the image if you look closely - A and B are printed on top of the color coding on both left (solid blue, pin 4) and right (brown/white, pin 7). If your device says "Cable should be T586A CAT 5" and you wire it up T586B CAT 5e, it will work just fine, because the electrons don't care about the insulation color.
I usually use T568B, but it really doesn't matter as long as you are consistent - i.e., both ends of each cable should (normally) be the same.
What does matter is the quality of the connection.
Each new cable type 3 -> 5 -> 5e -> 6 puts in new, more exacting requirements on the number of twists and other factors. So make sure any connectors, adapters, splices, etc. meet the requirements of the cable type you want to use. If you have Cat 6 everywhere except one segment is Cat 5e then you'll be fine with Cat 5e speeds but Cat 6 might not work, and you may have trouble figuring out why things aren't working right. So I would at a minimum use the same quality/specification for everything that is hidden - wall jacks, cable inside walls, splices in the attic, etc.