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For the everyday person who may not know that much about Utah network cabling, this article will help show you how to make the two kinds of cables that can be used to network two or more computers together, forming a home or office local area network. You could also make patch cables for networks with more complex infrastructure wiring. The 10 Mhz 10BASE-T Ethernet and the 100 Mhz 100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet are the most common network standard cables and should be the cables you use to set up a small home or office network. A local area network (LAN) can be very simple. Hook up two computers with a crossover cable, and make sure each computer has its own network interface card (NIC) or network adapter and running network software. If you want to use three or more computers, they will all need to be plugged into a hub with a straight-thru cable while the crossover function is being performed by the hub. The Category 5 cable is recommended for all new installations, along with a CRM cable for outer insulation. You might also consider a CMP or plenum cable, which is used to distribute air into a building. Sometimes state or national codes might require you to use a more expensive plenum-jacketed cable if it is going to run through suspended ceilings or ducts. This is because they are used to circulate air or act as an air passage from one room to another. The recommended Category 5 cable comes in convenient reel-in-box packaging, which helps immensely with pulling the wire out without twisting it up. Without this special packaging, you may need the help of a friend to get the cable out. Cable segments that run from a wall jack to a PC have their own special cables called stranded wire patch cables, which are more flexible than solid core wires. Be careful when using this type of cable though, because they are also more susceptible to degradation from moisture. They come with an alternate color code and should not be used for cables longer than 10 feet long. Solid core cables are best for connecting computer directly to other computers or directly to hubs, which is perfect for small home or office networks. If you have a laptop computer you are always moving around, you could use a stranded wire patch cable to connect to the network. The Category 5 cable comes with four twisted pairs of wire, which means it has a total of eight individually insulated wires. Each pair is color coded with a solid color, which is then twisted around a second wire with a white background and a single stripe of the same coordinating color. You might also see some solid colored cables with a single white stripe. The CAT 5 RJ-45 modular plugs will automatically terminate the straight-thru and crossover patch cables discussed above. RJ-45 plugs look like the plugs you would find on the end of your telephone cable, only instead of just four or six contacts on the end of the plug, you would find eight contacts that are almost twice as large. Make sure your RJ-45 plugs are rated for a Category 5 cable and wiring. There are RJ-45 plugs designed to connect to both solid core wire and stranded wire, while others are designed for only one kind of wire. Make sure you get the right kind for your unique situation. Some of the tools you will need to set up your Utah network cabling include a modular crimp tool, a universal UTP stripping tool, and diagonal cutters. The modular crimp tool doesn't need to be fancy with a lot of bells and whistles, just make sure it will securely crimp RJ-45 connectors. The stripping tool offers a clean cut to your wires, and the diagonal cutters will cut the cable off at the reel and fine tune the cable ends.
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