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I ran my own cat5e ethernet into a new room I have been renovating. This was the first time I ever wired an ethernet cable to a patch panel and to a in-wall jack in the room.

PROBLEM: When I plug my computer into the in-wall jack in my computer room, the other end of the in-wall jack connects to my D-Link gigabit switch. Windows reports this connection at 100mb. If I run a cable directly from my computer to the switch (by-passing the in-wall wiring), it connects at 1gb.

Does this confirm my in-wall wiring job was done poorly?

I did some googling, and I think 100mb ethernet only uses 2 out of the 4 pairs of wires. Do you think its possible that I did not punch some of the pairs properly?

I borrowed a Molex cable tester from my work but have not had the chance to use it yet (I will use it when I get home tonight). I am a newbie to this stuff, but I see there are 3 different jacks on each Molex device labled "USOC", "586A", and "586B". If I remember correctly, the 586A and 586B are color coded wiring standards. The 586A port on my Modex cable tester is broken, but the other 2 seem to work. Does it matter if my in-wall wiring is using 586A but I use the 586B port on my tester? Is it still an accurate test?

Im hoping my Molex cable tester detects some kind of problem with one or more of the pairs of twisted wires. There are 4 lights on my Molex cable tester, so Im hoping only 2 of them light up. But if all 4 light up, is there anything else I can do to test and troubleshoot this problem?

I already verified all the ethernet cables I use are all cat5e (I checked this by reading the markings on the wires themselves).

Any help you guys could offer would be appreciated!

If you can auto to 100 but not 1000, you probably have a wiring issue.
1000 uses 4 pairs
100 uses 2 pairs

If you can auto to 100 but not 1000, you probably have a wiring issue.
1000 uses 4 pairs
100 uses 2 pairs

If it is a wiring issue, will a Molex ethernet cable tester be able to confirm this? Ive never used a Molex ethernet cable tester before. It looks just like this:

I've never use one of those, but a simple test that looks for end to end continuity of all 4 pairs should be the first test.

Gigabit does indeed use all 4 pairs, and it would seem you have a wiring issue, probably a punchdown. In general, most datacomm guys use the 568b wiring standard.

Testing continuity would be a good place to start, but even that is not foolproof. You can have a tester show green on all four pairs, and still have a wiring issue that keeps you from connecting via Gigabit. But, it is a place to start. To test if the wiring is absolutely certified for Gigabit, will require more advanced testing equipment such as one of the higher end Fluke models.

The only difference between the A scheme and B is the position of the orange pair is swapped with the Green pair. Your tester would not be able to determine what color the wires are-thus the tester will work with either scheme--provided the wiring was done correctly.

Also Gigabit is less tolerant than 100 Mb in its connections and the such. Your terminations need to be spot on without any slop (not saying that yours are). Also if your cable run is across or near any electric motors, or electrical wires with motors on that circuit anywhere, this may be affecting your data transmission in that cable. Other factors that affect Ethernet would be ballasts in florescent lights if the cable runs over the top of such a light.
When making a termination, you have to untwist the pairs. However you want to keep as much as the twist as possible up to the actual contact within both a faceplate termination as well as a RJ45 Jack. The more the wire is untwisted, the more signal loss there is.

Thank you for all the replies.

Here is another thought... what if I messed up when I punched the color codes to either the patch panel, or the wall-jack-keystone thing?

When I initially ran the cat5e wire from my patch panel to the new renovated room, I had problems with the color coding. When I plugged in my computer to the wall-jack in the newly renovated room, it would not detect a network connection. I spent a full day trying different color combinations until I finally got it to work. Perhaps its possible that I "lucked-out" and was able to punch down 2 sets of wires correctly, while the other 2 are in the wrong order. I found it confusing trying to find out what order I should punch down the colored wires on my patch panel.

My patch panel manual shows this diagram:



The color order of BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE, BROWN confused me.

The patch panel manual also has the following INFORMATION:



The manual states the patch panel is wired in accordance to "568A", but the color code BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE, BROWN doesnt seem to be 568A standard.

I ended up wiring the cat5e cable to the patch panel in the following order:

WHITE/BLUE
BLUE
WHITE/GREEN
GREEN
WHITE/ORANGE
ORANGE
WHITE/BROWN
BROWN


From the information in the patch panel manual, does it look like I wired the colors in the correct order?

I totally understand my problem could very well be poor "wire punches" or interference. I just wanted to add this information in case I punched my wires to my panel in the wrong order.

My original post about color order can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=42&t=14244

UPDATE:

I used my SLT3 Ethernet cable tester on both ends of my cable run. I now believe the problem is I punched the wrong color order on either the Patch Panel (or the keystone wall-jack).

I am a newbie with the SLT3 Ethernet cable tester, so I am unsure how to understand its reading. There are 2 units:
1. The "MASTER" (which has 1 column of lights for "1 2 3 4")
2. The "REMOTE" (which has 2 columns of lights for "1 2 3 4". The first column of numbers is for NORMAL, and the second for REVERSE).



When I plug my cable run into each end, the MASTER unit lights up: 2, 3, 4. It never lights up 1. It keeps lighting up 2, 3, 4 over and over again (in green).

On the REMOTE unit, the reverse column lights up in RED: 3, 2, 1. It never lights up 4. It keeps repeating 3, 2, 1 over and over again.

I think this proves my cable wires are out of order.

I am more confident that I was able to follow the color codes on my RJ45 keystone wall jack/plate. It was quite easy to match the colors for "568A" standard.

My patch panel was a different story. My previous post (and more specifically, my previous thread) explains how I ended up punching the wires to the panel. I ended up putting them in the following order (from left to right on my panel):

WHITE/BLUE
BLUE
WHITE/GREEN
GREEN
WHITE/ORANGE
ORANGE
WHITE/BROWN
BROWN

The PDF manual for my patch panel can be found here: http://www.computercablestore.com/PDF/ICRDSDPA10.pdf

Could an expert take a look at the diagram in my previous post, or the actual PDF manual itself (follow the URL link above), and tell me what order I should be punching down my wires on this patch panel?

Can ya post pics of the back of your punchdowns, and your jack?

Your color code is wrong. It should be,

White/Orange
Orange
White/Green
Blue
White/blue
Green
White/Brown
Brown

This is the "B" standard. For "A" the orange and green pair trade places.

Same on both ends.

On your patch panel going left to right as shown in the attached picture
White/Blue
Blue
White/Orange
Orange
White/Green
Green
White/Brown
Brown

The wire scheme for proper data transfer is performed on the circuit board in the patch panel.

Your color code is wrong. It should be
White/Orange
Orange
White/Green
Blue
White/blue
Green
White/Brown
Brown

Same on both ends.

My understanding is that the order can be ANYTHING (so long as both ends match up). However, my keystone was easy to color code match to the 568A standard. I am trying to do 568A on my patch panel now.

How did you determine the color code order you posted?

Did you by chance see the diagram in my 3rd post of my patch panel. The diagram is taken from the owners manual. It labels the colors only as BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE, BROWN (it does not even mention the blue/white, green/white, orange/white, brown/white wires).

I thought maybe you were just telling me the 568A color standard, but according to http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Howto/netwo ... cable5.htm the color order you gave me does not match what it says.

I can only assume you did some magic by using the 568A color standard, and understanding something from my patch panel diagram / manual and were able to figure out the order? Is this what you did, and if so, how did you do it?

On your patch panel going left to right as shown in the attached picture
White/Blue
Blue
White/Orange
Orange
White/Green
Green
White/Brown
Brown

The wire scheme for proper data transfer is performed on the circuit board in the patch panel.

I am totally confused now. Is this the order I use (or do I use the order in your previous post), and if so, how did you figure this order out?

The color code is the TIA/EIA 568 standard. B is typically used in commercial applications while A is generally used in residental.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable

On your patch panel going left to right as shown in the attached picture
White/Blue
Blue
White/Orange
Orange
White/Green
Green
White/Brown
Brown

The wire scheme for proper data transfer is performed on the circuit board in the patch panel.

I am totally confused now. Is this the order I use (or do I use the order in your previous post), and if so, how did you figure this order out?

I do apologize, the Green pair should be before the orange pair for your patch panel.

The order is also industry standard. the "Tip" wire always is first, this is the white/xx wire. the "Ring" wire always follows, which is the solid wire. In your picture, the first block on the left is blue. So given the industry standard the very first wire will be the Blue "Tip" wire (the furthest most left connection) then the "Ring" (Solid) wire next. the next wire block is Green, so the Green "Tip" wire is next followed by the Green "Ring" wire and so on. the actual wire order needed for data transmission is the TIA/EIA 586 A/B standard, this function is handled by the circuit board in the Patch panel. So you punch down the wires in order, the circuit board takes care of the rest.

I can easily re-punch the wires on my panel to whatever order you say I should use. But I would be more interested and knowing how you came up with the color order.

I understand the 568A color code order. Pin 1 through 8 are:

PIN1: WHITE/GREEN
PIN2: GREEN
PIN3: WHITE/ORANGE
PIN4: BLUE
PIN5: WHITE/BLUE
PIN6: ORANGE
PIN7: WHITE/BROWN
PIN8: BROWN

I have no problem understanding this 568A standard.

What confuses me is my patch panel. It says its "wired for 568A". In a simple world, this means I just punch the 8 wires, from left to right, as PIN1 through PIN8 above. But this is not correct.

To further complicate things, the diagram from my manual shows the colors from left to right as only: BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE, BROWN. I do not know how to interpret this! I think its the white wires that complicate it. I dont know why the manual just didnt tell me where to place the white wires too.

I am going to try punching the wires again based on the color orders from your 2 posts (Ill try each until I find which one that works).

If anyone else could help me try to understand this I would appreciate it.

I do apologize, the Green pair should be before the orange pair for your patch panel.

The order is also industry standard. the "Tip" wire always is first, this is the white/xx wire. the "Ring" wire always follows, which is the solid wire. In your picture, the first block on the left is blue. So given the industry standard the very first wire will be the Blue "Tip" wire (the furthest most left connection) then the "Ring" (Solid) wire next. the next wire block is Green, so the Green "Tip" wire is next followed by the Green "Ring" wire and so on. the actual wire order needed for data transmission is the TIA/EIA 586 A/B standard, this function is handled by the circuit board in the Patch panel. So you punch down the wires in order, the circuit board takes care of the rest.

So are you telling me both of your posts above are wrong? Because both posts have the ORANGE pair before the GREEN.

This makes no sense at all.

My understanding is that the order can be ANYTHING (so long as both ends match up).

This is not the case for high speed data transmission. You might be able to get some connection, but it would not sustain higher data transfer rates and certainly would not do gigabyte speed. If you were to punch down the wires in some random order, the circuit board on the patch panel will re-arrange that order according to TIA/EIA 586 as that is what the chips programmed to do, so on the other end of the cable, you would have no idea what wire is doing what.

So are you telling me both of your posts above are wrong? Because both posts have the ORANGE pair before the GREEN.

This makes no sense at all.

I work in the enterprise/commercial field of networking, So my mind is stuck on the 586 "B" standard which is why I have stated orange in this post for that I do apologize. Over the course of 15 years, I have done literally tens of thousands of these connections.

It does not matter as long as it is the same on both ends. But since your patch panel says "Green" as the second block from the left, then you would have to use the "A" pattern on your keystone jack as that is how your patch panel's circuit board will be putting out the signal.


So here it is

Patch Panel from the Left

White/Blue
Blue
White/Green
Green
White/Orange
Orange
White/Brown
Brown


And on you other end with the keystone jack, use the wire scheme of "A" to match what your patch panel is putting out.