Why Proper Crimping Matters

The above image shows 2 cat5 network cables. The top one was done by someone who should read this blog post, the lower one was the correction I made to his work. The top network cable caused the network to slow down and caused massive network errors. The bottom cable made the network work properly. To understand why this happens you need to have a basic understanding of magnetic fields.

Brief Explination of Interference

When electricity moves through a wire it generates a magnetic field that rotates.  You can determine the rotation of the field by making a fist with your right hand and giving a thumbs up- your thumb is pointing the direction of flow and your fingers are curved in the direction of field rotation. if you have 2 wires running side by side, the field they generate will interfer with eachother causing resistance to the electricity trying to pass through the cable.

How the Inteference is Avoided

By having one wire flow the opposite direction, the magnetic fields they generate flow with eachother. This effectively cancels out the interference caused by the magnetic field. Make the pairs of cable twist around eachother and you have a nice uniform signal that is no longer fighting against itself.

How A Network Cable Should Terminate

Other than making sure you have it wired correctly, you need to make sure that the wires reach the front of the RJ-45 Head and that the wire jacket makes it into where you see the plastic dip in the head.

Now go, and wire cat5's correctly.