crimping your own cables.

Creamy Goodness

i have a little job coming up to network about 5-7 pc's in an office.

just wondering where i can source some CAT5 - or can i use CAT6 - cable.

also is it easy to crimp your own cables and where can i get a crimper.

i'm trying to keep costs down and not particular keen on buying cables in pcworld or the likes.

DonkeyRhubarb

cat 6 will do fine. Get a crimper, it will make your life easier. Thats all there is to it, easy as pie:D (you can source nearly everything on ebay)

MunsterCycling

Cat 6 is grand if not a little more expensive. 5e should do unless you're going up to gigabit in the next while.

Maplins have crimpers but the cost of plugs is prohibitive, suggest you try online now that you have time. If you do go cat 6 make sure you test the cables properly after crimping them to ensure good connections.

Think galwaydude18 was doing a cable service

Link: http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=265&cat=38

Creamy Goodness

hmm is there anywhere in town i can source the supplies as the company (dad's friend) i am doing this for is willing to pay for all materials and getting a credit card off them to order online will be just a pain tbh.


also i would get the cables off galwaydude, have dealt with him before but i was think of just learning how to do this myself it's a nice skill to learn

seamus

You can get 100m of cable, a crimper and a box of cable ends (100 I think) in B&Q for less than €40. The crimper even shows you how to make straight-through and crossover cables. It's simple.

For a small job like you're doing, custom cables are great for keeping everything nice and tidy. For a big job, you'd be better off ordering a big box of patch leads, and a big box of 5m leads.

Creamy Goodness

right i think i'll get that in B&Q, i'm looking at the wiring diagrams online now and they have very easy and understandable tutorials how to make the cable.

just wondering are patch leads the little plastic thingys you place the cable into i'm not totally up to speed on the terminology.

seamus

Cremo wrote:

right i think i'll get that in B&Q, i'm looking at the wiring diagrams online now and they have very easy and understandable tutorials how to make the cable.

just wondering are patch leads the little plastic thingys you place the cable into i'm not totally up to speed on the terminology.

A patch lead is really just a short network cable, designed purely for "patching" between switches and network ports. In reality, any network cable is a "patch cable", but usually the term is used to refer to the short ones. Generally they're about 1m in length, maybe two depending on the size of your setup - if you use huge cables for patching, then your patch panels become a mess (you should see ours in work...grrr :mad: )

niallb

Maplins or PC world are fine for a basic crimper.
They sell RJ45 plugs individually though, which is why
they're so expensive.

All Cables or Deering on Cork St. will sell them by the bag,
and can take care of everything else you need too.
They do bags of patch cables as well, which work out
pretty cheap and you can choose from a mix of colours
which can make things easier to follow.

NiallB

Creamy Goodness

ahh i getcha now, i was scouting out the place today and they have a big box with patch cables used for the phone system (didn't pay much attention to it.)

basically there will be one server and two hexagonal desks with at least 5 pc's for the moment and he'll probably adding more.

the server and switch are bought already so i didn't have to worry about that ditto with the pc's.

he saw my pc at home and commented on how tidy my cables were which kind of shocked me as mine are a mess.

not really caring about getting paid for the job, would just really like to get experience in making cables as it's a good thing to know.