Making Ethernet Cables

If you don't want to by a crimping tool (which is necessary in making an ethernet cable), then I suggest you don't try to make an ethernet cable yourself. You would possibly end up needing to test the ethernet cable (extra $$), just in case one of the wires didn't get crimped right. Plus it is a hassle to push the wires in the connector.

If you want to extend the cable, I suggest cutting the pre-existing cable in the middle and solder the wires on both ends to the ends of the cable you are going to use as an extension and making sure you properly insulate each newly soldered wire. This can get tedious and annoying, but saves you $$ in extra tools.

Is wireless an option? Using two wireless routers, you can get wireless to the garage without the huge cable going across the yard. You would use one wireless router as the main router and the other wireless router as an access point in your garage (making your wireless internet range bigger). You could hardwire into the access point wireless router in the garage without the mess.

You could also try to find a local school that has an electronics club/class and see if they have tools that you can use in the school.

Good Luck!

Just stop by any local computer tech business and they will happily sell you the wire you need off of a bulk spool and then put a set of ends on it for you and cheap too!

They do thousands of them while setting up networks so doing one more is no problem to them!

Easier than all this messing with cables, they do sell small plastic boxes (1"x1"x2") that have a female Ethernet connector on either end. You plug your existing cable into one side of the box and a store-bought 25' Ethernet cable into the other side. No muss no fuss!

But every connector is a future poor connection waiting to happen; I consider such double female connectors a quick, but temporary, fix, until I can replace it with a single cable of the correct length.

That's pretty much true, depending on how much weathering it's exposed to. But it's cheap, beats trying to hack into an Ethernet cable, and buys time until he can find/afford a long enough cable.

The basic functions of cat 5, cat 5e and cat 6 are the same. The difference is the standards that must be passed in testing. Technically, you can't make cat 5, 5e, or 6 cable, since you aren't testing it; you could only string some wires that would carry your signal. It's not "cat anything" until it has been factory tested to meet TIA/EIA standards.

A cat 5e cable might be physically identical to a cat 5 cable; 5e extends the cat 5 standard to include specifications for certain wire-to-wire interference. The cat 5 cable is no longer recognized by TIA/EIA, so you probably won't find it, but most people refer to cat 5e cable as cat 5 anyway.

The difference between cat 5e and cat 6 is that cat 5e has a standard for up to 100MHz and cat 6 has a standard for up to 250MHz. As such, the attenuation and noise is less for cat 6 than for cat 5e, so you can use cat 6 for longer runs than you might want for cat 5e.

If you have a typical home network and not a T1 line, it probably doesn't matter which cable you use. You won't see a noticeable difference. However, you might notice a difference if you "contaminate" your line with solder, unshielded connections, or rainwater. Best just to buy a single run of cable long enough to go the distance.

Actually, you will notice a difference if you run CAT5e and try to run the link with gigabit ports on both ends, it will work up to a caertain length, then it will become intermittant, then after that it will either stop working or just fold down to the 100Mbit speed

CAT6 cable is more expensive than CAT5e, have a look on eBay for the cable, i got a great price on a roll of CAT6, and have that running from this computer to my Myth-box, and its running 1Gbit speeds, though, at the moment, I'm only getting 100Mbit on a SFTP transfer.

the main noticeable differance between CAT5e and CAT6, is that CAT6 runs a plastic divider down the centre that seperates the "pairs" into 4 quadrants, whereas CAT5e all 4 pairs run together, but its still UTP, in either case (Unshielded Twisted Pair) and no 2 pair have the same twist pitch, or a harmonic thereof.

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. I am going to cogitate on this for awhile . I always seem to be off in my timing, last week finished small remodeling job in a university electronic music room/recording studio. They had delicate soldering tools. The gas to drive there now would be prohibitive. Then there was the office I worked on where the techs literally filled a 20' dumpster with rolls of cat 5, but I couldn't think of a need for it ,so didn't bring any home. Always a day late and a dollar short.

It may seem like I'm a tightwad, but the last two years in construction have been pretty gruesome, the internet access is for my wife and she has been keeping us afloat, every penny saved helps.

Thanks again, p rat

Cat 5 is good to 100Mb network. Cat 5e and 6 is good to 1000Mb network. So depends on what you have now and what you want in the future. You can pick Cat 5, 5e or 6. You should get out door cable unless you gonna run it inside a pipe. If Cat 6 doesn't cost a lot more, I'll use it due to the long distance you're running it through. To reduce interference. The connector are the same for all of them. Go to electronic supplier, Home Depot usually charge a lot more. Computer store will make you custom length cable for good price.

Thanx for the advice, will check with computer shop up the street.

Also, for testing your cables, some motherboards in computers have "Ethernet tests" I know mine does.

You connect your Ethernet cable (without the hub at the other end) and the computer hardware will test the cable for you, if there is a break, it will tell you the approx length of the cable pairs (if a breakage, the distance to that break)

Snake hater!!!