Making an Ethernet Extender (cat5)

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Aiden
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Making an Ethernet Extender (cat5)

Post by Aiden » Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:06 pm

I was looking through an old SD card today, and found something that I believe I've never published. It goes over how to convert a male/male cat5 cable into a male/female cable, allowing you to use it to bridge 2 cables together as an extender.

Drusepth
5:43 PM, June 14, 2007
Making Your Own Ethernet Extenders
http://www.drusepth.net

SHOUTS TO
Mr. Shoemaker, the electrician

DISCLAIMER
This may not work for everyone. If you waste an ethernet cord or
cause any sort of problem by doing this, I'm not liable, and I'm
not buying you a new whatever-you-broke.

INTRODUCTION
Hey guys, I was recently job-shadowing an electrician, and with his
retaining information, some research, and a tiny bit of brainpower,
I've realized how to make Cat5 Ethernet network cable extensions.
I figure it's a good bit of knowledge to know, and with a quick search
of the site, didn't see anything like it, so I guess I'll share to you.
Bear with me however, that I am no electrician, and don't work much
with hardware, so it won't be too in-depth or necessarily have the
perfect terminology. Also, it should work, but I don't know if it
will work for everyone.

PREPARATION
Before making your Ethernet extension, you will need a few basic
supplies, outlined below.
1. A cat5 Ethernet cord
2. Some scissors, or wire cutters.
3. A cat5-compliant modulator
4. Screwdriver

FINDING "A OR B"
You could do this after a few more steps, but I prefer to do it before
I start so I can attach everything quickly without having to stop and
look at this. Basically, what you want to do is locate a port in your
wall where you can plug Ethernet in. After finding one, unscrew the
screw(s) holding it to the wall and use the screwdriver to carefully
pry the current modulator from the plate you just unscrewed. Set the
plate aside and look at the modulator that should be free. Some of
them are different than others, but you should see two rows the sides
with colors.
Example:

Code: Select all

 _______________________
| A   O   OW   B   BW   |    A/B - 'A'/'B' row
| B   G   GW   B   BW   |    O/OW - Orange/Orange-White
|_______________________|    B/BW - Brown/Brown-White
 _______________________
| A   G   GW   L   LW   |    A/B - 'A'/'B' row
| B   L   LW   O   OW   |    G/GW - Green/Green-White
|_______________________|    L/LW - Blue/Blue-White
The Letters correspond to boxes colored with that color.

Once you see this, what you want to do is take off the small plastic blocks
that hold the wires in the modulator in place. Be careful and not break
them, because you'll need to put them back on in a second. When you get
them off, look at what color cords are going into the modulator and
determine if they are using the A or B rows of the modulator. Remember which
it was, and pop the plastic boxes back into place. Now pop the modulator
back into place in the plastic wallplate and head back to your supplies.

MAKING THE EXTENDER
Take your scissors and chop off one end of the Cat5 Ethernet cord. It
doesn't matter which end, since they're the same. Now take your wire
strippers and strip the (usually blue) plastic wire coat down about an
inch, exposing the raw wiring underneath. Seperate all the wires from
each other. There should be 4 pairs of 2, totalling 8 different wires.

Now open the new modulator you bought. It should have come with the
modulator and 2 plastic boxes to keep the wires in place. Now, just
place each colored wire in it's correct position according to A or B
(what you found out earlier) and snip the ends off so they aren't hanging
out. Place the boxes over the cords, as tight as you can get. Wrap
whatever raw wires you have showing in electrical tape, and take a
look at your work.

Code: Select all

  __
  <__=========================|::::::<
   ^Male                          ^Female


The male plugin plugs into any ethernet port in the wall or computer, and the modulator you installed allows you to plug another ethernet cord (the male end) into it, effectively making an Ethernet Extender.
Last edited by Aiden on Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.
"When it takes forever to learn all the rules, no time is left for breaking them."

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Book
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Post by Book » Tue Feb 12, 2008 7:53 am

You can also buy a small female-female little extender (I'm talking about the little solid piece, no cables), and save all the hassle. That's what I've done with mine

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yerbestfrend
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Post by yerbestfrend » Tue Feb 12, 2008 5:00 pm

Thanks Drusepth!
I tried this out right after I read this and it works perfect!
http://htorg.tddirc.net/
you stupid cunts

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Thor
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Post by Thor » Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:28 am

Cool tut. I've done this before, just remember not to go over 100 meters. I think thats the max range a run of cat5 can go. But it's possible to go over with better grade cable and things like that. But you may lose signal quality and get some random errors.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
- Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.

Omnis Vestri Substructio Es Servus Ad Nobis.
- All Your Base Are Belong To Us

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Cool_Fire
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Re: Making an Ethernet Extender (cat5)

Post by Cool_Fire » Thu Oct 15, 2009 10:30 pm

Limit for Cat5 is about 100 meter yes, shielded Cat6 will take you further then that though. (about 300 meter iirc)
After that you'll have to use a repeater

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