[PLUG] Cat 5 cable question

[Geoff Burling]

On Sat, 11 Oct 2003, Rich Shepard wrote:

>   I'll ask this both ways to make myself clear:
>
>   Are all _orange_ cat 5 cables wired cross-over? Or, are all cross-over
> cables covered in _orange_ plastic?

No. Cat 5 cabling comes in every possible color. And I happen to own a
cross-over cable that is yellow, made by the seller. You only need to
worry whether it's a cross-over cable if & only if it has jacks on both
ends.

If that is the case, a quick sanity case is to compare the color of the
wires inside the jacks -- assuming the jacks are made of transparent
material. Performing a sanity check on my own collection of cables, if
the wires connecting one jack are the mirror image of the other, the cable
is a straight-thru. On my cross-over, the wires 1 & 2 in one jack match
with 3 & 6 on the other jack.

Geoff