How do I join 2 pieces of CAT5 Cable together?

[Britboy]

I have 2 pieces of 20ft CAT5 cable that I need to join together so it is long enough to connect to a PC in another room. Any suggestions on the best way to do this. Or alternatively, somewhere cheap that I can buy a longer section of cable. Thanks.

 

[JERR]

you need to buy a 50ft cable. Otherwise you need a repeater or maybe you could cut the cable ends and connect them with a punch down terminator block but buying a 50 ft cable is cheapest.

 

[Garion]

In general, Cat5 has very stringent requirements on twists, etc. You can't really join two pieces together. Some people have used couplers with some luck, but it's not a good thing to do, in general.

Cable is cheap - Just head down to Home Depot and you can pick some up for practically nothing.

- G

 

[RagManX]

Or buy an RJ-45 coupler. My recollection is that they only cost $3-4, and I've never had problems running cabling through them, other that loosing a few meters off my maximum length (I think the farthest I've ever run a coupled connection was about 85 meters). Not sure where to buy them, as I no longer work doing something for which I'd need that, but you shouldn't have too much trouble finding one.

RagManX

 

[JERR]

I've never seen a RJ45 coupler (splicer) work. I think they are made for cat3 systems and are foisted upon the unwary (granted cat 3 systems are probably adequate for most home users).

 

[JohnnyPC]

Funny story about one of my clients that threw me for a loop. He wanted me to make him a 50 ft cable so he coudle hook two PCs up in differnet rooms. Ah, no problem here you go. Turns out that what he did was drill a hole through the wall, cut the cable, stripped the ends enough so he could "twist the individual wires together". When I found out what he wanted to do I got all technical on him and said that will never work! Well it turns out that it did work and has worked now for about 3 months...I think I'll try it sometime back at the shop...

 

[ojai00]

im using rj-45 couplers right now, and its doing the job just fine...hope i dont jinx it. i have 2 couplers connecting 3 cat5 cables...i didnt want to run out and spend more money on cables.

 

[JERR]

You can make all sorts of inapropriate configurations work. But why introduce flaes when you don't have to. Whats worse is when people start spreading these "solutions" without mentioning the adverse effects. I saw a site today with a how to on building your own cross patch cable and it said to cut the patch and strip back two inches of jacket from each side, not to mention the loss from also untwisting the pairs to make the cross.

 

[HappyPuppy]

Couplers work, even multiple couplers in one line. They're cheap. Radio Shack.

On the other hand, I don't use them unless necessary.

 

[ktwebb]

Used couplers in various situations. Never had a problem. Depends on the price i suppose whether or not you want to go that route. Even if it is 5 bucks, sure beats the hell out of the price on a 50 ft patch.

 

[Oscar1613]

home depot has cat5 for $0.10/foot... just gotta put your own connectors on it

 

[Garion]

Most of us purists will tell you that you HAVE to use cat5 cable that 100% follows the spec in order to use 100BaseT. And, if you want us to support it, you better not try to do something dumb like couplers.

OK, done with the mandatory professional speech. Couplers DO work, yes. But, according to the Cat5 spec there are very stringent requirements for twists per inch, amount of unshielded cable, etc. Reality is that the Cat5 spec is a bit overkill for most 100BaseT networks and that they will LIKELY work fine on lesser cabling. I once had a client than ran their 100BaseT on their Cat3 telephone wiring, including a big 66 block with about ten feet of untwisted punch wire. Worked with no errors, amazingly enough. Gave me the willies just looking at it, however.

Just don't try to run GigE on it. *grin*

- G