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Author Topic: Using just 2 pair in a Cat 5 cable  (Read 9512 times)

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Geek-9pm

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Using just 2 pair in a Cat 5 cable
« on: June 29, 2017, 06:30:01 AM »
Normall Ethernet cable has four  twisted pair.s I have an old damaged cable that goes out to my barn. Instead of replacing it, I want to use just two pair of this old Cat 5 cable taht has been out in the weather.
I found some references to this, but the most consise and to the point was on Tom;s hardware. Here is the link to the thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/42683-42-wiring-pair-cable-connector
He has a problem like mine. They gave him some info and he got a  a solution. Heer is part of it.
Quote
Here is the solution in a simple and non technical manner.
Ethernet uses only slots 1,2,3,6 in a RJ-45 connector. The cable I have used has one orange wire , one blue wire and two white wires. One of the white wires is paired with the orange wire and other one is paired with the blue wire. I will call these two white wires orange white and blue white based on their pairing with orange and blue wires. To make a 2 pair cat 5 cable insert the four wires in RJ-45 slots in the following manner.

RJ-45----------- 2 Pair Cat 5 (UTP)

1 -------------- orange white

2 -------------- orange

3 -------------- blue white

6 -------------- blue

The Ethernet cable was made to connect an internet modem to a desktop/laptop. Thus it was a straight cable.
So you can use just two pairs of the cable.  For my case I will find two pair that are not broken and use them for the orange pair and blue pair as in the above post from tom's hjrware.
I will post back if it works. If you don't hera from me more on this, it means I could not get it to work right.  :)

DaveLembke



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Re: Using just 2 pair in a Cat 5 cable
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2017, 10:15:37 AM »
I used a single cat5 back at my prior home for 2 networks over same cable. I bought these Y adapters with A & B pair that made it so easy. I had my modem in living room where the cable came into the home and a Y adapter sending the insecure network from ISP down to bedroom to another Y adapter. I had the 'A' pair used as a direct connection between broadband modem and my router, and the 'B' pair was used as the secure network back to the livingroom from the bedroom for internet ready devices in living room in which there was a 8-port switch there for the PS3, BluRay, Vonage, and HTPC. This saved me from having to run two 75 ft cat5 cables.

 https://www.cyberguys.com/product-details/?productid=6407&rH=1612

Hopefully you have grounded suppressors on both sides of your wire between barn and home. I have a barn also and a 12 x 8ft insulated office area in my loft and had a long Cat5 cable going out to mine for a while, but have since added in a wireless G bridge. The bridge out in the barn is in a quality brand 1 gallon freezer zip lock to keep dust and humidity out of it with duct tape wrapped tight around power cord and Cat5 cable so you can see its status etc and the thin plastic freezer bag doesnt kill the signal and holds up to all temperatures. I placed a 2nd router in window facing the barn and it works pretty well. Before this with the Cat5 cable I was worried that lightning would find it. So I was going to go with fiber, but the cost of fiber was crazy, so secure wireless bridge was the best method for me.

* I also checked into those network over existing wiring blocks and avoided them when I saw lots of trouble with them. My barn is fed a 30 AMP 220VAC feed from the breaker panel in my basement of my home and I was thinking of adding an outlet in the basement on 1 of the 2 legs and passing network over that, but its about 125 feet between breaker panel and the knife switch fuse box in the barn that has 50 amp fuses from the 1950's or 60s in it. The wiring in the barn when I first bought the home from the original 94 year old owner had this 50 amp fused knife switch, no ground, and a fuse panel in a rusty box to the side with 15 amp smaller fuses for outlets and garage door opener and lights etc. I got rid of this old fuse box when using power tools and power would cut out and then come back at will acting possessed almost. It kind of freaked my wife out when she was in the old barn and lights went out without warning and came back after she told me about the problem and I said well they are back on. Somewhere in that fuse box was a intermittent connection and the one day inspecting the fuse box I heard a slight hum and zzzit noise and was like thats it, this fuse box is coming out, but just for curiosity I took multimeter between outside metal fuse box on dry wood wall and other end to  a piece of rebar that I tapped into ground 2 ft away and checked and the outside of the metal fuse box was HOT. Killed the knife switch and checked again and it was dead. Further inspection found that the mica plate that was between the ceramic fuse holder and metal fuse box body was broken and a loose leg was resting on the inside fuse box rusty metal surface. Replaced this with a modern breaker box with four 15 amp breakers so that the breakers out in the barn should trip before the 30 amp in the house for this; unless the four 15 amp runs pull more than 30 amps per leg of the 220VAC service that I have split into two 110VAC legs. The 220VAC was originally out there because the original owners husband was a machinist and so it came with tools and stuff, but my MIG welder is a Lincoln that runs on 120VAC and I avoid making sparks in or near the 70 year old barn. It was bad enough when cutting down the 20 ft I-Beam log splitter with my acetylene torch that slag hitting the ground and spattering started catching the wood chips in chicken coop on fire so I had water out there to put it out, knowing that a fire would probably occur.

Here is me cutting holes into the I-Beam Gravity Log Splitter so i can run heavy chain through it and control it to act like a hinge on the chain when the upper half of the I-beam is cut with torch. It worked perfect, but used up just about all my gas. The I-beam was heatsinking the heat from torch badly. Took about 5 minutes for the steel to get cherry red on the opposite side of where I was cutting a circle out for the 2 inch link chain to pass through. The last time this gravity I-Beam log splitter was used was in the late 1970s I had been told my 83 year old neighbor and I guess it use to make the neighbors nervous when original owner who made it used it before he passed away in 1984. I didnt like that I live on an elevated section of mountain and it was a great big lightning rod connected to barn. So I removed it carefully and safely. The rope in the video towards the camera was to be able to control the direction that the upper half would fall, so that it wouldnt decide to fall towards me on ladder with torch, so I had my wife tugging on the rope as I was cutting across the I-beam to have it go away from me and when only about an inch of steel was still connected across the weight of itself, the upper section acted like leverage and bent and went down nice and slow and chain was there in case it would snap to not kick back at me on the ladder, it had a mechanical limit with the chain through upper and lower halves of I-Beam. To protect the oxygen and Acetylene tanks and hoses from slag I had a metal sheet of metal roof up against it.

My Barn is 25ft x 25ft not a huge one but nice to have and it was built in 1946 after the original owner got back from World War II and the original house that was built in 1893 which was where the barn is now burned to the ground due to falling asleep with a lit cigarette. Sidewalk that use to go to original house is still leading in from road to side of barn out of view on the left. A home was then built where the garage use to be towards the woods.

Video here isnt all that exciting. Hole punches trough somewhere around the 6 or 7 minute mark, but the slag started dropping like hot wax and spattering wood chips in the chicken coop which is the fenced in area between barn and the I-Beam and I had to put out some small fires that started. I wet the area before working but the summer heat and the very hot slag it had no problem flaming up. My dad wanted to see me work on it and he wasnt able to attend. I was recording this with my netbook and the battery died on it and I didnt know, so the fun part of watching the upper section bend down wasnt filmed. But yup thats me the 6'2" guy that is sort of a jack of all trades ha ha  ;D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_MWkOhWB6A

Geek-9pm

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Re: Using just 2 pair in a Cat 5 cable
« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2017, 02:24:05 PM »
From the CH archives:
https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000639.htm
How to make a network cable
Quote
The CAT5 twisted-pair cables consist of four twisted wires, each color coded; one a solid color and the other a stripped color. As seen below, most network cables consist of a green, blue, orange, and brown pair of cables.