Twisted-pair crimping according to the standard, as well as the use of high-quality cable, is the key to an excellent and trouble-free communication channel. I must say right away that you should not listen to those who claim that the cable for networks can be crimped as you like and that this does not affect the quality of its work. This statement is true only for short wire lengths. And in the case of long cords, crimping the twisted pair “computer-to-computer” leads either to a complete failure of the work, or there will be huge losses of data packets.
Often a similar problem can be encountered when power is supplied via twisted pair cable to the network device using POE technologies. This is because the power is capable of making serious interference to the conductors in the vicinity of this cable. Therefore, to avoid this, the conductors are twisted in a special step. Thus, they are located to each other in a certain way. In order to reduce interference, shielding of conductors is also used. To learn that there are losses in the cable is possible only with the help of expensive equipment. Therefore, if you decide to crimp the twisted pair yourself, use only high-quality copper cable and crimp exclusively according to the standard.
Here is one example of a data transfer problem where the cause was the cable. Twisted pair crimping was carried out using a cable with copper-plated aluminum conductors. With its help, an access point was made at a distance of 27 meters, which did not work. After installing a new, high-quality work was restored in full.
Now we will consider what standard methods are used to crimp the twisted pair. Usually, two generally accepted types of crimping connectors on a cable are used.
The first is called direct. It is used in cases where you need to connect your computer or laptop with a router, network switch or hub.
The second type is cross crimping. It is also called a crossover. It is used when you need to connect two computers to each other, a switch to a similar switch, and also combine routers together.
In turn, direct crimping is divided into two standards. One is called EIA / TIA-568A, and the second is labeled EIA / TIA-568B. In general, they are almost identical, except that each uses a different color conductor in order to transmit data packets. True, there are rumors that some devices that have POE power supply refuse to work with a cable that is crimped according to the first standard. Therefore, given the fact that the bulk of manufacturers are guided by the second standard, I recommend that you use it so that you never have any problems.
Well, I’ll say a few words about cross crimping. It can also be of two types. One is used for connections at a speed of one hundred megabits per second, and the second is used for speeds of one gigabit per second. We will not dwell on them in detail. Also, you should also know that there is a crimp of a twisted pair of 4 wires. It is used, as a rule, in telephone lines. We will not talk about this now either, because this is the topic of a completely different article.