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I made several ethernet cables over 75 feet to fish through my house...the PC's they are connecting to all say the cable is unplugged, is it possible that they signal can't go that length and/or is there a booster or something I can do.... I spent a lot of time and money on these cables...... :sad:

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For runs of ~75 feet the cable length is almost certainly not the problem. The 10/100/1000Base-T twisted‑pair standard allows horizontal runs up to 100 meters (about 328 ft), so attention should be on terminations, wiring, or physical damage rather than attenuation.

Given the thread (comments from , , , , ), a practical troubleshooting order that isolates the fault quickly:

  • Check link LEDs on both the PC NIC and the switch/hub. No LED usually means a physical break.
  • Swap a known-good short patch cable between the PC and the switch to confirm the NIC and switch port are alive.
  • Use a basic cable tester/wire‑mapper to verify pair continuity and pin mapping; many cheap testers will immediately show opens, shorts, or miswires.
  • Inspect and reterminate the RJ45s if needed: make sure conductors are fully seated, the jacket is clamped under the strain relief, untwisted length is minimal (keep it short), and the connector type is appropriate for solid vs stranded cable. For gigabit links, all four pairs must be intact and properly terminated.

Common DIY pitfalls are untwisting pairs too far, using the wrong style connectors, poor crimps that don’t press contacts onto conductors, and coaxing a cable through walls/kinks that nick conductors. Also note crossover vs straight-through concerns only matter for certain legacy connections; most modern NICs support auto MDI-X.

If, after re-terminating and testing, the run still shows “cable unplugged,” try a factory-made cable or test both endpoints on a different port. In practice, most home DIY failures trace back to termination technique or damaged cable, not run length.

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Member Avatar for J_Search

Networktroubles,

Cat-5 will go about the length of a football field: 364ft.

Try clipping and clamping new connectors to each end. Otherwise, you may have wired them wrong. I don't know how experienced/inexperienced you are so trying to figure out what you did wrong is hard.

J_

Member Avatar for i_like_boobies

i like boobies!

Member Avatar for rdrast

Uhhhh... Both ends of a standard patch cable SHOULD be identical. The diagram you posted only shows the difference between the two common pairing schemes. -A is usually used for phone systems, -B is usually used for Ethernet, but it doesn't matter at all really, as long as both ends are terminated as 568-A or both ends are terminated as 568-B.

The only time the pairing at the ends is different, is if you are making a crossover cable.

Member Avatar for OldTime

Uhhhh... Both ends of a standard patch cable SHOULD be identical. The diagram you posted only shows the difference between the two common pairing schemes. -A is usually used for phone systems, -B is usually used for Ethernet, but it doesn't matter at all really, as long as both ends are terminated as 568-A or both ends are terminated as 568-B.

The only time the pairing at the ends is different, is if you are making a crossover cable.

By identical, I meant wiring as a straight thru cable as that method should be used primarily used for phone systems. You should use 568-B to avoid crosstalk.

Member Avatar for CimmerianX

Correct.... T568-B is the pinouts you should be using.

Member Avatar for rdrast

Not that it matters, but 568-A and 568-B have absolutely no difference in crosstalk. They only difference at all is the orange and green pairs are swapped. That's it. And, for 10/100 BaseT Ethernet, the only pairs used are the orange and green. Blue and brown aren't used at all.

A or B is only a convention. Looking blind, at electrical signals, there is absolutely no way to differentiate between the two.

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