Noob question about cat 5

[Karbon Killa]

Is it true, that as long as I have the same wires in the same places on both sides, I should be fine. That colors don't really matter. I mean, they're just wires. Right? I am putting together a cat 5 cable, and the diagram online was opposite of one of mine here at home, so I made sure both sides were the same, and they are. Just a stupid question, but I thought I'd ask before I crimp them in place.

[billygoat333]

I guess it doesn't really matter, I think the only reason why you would use the color scheme is consistency. I read on this site that the reason why they are twisted pairs is for interference, so maybe if you do a diff. color scheme the data will pick up interference from the other lines? idk.

its pretty easy to remember the colors though, For a straight-through cable: Orange-white, orange, green-white, blue, blue-white, green, brown-white, brown. this with the clip thingie down.

[Karbon Killa]

Well I have one side kinda crimped, is why im wondering. And yea, its all backwards or so i think. idk

[billygoat333]

I think you should be ok. only one way to find out!

[xmastree]

Is it true, that as long as I have the same wires in the same places on both sides, I should be fine. That colors don't really matter. I mean, they're just wires. Right?

Wrong.

They aren't just wires, they're in pairs, twisted pairs to be precise. So the colours do matter.

You can swap one colour and its paired one at each end, and that would work. Or you could swap for example orange and brown, but you'd need to swap orange/white and brown/white too as those are the pairs.

If you get it wrong, but the same at each end it will still work but not at the highest speed. Or it might work fine if it's short enough.

Best to just do it right in the first place. Buy a bag of 50 connectors on eBay for next to nothing, you know it makes sense.

Here's a decent write-up.
http://lusitani.com/roll_your_own_network_cables.htm

[SgtM]

xmastree is right. It does matter what order the colors are in. The wiring standard in current use it the eia/tia 568b
http://zytrax.com/tech/layer_1/cables/tech_lan.htm

[Karbon Killa]

Well basically I have them all just backwards. Orange pair where brown pair should be, blues are reversed, and so are greens. All the waires are in the same order, just flipped. Like if you took a picture into ms paint, and flipped it horizontally.

[SgtM]

So basically, you have a rollover cable but on both ends.

[Karbon Killa]

sure

[Luke122]

Sounds to me like he's got the ends on upside down. As long as both ends are the same, it'll work fine as a regular patch cable.