Welcome To The World Of Cat 5 Cable Wiring!
Are you ready to take the plunge? Are you tired of having to pay a lot of money to have technicians handle the wiring of your home computer system components? Then welcome to the world of cat 5 cable wiring! Yes, I know, many people today have opted for wireless home computer networks -- and as a result they have purchased very expensive equipment years ago, that is now considered obsolete -- too slow and unreliable. How much better off they would have been if they would have simply had some cat 5 cable wiring installed instead.
Of course, when setting up your network, you'll need to make sure that you are properly equipped with 5 patch cable -- these are simply short lengths of cable (usually not more than six or 10 feet or so) that can be easily connected and disconnected as your computer configuration changes. You can purchase your own cat 5 patch cable -- but why spend all the extra money when you can make your own? It's actually fairly easy to do, if you have the proper tools and connectors and a supply of good quality cat 5 cable.
Speaking of connectors, you will need at least two CAT 5 connectors for each length of cable that you will be dealing with. The technical name for these cat 5 connectors are 8P8C connectors -- they resemble a typical modular telephone plug-in connector, although cat 5 connectors are slightly larger. Again, proper attachment of these connectors on your cable is not difficult if you know what you're doing.
If your cat 5 network will be used to connect many different devices, I would recommend that you purchase a cat 5 splitter. These splitters allow your system to switch back and forth from one computing device to the other, so that the proper information can be relayed to each device. You can also do some fancy things with cat 5 splitters -- like rebroadcasting a single video image on multiple monitors, scattered throughout your home. If you don't want to purchase a network hub or switch, you can instead look two "like" devices together -- such as one PC connected to another PC -- through the use of a cat 5 crossover cable. These are special-purpose cat 5 patch cables, do not cost much to purchase -- or you can make your own very easily. Even if you are not familiar with cat 5 cable wiring, you may already have it in your home --actually not cat 5 cable, but cat 3 cable -- because this type of cabling was used with older network installations years ago, and is still used today for 2-line telephone systems. Cat 5 cable wiring is the fifth generation of Ethernet cable; as a matter of fact an enhanced version -- called cat 5e -- is now available which minimizes the amount of signal degradation and makes it possible to operate your home computer network at a much greater speed. So check out the following web pages -- they are chock full of useful information that will help you to avoid pitfalls and get your new home computer network up and running without a hitch!
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