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From: Dave Smith on 14 Jan 2006 20:20
My dog chewed up a section of cat.5 cable from my router to a
computer. Really. Now that we've eaten the dog, I have to repair the
damage. The cable is routed through the ceiling of the house and I
REALLY don't want to do that again, so I'm hoping I can just get
another length of cable and splice it to the existing one. Is the
color coding of the wires uniform? If so, can I just solder the wires
together (insulated of course) or is there some reason that approach
won't work. I know there are kits for putting new connectors on
cables, but I'd rather not invest in one for a one time repair.

Thanks very much for any help.
From: thehick on 14 Jan 2006 20:59
The best way would be to put rj-45s on and
use a F-F connector from the dollar store.
but since you don't want to cough up the money
for a one time job, just try it. the worst
that will happen is collisions and hence, lower thruput.
this is why running a spare cable is always
a good idea. especially if the job is a tough one.
....thehick

From: kony on 14 Jan 2006 21:08
On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 17:20:08 -0800, Dave Smith
<dog-rem-(a)cox.net> wrote:

>My dog chewed up a section of cat.5 cable from my router to a
>computer. Really. Now that we've eaten the dog, I have to repair the
>damage. The cable is routed through the ceiling of the house and I
>REALLY don't want to do that again,

You might be surprised how easy it can be to pull cable,
when you already have an old cable there. By splicing the
end of the old to the new, and pulling the old through, it
pulls the new through, so you then put a connector on each
end. Can't see the specifics of the situation though, if
you say it's not feasible I'll leave it at that.



>so I'm hoping I can just get
>another length of cable and splice it to the existing one.

.... or where the break is, put a connector on it to
terminate it and a coupler or hub.

>Is the
>color coding of the wires uniform?

For your purposes, yes. The colored wire plus the white
with same-colored stripe are always twisted pairs. So, to
splice you would simply connect same-colors. However,
you're not supposed to leave these pairs untwisted for more
than about a 1/2", so taking your time and doing a good job
of getting all to the right length, having tight twists of
the bare wires soldered (not just touching bare) and
heatshrinked, then retwisted, is rather important. Leaving
too much untwisted may introduce noise... how much that
effects the run may depend on it's general condition besides
this repaired section.

The question about the colors has another answer though,
that the colors to pin positions in the connector must match
on each end as well and there are two standards for that,
568A & 568B. See the following page and if you don't know
what you have, check continuity with a multimeter if you
can't tell from looking at the (other) end of the existing
wire.
http://www.bluemax.net/techtips/networking/Wiring_Tips/Wiring100TX/colorcodestandards.htm



>If so, can I just solder the wires
>together (insulated of course) or is there some reason that approach
>won't work. I know there are kits for putting new connectors on
>cables, but I'd rather not invest in one for a one time repair.
>
>Thanks very much for any help.

It can easily work, mainly you need to be careful to
maintain the same wire lengths and amount of overlap while
twisting them prior to soldering such that they all end up
(at least each two in a twisted pair) close to same length.

Since they're twisted all along, getting the heatshrink or
other insulator on is the next hurdle, doing so and being
able to re-twist them together. If they're solid-core,
they'll be harder to manage and rather than trying to put
individual insulation sleeves on each solder joint, it may
be easier to push back a piece of shrink-tubing over the
pair of wires (so it'd cover both together), then on the
first solder joint of a twisted pair, put a piece of
heat-shrink over that single wire (pushed back out of the
way of soldering heat), then after soldering slide it into
place, THEN before soldering the other twisted pair wire
ends together, wrap them both around the
already-finished-and-heatshrunk wire before soldering.
Lastly slip the heatshrink tubing back down around the pair
to insulate from the remaining wires. I'm sure I didn't
write the above very well but the point is that by not
heatshrinking both individually, you can wrap the second of
each wire-pair around the first not having to slide down the
heatsink tubing after soldering.

From: Dave Smith on 14 Jan 2006 21:44

Thanks very much Kony. I'll frown about this some more and I'm sure
your info will help me get this done.


On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 02:08:37 GMT, kony <spam(a)spam.com> wrote:

>On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 17:20:08 -0800, Dave Smith
><dog-rem-(a)cox.net> wrote:
>
>>My dog chewed up a section of cat.5 cable from my router to a
>>computer. Really. Now that we've eaten the dog, I have to repair the
>>damage. The cable is routed through the ceiling of the house and I
>>REALLY don't want to do that again,
>
>You might be surprised how easy it can be to pull cable,
>when you already have an old cable there. By splicing the
>end of the old to the new, and pulling the old through, it
>pulls the new through, so you then put a connector on each
>end. Can't see the specifics of the situation though, if
>you say it's not feasible I'll leave it at that.
>
>
>
>>so I'm hoping I can just get
>>another length of cable and splice it to the existing one.
>
>... or where the break is, put a connector on it to
>terminate it and a coupler or hub.
>
>>Is the
>>color coding of the wires uniform?
>
>For your purposes, yes. The colored wire plus the white
>with same-colored stripe are always twisted pairs. So, to
>splice you would simply connect same-colors. However,
>you're not supposed to leave these pairs untwisted for more
>than about a 1/2", so taking your time and doing a good job
>of getting all to the right length, having tight twists of
>the bare wires soldered (not just touching bare) and
>heatshrinked, then retwisted, is rather important. Leaving
>too much untwisted may introduce noise... how much that
>effects the run may depend on it's general condition besides
>this repaired section.
>
>The question about the colors has another answer though,
>that the colors to pin positions in the connector must match
>on each end as well and there are two standards for that,
>568A & 568B. See the following page and if you don't know
>what you have, check continuity with a multimeter if you
>can't tell from looking at the (other) end of the existing
>wire.
>http://www.bluemax.net/techtips/networking/Wiring_Tips/Wiring100TX/colorcodestandards.htm
>
>
>
>>If so, can I just solder the wires
>>together (insulated of course) or is there some reason that approach
>>won't work. I know there are kits for putting new connectors on
>>cables, but I'd rather not invest in one for a one time repair.
>>
>>Thanks very much for any help.
>
>It can easily work, mainly you need to be careful to
>maintain the same wire lengths and amount of overlap while
>twisting them prior to soldering such that they all end up
>(at least each two in a twisted pair) close to same length.
>
>Since they're twisted all along, getting the heatshrink or
>other insulator on is the next hurdle, doing so and being
>able to re-twist them together. If they're solid-core,
>they'll be harder to manage and rather than trying to put
>individual insulation sleeves on each solder joint, it may
>be easier to push back a piece of shrink-tubing over the
>pair of wires (so it'd cover both together), then on the
>first solder joint of a twisted pair, put a piece of
>heat-shrink over that single wire (pushed back out of the
>way of soldering heat), then after soldering slide it into
>place, THEN before soldering the other twisted pair wire
>ends together, wrap them both around the
>already-finished-and-heatshrunk wire before soldering.
>Lastly slip the heatshrink tubing back down around the pair
>to insulate from the remaining wires. I'm sure I didn't
>write the above very well but the point is that by not
>heatshrinking both individually, you can wrap the second of
>each wire-pair around the first not having to slide down the
>heatsink tubing after soldering.

From: badgolferman on 14 Jan 2006 22:02
Dave Smith, 1/14/2006,8:20:08 PM, wrote:

> My dog chewed up a section of cat.5 cable from my router to a
> computer. Really. Now that we've eaten the dog, I have to repair the
> damage. The cable is routed through the ceiling of the house and I
> REALLY don't want to do that again, so I'm hoping I can just get
> another length of cable and splice it to the existing one. Is the
> color coding of the wires uniform? If so, can I just solder the wires
> together (insulated of course) or is there some reason that approach
> won't work. I know there are kits for putting new connectors on
> cables, but I'd rather not invest in one for a one time repair.
>
> Thanks very much for any help.

I would avoid trying to splice the cable. The pairs are wound together
so many times within a foot and changing that will affect your signal,
especially since you have run it a long distance.

My first choice would be to rerun a new one, using the old wire as a
pull cord from both directions. My second choice would be to put
either a RJ-45 receptacle plate on one end and a RJ-45 connector plug
on the other end.

--
"Politics is supposed be the second oldest profession. I have come to
realise that it bears a very close resemblance to the first." ~ Ronald
Reagan.
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