Crimping Ethernet cables wrong has been costing me hours of rework this month

I kept getting intermittent dropouts on a 200 foot run and finally traced it to my RJ45 crimps not fully seating the wire pairs, so double check your pass-through connectors before you staple everything down, anyone else had this bite them after the fact?

2 comments

2 Comments

jamiew831d ago

Respect that you figured out the issue, but I push back on blaming the crimp style. I've been terminating cables for over 20 years and I actually prefer standard RJ45 plugs over the pass-through kind. The pass-through ones can leave exposed wire ends that sometimes contact the shield or other pairs if you don't trim them perfectly flush. On a 200 foot run you really need to use a proper crimp tool with a ratcheting mechanism and make sure you're untwisting the pairs as little as possible before inserting them. I've seen more failures from people untwisting too much wire or using the wrong plug for solid versus stranded cable than from the plug design itself.

the_ben1d ago

Yeah, you're right about the untwisting thing @jamiew83. I've seen guys strip back way too much and leave like an inch of untwisted wire, then wonder why their run drops packets. On a 200 footer the pair twist is what keeps the signal clean. Pass-through plugs have their place for quick patches but I still grab standard ones for long runs.