Week 14

Ethernet Cabling, Router Basics, and Final LAN Planning

Prepare cabling and routers, and plan the final LAN build for next week.

Lesson recap

After thirteen weeks of clicking icons in simulators, this week your hands meet copper. You'll identify the cables, recognize the color order, see why T568B is the de-facto standard, and inspect a real router's ports. The skill isn't crimping cable perfectly — it's recognizing which cable you need for which job, and noticing when a 'bad cable' is actually the problem (it's almost always the cable). Next week the team builds a real LAN, so today is the day to lock in the plan, the IP scheme, and who's bringing what.

Learning goals

Identify Ethernet cable types and connectors
Recognize T568A and T568B wiring
Understand straight-through vs crossover cables
Identify router ports and roles
Plan the team's final LAN build

Key terms

RJ45

Standard 8-pin Ethernet connector.

Cat5e / Cat6 / Cat6a

Common Ethernet cable categories (1 Gbps / 10 Gbps short / 10 Gbps longer).

T568A / T568B

Two standard wiring color orders. Most US installs use T568B.

Straight-through

Same wiring on both ends — PC ↔ switch.

Crossover

T568A on one end, T568B on the other — historically for PC ↔ PC. Modern auto-MDIX makes it usually unnecessary.

WAN Port

Router port that connects to the upstream network/ISP.

LAN Port

Router port that connects local devices.

PoE

Power over Ethernet — delivers power down the cable to APs, cameras, phones.

Curated videos

Ethernet Cables: UTP vs STP, Straight vs Crossover, Cat 5/6/7/8

PowerCert Animated Videos

How to Crimp an RJ45 Connector in 2 Minutes

Vcom Education

Checkpoint checklist

Pro tips from the instructor

★Memorize T568B: White-Orange, Orange, White-Green, Blue, White-Blue, Green, White-Brown, Brown.
★Untwist as little as the pairs as possible at the connector — long untwisted runs cause crosstalk above 100 Mbps.
★Test every cable you crimp with a cable tester before deploying it. A bad crimp can pass low-speed traffic but fail at gigabit.

Try this — stretch exercises

Optional hands-on practice that goes beyond the workbook. Check items off as you complete them — progress saves in this browser.

0/1

Build two cables: one straight-through and one crossover. Test both against the same PC-to-PC link with auto-MDIX on and off (if your switch supports it).

Files to save this week

📁 Week14_CableID_YourLastName.png
📁 Week14_T568B_YourLastName.png
📁 Week14_RouterInspection_YourLastName.png
📁 Week14_FinalLANPlan_GroupNumber