T568A Patch to T568B Keystones?

[daxiang28]

So I'm off to the wiring portion of my remodel. I originally wired my keystones to T568B spec and expected the patch panel to be the same. I ordered and installed some of these patch panels and am stumped knowing that they are wired for t568A. (btw, I found an online PDF with a diagram for the panel from a different manufacturer).

My question is, can I wire this so that it is compatible with my t568B wired keystones? I assumed that I would just swap the green and orange pairs, but that yielded some crazy sequence when testing with the network tester (it would highlight the pins in random order vs going sequentially through the 8 pins as if I was testing a single cable). Am I missing something here?

The default wiring seems to be: blue/white, blue, orange/white, orange, green/white, green, blue/white, blue

Thanks,
Steve

 

[video321]

It won't matter - you must have tested something wrong.

 

[gatchel]

As long as they are wired the same on both ends, it makes no difference. Even if you wire them 568A on one end and 568B on the other most modern computers and switches will detect the crossover and auto switch port to match. I'm not saying it's right, just that it may work anyway.

To clarify:

Pair 1 is Blue
Pair 2 is Orange
Pair 3 is Green
Pair 4 Is Brown

 

[tmbrown97]

As said above, it doesn't make a difference... the difference between t568A and t568B is just the swapping of the green and orange.

Looks like you have the right idea - the white stripe generally goes before the solid.

Just for kicks, wire one as spec'd and go to the keystone - most I've seen have the diagram for A and B - just rewire the other end to B and test (it'd be a PITA to do this to all of them, but it'd be nice to see one test correctly).

Also - those testers suck - they literally test continuity, and nothing else... unfortunately the good ones that'll tell you exactly what's going on cost about >$1K (though I couldn't live without mine).

 

[daxiang28]

Pair 1 is Blue
Pair 2 is Orange
Pair 3 is Green
Pair 4 Is Brown

@gatchel, that is the default out of the box diagram. I have swapped the orange for green so it is:

Pair 1 is Blue
Pair 2 is Green
Pair 3 is Orange
Pair 4 Is Brown

Just for kicks, wire one as spec'd and go to the keystone - most I've seen have the diagram for A and B - just rewire the other end to B and test (it'd be a PITA to do this to all of them, but it'd be nice to see one test correctly).

@work2play, my keystones are all wired for B. I guess for kicks, I should wire one as an A and then wire the patch panel correctly as an A and see what I get. Yeah I hear the tester sucks. Any other option to testing? Laptop to laptop?

 

[gatchel]

Here is a better explanation of 568 wiring. I could type it out but I'm feeling kinda lazy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIA/EIA-568

 

[sic0048]

With that tester, the sending unit sends a signal through the 8 wires, starting with #1 and going through #8. If it is jumbled up at the receiving end, then that is a clear sign that it is mis-wired.

 

[daxiang28]

Just wanted to update the info on these patch panels. Now that I think about it, it's stupid simple: just swap the greens with the oranges. This diagram from another company was helpful (not to mention that their customer support was great). I need a couple more of these, and will probably order from them seeing as it looks like a generic identical OEM product with a different name on it.

 

[jautor]

As long as they are wired the same on both ends, it makes no difference. Even if you wire them 568A on one end and 568B on the other most modern computers and switches will detect the crossover and auto switch port to match. I'm not saying it's right, just that it may work anyway.

Just want to clarify that while that may the be case for 10/100 Ethernet, there are many other uses of Cat5, such that swapping the pairs would result in a non-functional solution. Any HDMI-over-cat5 balun solution, for example.

Jeff

 

[gatchel]

Just want to clarify that while that may the be case for 10/100 Ethernet, there are many other uses of Cat5, such that swapping the pairs would result in a non-functional solution. Any HDMI-over-cat5 balun solution, for example.

Jeff

Good point. Didn't think of that and since it wasn't clear in the OP I'd have to agree with you. Although, I did mention computers and switches.

Personally, I would never run CAT5(e) for HDMI or video distribution with CAT6 or better available. If you want to get picky this is where low skew cabling would come into play.