Examine the back of your computer and locate the network adapter. There should be

52 | Lesson 3 Figure 3-1 Twisted-pair patch cable plastic jacket they are shown in the black rectangle. Once the plug is crimped onto the cable, these teeth ensure that the cable does not slip out of the plug.

2. If you have some extra twisted-pair cable handy, cut a six-foot piece with a sharp

cutting tool. Then, strip away about two inches of the plastic jacket to expose the wires. The plastic jacket is also known as a plastic or PVC sheath. You should see some- thing similar to Figure 3-2, which illustrates the four twisted-pair wires. Once again, these four pairs are blue, orange, green, and brown, also known as the BOGB colors. Each letter represents a color: B = blue, O = orange, and so on. Figure 3-2 Twisted-pair cable with the wires exposed

3. Untwist each of the wires so that they are all separated. The wires should now look

similar to Figure 3-3. In the figure, the wires are in the proper order for most of today’s twisted-pair networks. Table 3-1 summarizes the cabling standards when it comes to wire or pin orientation. Whereas the BOGB standard is where everything originates Understanding Wired and Wireless Networks | 53 Figure 3-3 Twisted-pair cable with the wires straightened from, 568B is the most common, and 568A is an older standard. The proper name for 568B is TIAEIA-568-B; this standard was developed by the Telecommunications Industry AssociationElectronics Industries Alliance or TIAEIA. When making a patch cable, the wires are placed in the RJ45 plug in order, and the plug is crimped once they are in place. If a particular wire is named whiteorange, that means the bulk of the wire is white in color and it has an orange stripe. If the wire is named something like orange, it is a solid orange wire. There are two types of networking patch cables that you might work with. The first is a straight through cable. This is the most common type of patch cable, and it is the type that you would use to connect a computer to a central connecting device like a switch. It’s called “straight through” because the wires on each end of the cable are oriented in the same way. Generally, this is a 568B on each end. However, there is also another type of patch cable—the crossover cable. This type is used to connect like devices to each other, for example, a computer to another computer, or a switch to another switch. In this case, the patch cable is wired with the 568B standard on one side and the 568A standard on the other. To make a patch cable, you use a cutting tool, wire stripper, RJ45 crimper, RJ45 plugs, and a patch tester. These tools are illustrated in Figure 3-4. Table 3-1 568B, 568A, and BOGB standards P IN 568B 568A BOGB 1 Whiteorange Whitegreen Whiteblue 2 Orange Green Blue 3 Whitegreen Whiteorange Whiteorange 4 Blue Blue Orange 5 Whiteblue Whiteblue Whitegreen 6 Green Orange Green 7 Whitebrown Whitebrown Whitebrown 8 Brown Brown Brown