DIY: Make your own ethernet loopback cable
Ever find yourself needing to know whether an ethernet port will light up without actually hooking it up to a switch? Have a hard time remembering which port on a switch a jack is plugged in to? Fortunately it’s pretty easy to make your own ethernet loopback cable.
To start you’ll need a couple of tools: a wire cutter and a wire stripper. Of course you’ll also need an cat5 cable you don’t mind cutting up. And you’ll need a little electrical tape to clean it up.
Steps:
- Cut about 12″ off of the end of the cable
- Strip off about 2″ of the outer insulation
- You should see 8 wires paired up (Orange, White-Orange, Green, White-Green, Blue, White-Blue, Brown, and White-Brown). Un-twist each pair.
- Strip about an inch off of the White-Orange, White-Green, Orange, and Green.
- Wrap the exposed wires together matching White-Orange to White-Green and Orange to Green.
- Cover the exposed wire with electrical tape.
- You can ignore the other 4 wires
- Plug the cable in to either a network card or a switch. If it was done correctly the link light should come on.
- Wrap the end of the cable with tape to neaten it up a little.
- A repeat since you’ve still got the other end of the cable
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