Just realized I've been crimping network cables wrong for years...

I used to just eyeball the wire order and push them into the connector, which gave me a 30% failure rate on my first test. After a job in Tempe last month where I wasted 45 minutes on a single patch cable, I finally watched a YouTube tutorial and bought a proper $25 crimp tool with a built-in wire guide. How many other 'basic' skills did I learn wrong from some guy in a shop a decade ago?

2 comments

2 Comments

tyler_hernandez3d ago

Honestly though, is a 30% failure rate that bad for a patch cable you make once in a while? I've been doing the same slapdash method for ages and it mostly works, which is good enough for my home network. Spending 25 bucks on a special tool feels like overkill unless you're doing it all day for work.

victor2313d ago

You said "mostly works, which is good enough." Read a forum post once where a guy had random packet drops for months. Traced it back to a slightly messed up homemade cable. The connection worked, but it was slow and flaky. That's the real problem. It's not about total failure, it's about making something that actually works right.