Is there a saying or rhyme to remember the color order of cat 5 cable? (2025)

"White-Orange Orange ... White-Green Blue ... Blue-White Green ... Brown-White Brown...la la la"

Sing it to yourself about a thousand times while terminating....you'll be able to recite it in your sleep...

I worked for me......

(Sorry)

FWIW

Scott

LOL! =) That's a good one ScottMac.

I never had a good method of repeating it...If you build yourself enough cables it becomes as familiar as brushing your teeth (for those of you who aren't hygienically challenged ).

Or while you're learning it just keep a bad crimp RJ-45 connector with the correct wiring scheme for reference.

Now if I could only figure out a good way of how to remember the order of a crossover cable...

Gaidin

<< Make about 10 cables and you will have it memorized That's all it took for me. >>

yeah no kidding, you only do a few of them and you've got it down...

...or you mess up one and you dont test it so you dont realize it later than setup with it and it doesnt work and you spend the rest of the day cursing at youself for making such a stupid mistake (I've done that too)

-Spy

I remember it as:

OGBB white first, except blue, which splits green

doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but maybe better than nothing?

I just learned it after a few times!

And as for cross over, remember to swap orange ones and green ones on one end!

Confused

The other visual clue is that the wires are alternating white-color / solid-color (just remember to flip the blue pair).

Orange is first, brown is last, blue's in the middle and splits the green.

Whatever works...

FWIW

Scott

It's easier to memorize a sequence as listed above by TallGeese, ScottMac or tboneuls, but this really doesn't teach where and how the color pair, wire, pin designations come from OR How they can change. If you only want to teach your students to memorize the sequence on an Ethernet cable, then do as TallGeese, ScottMac or tboneuls recommend with the following additions or changes.

As mentioned above, the cable always results in a white/color then color/white consecutive sequence of wires. The primary color [white] predominant wire is always on an odd pin number, or first of the pair except in between the split pair.
568A: OGBGBr - pins 1&2;3;4&5;6;7&8 (most commonly used for data and Ethernet)
568B: GOBOBr - pins 1&2;3;4&5;6;7&8 (so, G; O[split], B[reversed pair], O[split remainder], Br)
Note pins 4&5, the center two pins always have the blue pair and the blue pair is reversed. Pins 7&8 always have brown.
10B-T: BOO - pins 1&2;3;6 (pair 1, pair 2)
I think it's easiest to remember 568B and then just remember that first two colors are transposed between 568B and 568A, then to also remember that pins 1&2,3&6 are the pins that must be wire paired together and fill in the rest according to the alternating primary color rule. The listing above uses pairs of colors and 1/2 of pairs of colors, or just consecutive color pairs. Or memorize GOBBr from 568B (transpose first two for 568A -- OGBBr) with pairs for 1&2, 3&6, memorizing 3&6 as the first split pair and fill in the rest according to the alternating primary color rule and color scheme.

To visualize what Justin described.

D-Link FAQ

Byte said:

??

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Depends on what you mean, there are different color orders for phone versus Ethernet. And even in Ethernet there are different standards as I recall.

Cabletek said:

Depends on what you mean, there are different color orders for phone versus Ethernet. And even in Ethernet there are different standards as I recall.

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The two pair phone with red, green, black, and yellow is never used in business and 25-pair is a different beast entirely.

No one uses 568-A, so memorizing that is useless...even though all you have to remember is to swap the green and orange pairs.

Orange-White, Orange, Green-White, Blue, Blue-White, Green, Brown-White, Brown.

I find that alternating the whites in there like that make it easier for me to remember.

I just studied it and then tried to write it down without looking at a reference, then compare it, and keep going that way, eventually I was able to retain it long enough to do the test. It helps if you use actual colors too as it stays in the head better. I would just draw lines in MS paint, then check to see if I did it right, erase, start over, and do this multiple times every day or so.

I never understood the point of having to learn that by heart. I've been in IT/networking for like 7 years and I don't know it anymore. I just look it up when I need to, just like anything else. I use lot of ethernet wire at home for alarm points too, and I usually try to follow the order just for consistency. Orange white is ground, orange +5v, then up to 6 alarm points on the rest, typically.

In my crimp kit, I keep a small piece (about 2 inch) of Cat 5 with plug on it with the colors we use (568B in most cases) .. I also keep a very small printout of the colors in about index card size in a small clear sleeve.
Or use something like this (from this link)

http://www.dccurrent.com/cat5.html

Byte said:

yeah well i don't have a problem remembering it, my students do

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Byte said:

u guys are such a big help........ i guess i'll yell at them some more..........

Click to expand...

Some teacher...