RJ-45 connectors

When Ben moved into his first off-campus apartment in Colorado, he wanted to set up a small ethernet network by running cable between the various rooms and a shared Lynksys NAT router. He began this project by emailing me to request a concise explaination of the color codes of Cat5 cable and the proper sequence for making up RJ-45 connectors. In response, I put together the above illustration. It's a useful reference to keep around. (I now keep a printed copy folded up in the tool box where I keep my crimping tool and RJ-45 connectors.)