Trouble with cabling a network at home.

Using a 3Com Home Connect hub, with 568A straight thru cables from the hub to various wall jacks and then using patch cables (568A wiring format) from each wall jack to a PC and a laptop - But PC's can't see each other and the lights on the hub are not lit up for each connection - help ?
Any suggestions ?

1. RE: Trouble with cabling a network at home.
lbyard Jan-22-01 12:39 PM
In response to message 0

Check your cables and wall jacks to see if they comply with http://duxcw.com/digest/Howto/network/cable/cable5.htm and http://duxcw.com/digest/Howto/network/cable/cable6.htm. That is the most likely the problem. Run the diagnostics that came on the floppy disks with your network adapters. You should get solid LINK LEDs and blinking ACTivity LEDs. . The network will not work unless you do. For test purposes, try connecting a couple of PCs directly to the hub with the cables used to connect them to wall jacks. If they work you will have narrowed the problem to the infrastructure wiring. Larry

2. RE: Trouble with cabling a network at home.
tgin Jan-23-01 05:34 PM
In response to message 1

I had the network up and running when the PC's were directly connected to the hub. I'm sure the error is with the infrastructure wiring.
I'm using the 568A wiring standard for the straight thru. I'm uncertain on what wiring std I should be following when I connect the wiring to the wall jack? Should this be 568A or the cross-over you 'linked' to in your response. I use patch cords to connect the PC to the wall jack.

3. RE: Trouble with cabling a network at home.
lbyard Jan-23-01 07:29 PM
In response to message 2

No, they shouldn’t cross. Try to visualize the wiring the way it works when the PCs are connected directly to the hub: one continuous straight-thru cable going from the PC to the hub, and then cut a chunk off (the patch cable), and then join the two pieces back together with a jack and plug. 568A is preferred. However, a 568A patch cable will work with 568B infrastructure wiring; just the colors change, not the specific continuity between pins (I know that is confusing). The 568A-coded RJ45 jack pin-out is depicted at http://duxcw.com/digest/Howto/network/cable/cable5.htm. The diagram shows the jack looking from the front, (where the plug plugs-in). Larry