How to Make a Crossover Cable from One Standard Ethernet Cable

Last Updated: November 15, 2016

If you need a Crossover Cable, and have a few extra standard Ethernet Cables around your place, you do not need to go out and buy a separate cable.

With a few minutes work, you can splice your own crossover cable without the need of the tools that other guides say that you "absolutely need".

While most guides to create crossover cables say that you need Crimping tools, Wire strippers, etc. - with this guide you will find you have everything you need right in your own home or office!

Steps

1
Find a standard Ethernet cable you don't use for anything. With this guide, you will be able to use a long 100 feet (30.5 m). cable, or a shorter size, whatever your needs require.
2
Towards one end of the cable, cut open a slit a few inches long. Be careful not to damage the wiring inside the cable or cut yourself.

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3
Peel back and remove the cable casing. This will leave the inner wiring exposed. Examine how the wiring is twisted together and note the colors of the wires. For this project, we will be cutting the colored wires (green, orange, white-green, white-orange) and leaving the other wires in place as usual.
4
Cut the green, orange, white-green and the white-orange. The other wires will be left as-is.
5
With the wires cut, work now one-by-one.
- First, strip the orange wire on both cut sides down. (approx. 1/4 or 1/2 inch)
- After both ends of the orange wire has been stripped, strip both ends of the green wire down. (approx. 1/4 or 1/2 inch)
6
On Side "A" we will call it, connect the green stripped end to the orange stripped end on Side "B". Twist the wires together, and mend with electrical or another kind of tape. If you have a soldering iron, you can optionally solder the leads together.
7
You now have one step of your crossover wire completed. Lets continue on.
8
Just as we connected the orange and green wires for one side of our crossover cable, lets now repeat the process with the final two wires.
- Start by stripping the green-white wires. (once again, approx. 1/4 or 1/2 inch)
- Repeat the wire stripping on orange-white wires. (once again, approx. 1/4 or 1/2 inch)
9
On Side "A", join the green-white wire to the orange-white wire on Side "B". Twist the wires together and fix with tape. Again, if you prefer, you can solder the wires together as opposed to twisting them together.
10
Join the remaining wires. Join the orange-white wire on Side "A", with the green-white wire on Side "B". Fashion the wires with tape or solder.
11
Clean the cable up.
1. Note the direction that the wiring in the cable case is twisting.
2. Holding the cable in your hands, twist the cable in the same way as the internal wiring is twisted.
3. Keep the wire twisted, and close it up with tape or shrink-wrap.
12
Admire your new, home made crossover cable!

Community Q&A

Question

Do I need to crimp the wires?

Community Answer

No, you don't have to crimp anything. You can just solder or twist the wires, although I don't recommend twisting since the wires could get loose.
Question

What are the applications of a crossover cable?

Community Answer

It's used for directly connecting two devices (such as computers) together without going through a network switch or router.