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• The hub is small, lightweight, and can be wall-mounted or stacked with other equipment (and the color even matches).
• 10Base-T hubs are generally very reliable and guaranteed for years. Choose a hub that complies with IEEE 802.3 specifications for use on 10Base-T UTP cabling based on price and any features you find attractive. Some hubs include a ThinWire 10Base-2 uplink port that can be useful if you encounter older 10Base-2 equipment, or as a "backbone" port for connecting more than four hubs.
• You may see so-called "managed hubs" advertised for considerably more money. Managed hubs allow a network administrator to view the hub's operating status from a remote management console. For small networks, it's easier to "manage" a hub by simply looking at the status LEDs on the front panel. Managed hubs are intended for larger networks with lots of equipment to keep track of.

If all the stations you want to network are in a single room, you can simply run 10Base-T patch cables between each station and your network hub. If your network spans several rooms or floors, you will probably want to install wall jacks (similar to but not the same as common telephone wiring). Each cable segment between an end node and hub must not exceed 100 meters. You can daisychain or "cascade" up to four hubs using 10Base-T.

10Base-T uses 8-pin RJ-45 modular style connectors available from many electronic supply stores and catalogs.

Eight-conductor data cable contains 4 pairs of wires. Each pair consists of a solid (or predominantly) colored wire and a white wire with a stripe of the same color. The pairs are twisted together. To maintain reliability, you must connect each pair to the appropriate pins and not untwist them any more than necessary.

Data cables normally use AWG #22-26 wire with #24 the most common. Solid conductor is preferred for longer runs and in-the-wall wiring, while more flexible stranded conductor cables are generally used for patch cords. If you decide to buy a crimping tool (about $40 for a decent one) and make your own cables, notice there are different RJ-45 plugs for solid versus stranded conductor cable. The more common modular plugs are designed for stranded patch cable. Look for specially-labeled solid conductor plugs if that is what you need.

PVC insulation is fine for patch cords, but for in-the-wall wiring, you should use cable with a "Plenum" or Teflon jacket to meet fire safety codes.

Two grades of data cables and jacks are commonly available referred to as Catagory 3 (CAT-3) and Catagory 5 (CAT-5). The difference is that CAT-5 requires more twists per inch and can support a 100 Megabit per second Ethernet. CAT-3 is usually a little less expensive and fine for 10 Mbps Ethernet. I always install CAT-5 for in-the-wall wiring since it is difficult to change later, but don't worry too much about patch cords.

The illustrations below give the correct wiring.

The pairs designated for 10Base-T Ethernet are Orange and Green. The other two pairs, Brown and Blue, can be used for a second Ethernet line or for phone connections. Note that the Blue pair is on the center pins and conveniently corresponds to the Red and Green pair in a normal phone line.

There are actually several different Color Code conventions for wiring RJ-45 plugs and jacks, so don't assume the wiring just by looking at the colors. As long as you follow a single convention that assigns wire pairs to the corresponding signals, you shouldn't have any trouble.

Macs with built-in Ethernet may have one of two different interface connectors:

• An RJ-45 10Base-T port
• An AAUI (Apple Attachment Unit Interface) port
• Some Macs include both. If your Mac already has a 10Base-T port (most PCI PowerMacs with built-in Ethernet), you don't need a separate transceiver. If your Mac only provides an AAUI port (NewBus PowerMacs and all 68K Macs with built-in Ethernet), you will need an AAUI to 10Base-T transceiver ($30-$40). The purpose of the AAUI port is that it allows you to select a transceiver for the type of Ethernet media you want to use (10Base-T, ThinWire, or ThickWire).

If your Mac doesn't include built-in Ethernet, you will need to get a Network Interface Card with the correct interface (10Base-T) for the media you want to use.

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Reprinted with permission from Sustainable Softworks, Inc. You can find more great articles like this at:

Sustworks.com