How to Terminate Cat6 Shielded Cable with an RJ45 Connector

Terminating Cat6 shielded cable can be tricky with a standard RJ45 connector that is not pre-booted. In this detailed tutorial video, see the expert best practices for how to terminate Cat6 shielded cable with a standard RJ4 plug for a custom-length cable with full 360º shielding. For Cat 6 cable termination color code (568B), see the image here at 08:45.
Cat6 color code order: 1) White/Orange, 2) Orange Solid, 3) White/Green, 4) Blue Solid, 5) White/Blue, 6) Green Solid, 7) White/Brown, 8) Brown Solid

Skip to Chapters:
00:00 Intro, How to Terminate Cat6 Shielded Cable with a Standard RJ45 Connector
00:36 Slide up the 3:1 heat shrink tubing onto cable
00:54 Measure your cable jacket for stripping
01:17 Score and cut the jacket from the conductors
01:38 Shielding must be removed from the exposed wires
01:55 What to do with the drain wire on CAT6 cable termination
02:03 What to do with the clear binder material
02:21 Remove the center separator
03:05 Secure the drain wire with copper tape, and why for best practices
03:30 Placement of the copper tape
04:00 Untwist the pairs for CAT6 cable termination
04:37 Color code for 568B Cat6 cable
05:20 Cut any extra length on conductors to 1”
06:05 One piece RJ45 connector vs two piece RJ45 connector
06:13 How to slide on the load bar Cat6
06:58 How to trim conductors to 3/10” (approx. 7 cm)
07:32 Prepare the RJ45 connector
08:01 Crimp down the cable diameter to an oval in order to fit into the RJ45 connector
08:20 Seat the RJ45 connector properly to the color code
08:45 Cat6 color code order image showing visible copper ends
08:51 Bend the strain relief over
09:01 RJ45 crimping tool for Cat6 cable termination
09:33 Inspection and what to look for
09:49 Slide 3:1 heat shrink tubing up over the connector body
10:22 Carefully heat shrink tubing to secure the connector without compromising the conductors
10:52 Applying the heat to shrink tubing with heat gun
11:05 Fully terminated a Cat6 Shielded cable with an RJ45 connector with a solid 360 degree shield contact

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* This is a Pro AV tutorial video as a video production portfolio piece created and produced by Angie Durbin in collaboration with Liberty AV Solutions.

Angie is a New York-based creative director, artist, and multimedia designer.
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👋🏼📱 SOCIALS
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#Cat6CableTermination, #HowToTerminateCat6

[Brandon-rcmq]

I didn’t know I needed to watch this until I did.

[Mister]

This is super refreshing after watching videos by electricians that obviously don't understand the cables they are making or the importance of maintaining the twists. Great job!

[MohammedAbadir-tn]

This is super refreshing after watching videos by electricians that obviously don't understand the cables they are making or the importance of maintaining the twists. Great job

[raulcaraza]

What the heck is this? This is a clinic! This is a play by play! This is what You Tube is all about! Right down to end inspection of the cable. What an electronic masterpiece you have done. 👍

[ShainAndrews]

Place first pass of copper tape under the drain, then wrap over the top of the drain. Eliminates adhesive connectivity issues.

[z-man]

Novice here, looked at many videos before I found this one that actually makes sense and is so detailed. Great camera shots.

[Beevreeter]

Very thorough and meticulous work. Good job. I have seen RJ45 connectors with open ends so that the coloured pairs go right through the ends before crimping. This ensures excellent terminator seating, removes any measurement requirement for the stripped cables and reduces the chance of any error in cable order. After crimping the excess is simply snipped off with a side cutter.

[junbabera]

Great! The most polished connection of CAT6 and RJ45 video I've
ever seen.

[rpan]

Not only was very well explained, but the precise use of words made a lot of sense in understanding. Two thumbs up. 👍👍

[StanKrute]

Echoing everyone else: FANTASTIC video. Thanks so much. Hard to find anything else coming close to this level of clarity and correctness. Thanks SO much for putting this together.

[pikaskew]

Thanks for this video! The attention to detail on each step involved convinced me to buy a pre-terminated cable.

[paulhadley]

Fantastic, superb, spot on. I have been using RJ45s for years but the amount of times I have got one core swap as I push them in is so frustrating, especially on full length runs. This will save so much time overall on large jobs. All that walking backwards and forwards. Watched your video ordered ends and crimps straight away. Can’t wait to try these out.

[CJ-M]

People complaining about the music, but I found it helped me focus and chill while watching. Great instructional video!

[SuperWolfkin]

I've seen a lot of videos on networking and this is the first one to explain WHY most people use 568B instead of 568A

[SubdolphinX]

Nicely done. A lot of good technique demonstrated, with clear narratives.

[JimProng]

I don't do this stuff professionally, just for me, family & friends, so thanks for a great video. When it comes to preparing the conductors there are no shortcuts are there, just untwist and take the kinks out. I had to throw my crimper last week after spending a couple of hours wondering why I couldn't get a bit of kit to work. I've now invested on an RJ45 tester. Much easier than a multimeter and a couple of sockets!

[JakesMusicPalace]

Used Liberty for years, the company is very solid, with great product and tools make sure to check the bandwidth of the cable used usually written on the cable spool. I use a pro cable tester as another verification and slightly flex the cable near the ends for weak crimp areas while on the tester. The crimping tool especially the blades have a definite shorter life expectancy that you might think, replace blades frequently and the tool yearly if used daily. Copper tape rocks and will pass consultant spec in AV and Network wiring. Sure beats soldering shield to strain relief

[alant]

For sure one of the BETTER videos .... clear presentation.

[philipperostin]

I am either very lucky or very good, my first cat6A cable (15 meters, underground and façade run) with 2 brand new self installed rj45 shielded plugs, worked right away without any tester !

[Garth]

Great job ! Wiring up a building or small business office with 100+ computer stations must take weeks at this rate per RJ45.