Network Cable Color Codes

Although wireless technology has improved over the past couple of years. Cables still hold their position in any network.

A network cable consist of 4 twisted pair cables. Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) and Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) are the two most common types of cables.

The only important wires in a 4 pair cable are at the position 1,2,3 and 6.

If both the ends of a cable has the same color category at the positions: 1,2,3 and 6 it is called a straight through cable.

Swapping the wire at position 1 with wire at position 3 and the wire at position 2 with the wire at position 6 will make it a cross over cable.

Straight cables are used to connect non similar devices. For example: A PC to a Switch, A router to a Switch, etc.

Cross cables are used to connect similar deviced, For example, two PCs, Router to Router etc.

To standardize the way the cables were positioned, the TIA/EIA introduced a color coding scheme. There are 2 color coding scheme available:

T568A:

WhiteGreen - Green - WhiteOrange - Blue - WhiteBlue - Orange - WhiteBrown - Brown

T568B:

WhiteOrange - Orange - WhiteGreen - Blue - WhiteBlue - Green - WhiteBrown - Brown