To terminate a twisted-pair cable with an RJ-45 plug, there are three tools required. A wire cutter, wire stripper, and a crimping tool are all needed to perform this task properly. A wire cutter will be used for cutting the wire to specifically required lengths. A wire cutter offers a sharper cutting edge and the ability to reduce a much thicker object. To separate the coating on a wire to expose the wire underneath it a wire stripper is used. A wire stripper exposes the wire by removing the insulation material that protects it. Then, a crimping tool can be used to conjoin two pieces of metal by deforming them in a way that causes them to hold each other. With these tools and the knowledge of how to correctly use them, terminating a twisted-pair cable with an RJ-45 plug should be a generally simple task.

There are nine steps to follow for this task. The first step is to use the crimping tool to trim the end of the cable you are terminating. This ensures that the ends of the wires are even which makes future steps much easier. Next, the wires must be stripped using the wire stripper, exposing about an inch of the cable’s inner wire. On step three, one must separate the twisted wire pairs from each other and then unwind them. Straightening and flattening out the separate wires will help ensure a proper connection for later steps. Next, for set four, we would arrange the sires in the following order: solid orange, white/green, white/orange, solid blue, white/blue, solid green, white/brown, and finally solid brown. After that is completed, we would then proceed to step five which is inserting the RJ-45 connector onto the wires. Step six would be simply making sure that all the wire ends are in the correct order when attaching to the connector. Step seven is where we would use the crimping tool. This is done by inserting the tool into the RJ-45 slot on the crimper and firmly squeezing. Next, we must trim the wire ends on the connector for step eight to be completed. Finally, step nine requires the same process as before on the opposite end of the cable.

The wire stripper I have selected will serve as a wire cutter as well.