Where is RJ-45?

Whew. I have to admit I hate attending make-up classes because most of the time, if not all the time, they're boring. I also hate waking up early on Saturdays because it's my me-time. It's the time when I stay in bed almost whole morning and just get up when I want to eat and take a bath. It's been two Saturdays now that we've been having make-up classes for our Computer Networks subject. Even though this is what I want to Major in IT, it's not an exception when it comes to taking away my me-time. It's not that boring though compared to Bio classes but still..

Well, still, I had to deal with it.

Today's class was very frustrating. We had to crimp three UTP (unshielded twisted pair) cables for our hands-on exam. Yesterday, I was pretty excited for this. But dang, I didn't know it would be hard and FRUSTRATING!! No wonder Network Technicians get paid Php1000 for crimping just one cable. hahaha! It's hard aligning those color-coded copper wires to the slots of the RJ-45. When you cut it, it's straight but when you put it in the RJ-45, some wires fit and some are too short to reach the end of the jack. So what you're gonna do is to cut it again. I guess, my one-meter cable lost 1/4 of its length because I couldn't do it right. Phew. Such a clutz. Good thing I'm not the only one. hahaha! A lot of us were whining. After you align the color-coded wires correctly, you'll crimp it and viola, - a crimped UTP cable. But it's not yet ready to use for connecting your networking devices, you still need to test it. And when it fails to function using the tester, you'll have to do it again - cut a portion of the cable that is connected to the RJ-45 and bye bye RJ-45, you're now a garbage! We were only provided 6 RJ-45s, just enough for making 3 cables - the straight-thru, the crossover, and the rollover cables. So... saying bye-bye to an RJ-45 is really painful. hahaha!


It was a busy afternoon. We were like busy buzzing bees packed in the inadequately air-conditioned classroom. Everywhere you go in the room, you'll hear people saying, "where's the stripper?" or exclaiming, "hey, who took the scissors??" But what'll really sting your ears would be, "Oh, no. Where's my RJ-45???" Well, goodluck with that. hahaha

I actually lost my other cable. I only finished the straight-thru with my friends to rescue me in the midst of my frustrated state. And until now, my thumb still hurts for pushing the wires just to fit it into that RJ-45. Good thing our teacher said that submitting one working cable would be fine. I was saved!