OT: Help Wiring Ethernet

[Aaron Vegh]

Hi there!
I've just moved into a new home. Now I'm trying to run Ethernet into  
my office. It's Cat 5e purchased at Home Depot, $25 for a roll of  
100m. I also purchased a wire cutting and crimping tool, which came  
with a selection of RJ-45 and RJ-15 jacks. Finally, I purchased two  
Cat 5e jacks, which will be mounted in a matching wall plate. Sounds  
good, but the trick's in the implementation...

On one end of my initial run, I've got the (female) jack. It's a  
Leviton Multi-Use (data, phone) Cat 5e Jack that has an 8-port  
terminal on the back. I strip and split out the ethernet to the eight  
wires, and using the included termination tool, snap them into the  
connectors.

On the other end, I have a standard RJ-45 plug (male). This is a lot  
harder to wire: you have to manually line up the wires in the correct  
order, feed them into the plug, and then crimp it with the crimping  
tool. It's hard to tell if you have got the wires in the right order,  
and whether they've been crimped so the wires are in contact with the  
terminal.

There's also the issue of which wiring scheme to use. T568A is  
recommended by a site I visited, whereas T568B is used only by AT&T  
for some reason. So I tried the "A" layout, didn't get it to work, and  
realized that every Ethernet cable I have is wired using the "B" spec.

So, after re-wiring my cable, I plugged it in and.... NOTHING!

I don't have a continuity tester. I don't know if I made an error on  
the jack end, plug end, or both. My big problem is I don't know what  
to try next. Hence my message to this list. There's gotta be a crowd  
of you here who do this all the time. Can you provide advice on what  
to look at? Let me know if my methodology is flawed? What's my next  
step?

Thanks,
Aaron.
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