Color Code for CAT 5 Cable

The CAT-5 is a standard cable which has four twisted pairs of colors. It is easy to crimp a RJ45 connector to CAT-5 cable and make it into a straight cable or cross the cable as required. To make a straight cable, the ends must be crimped in the same way at each end. When making a crossover cable, some wires of certain colors have to be reversed.

CAT-5 cable is usually divided into 4 twisted pairs of colors:

Orange / orange-white
Green / green-white
Blue / white and blue
Brown / brown-white

Straight Cable Color Code

To make a straight cable, the tips must be crimped typically the same way attach end by respecting the twisted pair size.

In general, the color code used is:
1) orange-white
2) orange
3) green-white
4) Blue
5) blue-white
6) Green
7) brown-white
8) brown

Crossover Cable Color Code

For a crossover cable, swap 1 with 3, and 2 with 6, in the list above. This gives:
1) green-white
2) green
3) orange and white
4) Blue
5) blue-white
6) orange
7) brown-white
8) brown