RJ45 (8P8C) / etherCON pinout
RJ45 Pinout: T568A vs T568B
T568B, the common commercial standard, orders the wires white-orange, orange, white-green, blue, white-blue, green, white-brown, brown across pins 1 to 8 (clip away, contacts up, pin 1 left). T568A swaps the orange and green pairs. Both work identically; consistency end to end is what matters.
| Pin | Signal | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | TX+ (pair 2)White/orange (T568B) | Transmit + on 10/100; bidirectional pair A on gigabit. |
| 2 | TX− (pair 2)Orange | Transmit −. |
| 3 | RX+ (pair 3)White/green | Receive + on 10/100. |
| 4 | Pair 1Blue | Unused on 10/100; carries data on gigabit. |
| 5 | Pair 1White/blue | Unused on 10/100; data on gigabit. |
| 6 | RX− (pair 3)Green | Receive −. |
| 7 | Pair 4White/brown | Unused on 10/100; data on gigabit. |
| 8 | Pair 4Brown | Unused on 10/100; data on gigabit. |
What it’s used for
Ethernet is show infrastructure now: Dante and AES67 audio, sACN and Art-Net lighting data, NDI and ST 2110 video, console remote surfaces, and plain production networking all ride the same RJ45s and the same TIA-568 wiring.
etherCON is Neutrik’s ruggedized shell around a standard RJ45: same pinout, same cable, with a locking ring and strain relief that survives road cases. Chassis etherCON accepts bare RJ45 plugs; etherCON cable connectors need etherCON or open ports.
Wiring & termination notes
- Pick one standard per organization (most shops use T568B) and terminate everything to it; a cable with A on one end and B on the other is a crossover, which modern auto-MDIX equipment tolerates but humans debugging at 2 AM do not.
- Keep the untwist under 13 mm (half an inch) at the plug; gigabit and PoE care about pair geometry.
- PoE (802.3af/at/bt) delivers up to 15/30/90 W over the same pins; it powers access points, cameras, and Dante endpoints, and it is why you do not crimp cheap connectors on runs feeding powered devices.
- Solid-core cable wants punch-down or field-termination plugs rated for solid conductors; stranded patch cable wants standard crimp plugs. Mixing types is the classic intermittent.
Frequently asked questions
What is the T568B color order?
Pins 1 to 8: white-orange, orange, white-green, blue, white-blue, green, white-brown, brown, viewed with contacts up and the clip away, pin 1 on the left.
Should I use T568A or T568B?
Electrically identical; T568B dominates commercial AV and most shops standardize on it. What breaks networks is mixing standards within one cable, not the choice itself.
Do I still need crossover cables?
Effectively no: gigabit equipment auto-negotiates pair roles (auto-MDIX). Legacy 10/100-only devices talking directly to each other are the rare exception.