How to wire up a RJ45 socket with cat-5 cable?

Wiring up an Ethernet socket is very similar to wiring up a cable itself, the order of the wires is the same, the method of wiring them is slightly different, dependent on your socket.

The image below shows the 2 standard configurations for cat 5(and 6). A crossover cable (for directly connecting 2 PC's) would have one end of type A and on of type B, a normal straight through cable, from switch to PC, would have both the same type. You need to ensure that all your cables use the same type through out, either A or B.

Once decided, you would wire up your sockets in the same order as you would your cables. Most sockets have markers indicating which PIN number goes where, so just make sure you follow the order in your chosen layout and they will work fine.

Take a look at the Wikipedia page about Category 5 cables.

The picture there shows nicely how to connect it. Make sure you have the same standard (A or B) at both ends. :-)

How much is "some" cable?

If it's for a company, the time spent learning and making mistakes can more than pay for an hour or two of a professional's time.

I wired up a few network drops in my day (10 base T anyone?). I'm still amazed when a true pro comes in and can punch and test 48 connections in a half day. It's neat and tidy. Now when our network guys start running patch cables... THAT gets messy, but they had a clean slate to start with.