Category-5 cable is what you use to wire an
Ethernet network. Also known as 10BaseT/100BaseTX cable. Think of it as
telephone wire on steroids. Sure, it's got the same
twisted-pair concept behind it, but the material is of far greater quality, and more pairs are used for a connection (4 pairs for Ethernet, as opposed to one pair for one telephone line.)
AFAIK, there's two different methodologies here-
568A wiring layout
|white-green |-
|green |-
cable |white-orange |-
------|blue |- contacts
------|white-blue |-
|orange |-
|white-brown |-
|brown |-
568B wiring layout
|white-orange |-
|orange |-
cable |white-green |-
------|blue |- contacts
------|white-blue |-
|green |-
|white-brown |-
|brown |-
Both 568A and 568B are wired the same way on both ends.
And of course, because we'll all need it someday:
Crossover (for connecting two machines without using an ethernet hub)
wiring layout- one end
|white-orange |-
|orange |-
cable |white-green |-
------|blue |- contacts
------|white-blue |-
|green |-
|white-brown |-
|brown |-
other end
|white-green |-
|green |-
cable |white-orange |-
------|blue |- contacts
------|white-blue |-
|orange |-
|white-brown |-
|brown |-