Topic: T568A vs T568B? Cross-over vs Straight?

[NJAntman]

So, I'm about to merrily go down the road of building a home network from the ground up. But first a few questions..

My first decision. I've got Cat5E cable through the walls and into outlet boxes but I have to decide how to attach the connectors. Which is better: T568A vs T568B?

Next: Cross-over vs Straight? Seems like all the patch cables I see are straight, so why would anyone need to make a cross-over?

Finally: Seen it mentioned several times not to extend Newtwork cable outside of the house or it will become a lightning rod. I was thinking of having about a foot of network cable poke through a roof soffet to attch to a network camera hanging under the soffet. Bad idea?

[Nemesis]

Next: Cross-over vs Straight? Seems like all the patch cables I see are straight, so why would anyone need to make a cross-over?

Crossover cables are to allow connecting network card to network card without a switch, hub or router in between. Essentially it is only used to allow two computers to temporarily network without a lot of extraneous hardware.

I'll leave the rest for those more knowledgeable.

[Just plain old Punisher]

So, I'm about to merrily go down the road of building a home network from the ground up. But first a few questions..

My first decision. I've got Cat5E cable through the walls and into outlet boxes but I have to decide how to attach the connectors. Which is better: T568A vs T568B?

Next: Cross-over vs Straight? Seems like all the patch cables I see are straight, so why would anyone need to make a cross-over?

Finally: Seen it mentioned several times not to extend Newtwork cable outside of the house or it will become a lightning rod. I was thinking of having about a foot of network cable poke through a roof soffet to attch to a network camera hanging under the soffet. Bad idea?

Put your network cable in conduit if its going outside. Remember, standard CAT5 isn't rated for outside use.