How to Terminate Network Cables

[asalcedo]

here it is:

[TheScullster]

Thanks to all respondents The Lanshack site is excellent

Phil

[Dave Liquorice]

But why bother getting fixed wiring beggering about putting plugs on each end when you buy a ready made cable for less than the cost of your time putting the ends on? Not to mention the cost of the crimper and ends...

Why does fixed wiring *have* to be solid core. Patch leads are only stranded so the cores don't break under repeated flexing but AFAIK the spec is as near as damn it the same, certainly over the distances we are talking about.

[Owain]

Because if you use ready-made cables you have to make RJ45-sized holes in the walls to pass them through.

Owain

[Dave Liquorice]

Grasping at straws... B-)

If your going to drill a hole you may as well make sure it's the only time your going to do it. ie make it big enough to get a number of cables through rather than end up with a row of little ones... 20 to

25mm should be fine.

[Rick]

Thats exactly what I did. I used the solid core cable in the cable runs in the walls, which is the correct stuff, but the plugs are designed for the stranded cable. You can get them to work, but it may take a few goes. I just purchased a manual crimp tool from Maplins. The chances of doing this without the crimp tool are slim, and they cost less than a tenner.

If your gonna be trying to run this at the top speeds (1G or more) you are gonna need to take considerable care. for 100Meg its easy enough.

Rick

[Rob Morley]

So why didn't you get the correct plugs?

[RichardS]

Well, you don't need to go the whole modular wiring patch-panel-in-a-cabinet hog - there is a middle way here - couple of face plates on surface or flush mounting boxes (depending upon your situation up there).

You can then clip the cable runs out of harms way, all you need is a krone-type IDC punchdown tool, and you don't need to worry about solid/stranded cable 'cos the faceplates are generally designed for solid. Hassle-wise I'd say couple of punchdown connections is an awful lot less fiddly then crimping RJ45 plugs onto cable, and the faceplates are only a couple of quid each tops. Patch cables are cheap as chips (for reasonable lengths).

[Rick]

I didn't know there were plugs for solid strands - you live & learn.

[TheScullster]

snip....

Thanks Richard - obvious really (but not) if you know what I mean. A few RJ45 faceplates is the way to go!

Phil

[Bob Eager]

Two will suffice - you can get 'four outlet' faceplates...will keep it neat.

[Hamie]

Yes. B&Q sell them AFAIR. But it's probably cheaper (i.e. no crimp tool) if you just buy a single port face plate, single RJ45 socket & a krone tool. Then a 1m patch cable for between the socket & the switch.

H