ethernet cable type

[epylko]

For the distances and speed, you'll be fine with any Cat5 cable or better (5e, 6, 6a) etc. Make sure they have some strain relief at the connectors to alleviate the twisting/pulling where the cable goes into the connector.

You should be getting stranded cable, not solid. Solid is generally used in buildings to go from wiring closet to the jacks in offices/cubes/walls. It's more unwieldy than the stranded too. If you're going to make your own cables, make sure you get the right connectors for the type of cable you're buying.

Finally, almost all equipment can auto-sense if it needs to be a crossover cable or not (MDI or MDI-X). I would probably NOT buy crossover cables. You can always put in a small DLink/Linksys/Netgear switch between your devices and then you won't have to worry about the crossover cable.