ethernet cable type

[bdaroz]

Originally Posted by epylko

Make sure they have some strain relief at the connectors to alleviate the twisting/pulling where the cable goes into the connector.

This is probably the most important item. I'm not generally a fan of the plastic boots on the ends of the cables, but if they help provide some modicum of strain relief I would use them here as well.

[rich2202]

You want straight through cables. Rarely have I ever needed a crossover cable.

You want stranded cable. Solid cable is good when the wire NEVER moves. Stranded is good for wire that has to flex. With flexing, the solid cable will break (internally) a lot sooner.

Solid wire is one thick piece of wire. Stranded is lots of thin wire wound together. Solid has less "resistance", but because of its thickness, it breaks easily if it is flexed too much. Thin wire has a lot more "give", and can survive a lot of flexing. Also, if one strand breaks, the other intact strands can spread the load across the gap. Not so with a solid wire.

[Philip Arola]

The consensus here is right, you want stranded non-crossover. Most important with the driver laptop is to make sure the plugs themselves have solid clips and good strain relief. That's the primary point of failure in my/my team's experience.

[GreyingJay]

Agreed. Stranded cable, any CAT5/5e/6 designation is fine (we're not pushing huge amounts of data down these cables).

Strain relief, and those plastic "hoods", are good. We keep breaking the little tabs off our (non-hooded) cables. It's easy to do when the cables snag on things, or when tethered at a practice field and you don't quite give it enough slack.

I own an RJ45 crimping tool so I think we'll just cut the broken ends off the cables and make new ones. This could be a worthy investment if you find yourself replacing cables a lot.

Finally, I like to buy from Monoprice.com. Great prices.

[Bruceb]

Thank you all very much
Have any of your ordered from http://www.showmecables.com/custom-cable.aspx
??

[Philip Arola]

Originally Posted by Bruceb

Thank you all very much
Have any of your ordered from http://www.showmecables.com/custom-cable.aspx
??

Never heard of them before. Generally if build quality is of paramount importance then I buy in person to gauge quality myself.

[MrRoboSteve]

Some teams remove the clip on both ends of the tether on purpose, to save the more expensive equipment it's attached to.