Cables

[retired123]

Dumb question of the day.
I bought this cable a few months ago and used it to connect my modem/router to my desktop pc.
The cable is 75 feet long. I didn?t need the full length.
As a result there is a lot of excess cable laying around. I want to cut the cable and re-terminate it.
Is the cable solid or stranded wire?
Here is a link to the web site for the cable.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16812270083
I checked the manufacturers web site and it doesn?t say if it is solid or stranded wire.

What type of rj45 plug should I use?

 

[skyking]

If it is a premade patch cable it is most likely a stranded cable. Reterminating it is not a good idea, if it works now.

 

[kevnich2]

Pre-made cable is usually stranded as it's not in the wall cable. Difference between solid and stranded depends on what it'll be used for. If the wire is in the wall, it'll never be moved after it's in, so it can be solid as it won't be bending & re-bending (this is what causes the metal core to break). Where with pre-made patch cables, they have stranded cores due them being moved, unplugged moved again, bent in different ways, etc, being several strands, one or two could break and it won't cause problems. Like Skyking said, cutting the ends off those isn't a good idea. I would suggest measuring how much you actually need and buy another cable of that length.

 

[Eug]

I've reterminated patch cables many times. No probs.

What type of rj45 plug should I use

The RJ45 plugs I bought are claimed to be OK for both solid and stranded. My guess is that they're probably not the best for either, but I've been using them anyway for both solid and stranded. Works fine. iperf tells me I'm getting 895 Mbps.

I figure since I'm not running a data centre, such compromises are OK. This is esp. true for patch cables. If you have a problem with your termination you can just do it again. Your bank's public server isn't depending on your patch cables so who cares. If I have the tools and RJ45 plugs already, I'd rather reterminate a 75 foot patch cable and make 5 perfectly sized cables than have to go out and buy 5 new cables.

 

[JackMDS]

retired123, Welcome to AnandTech Forums.

Short patches use stranded.

Reason: Stranded is more flexible thus short run that are plugged and unpluged, and move around hold better.

Long static runs (like in the wall installation) use solid.

Reason: Solid has a better retaining of signal over distance.

Solid do best when terminated into Keystones jacks.

http://www.ezlan.net/CAT.html