I’ve been having another go at learning to wire up ethernet cable, specifically CAT6 cable. I’d previously tried CAT5 years ago and gave up as I was useless at it. Well turns out one of my line testers was knackered, so maybe I wasn’t so bad at it after all?!

Also I found this video which shows how to unwind the conductors using the spare bit of sheath that you’ve just removed - it really does the job and saves your poor fingers:

So I started off yesterday and made one successful cable out of six attempts, then today after watching the video I made two out of two - mainly as the wires were straight enough to properly fit into the load bar (and I think the load bar actually helps). I also found that using my simple old crimpers worked better than the fancy ratchet ones.

I bought some decent electrician’s scissors as I didn’t want to abuse my tin snips and nothing else (sidecutters, pliers, Swiss Army knife!) would cut easily enough. These boots are pretty good too, the old style not the new ones with the “ears”, and these CAT6 ends with load bars.

If you have a 3D printer then these ethernet protectors are worth a print, they work in combination with the boots to prevent the ends snagging. Very useful if you need to throw network cables in a rucksack regularly.