solid vs stranded wire RJ45 crimp-on connectors

What a day … I’ve just learned something that should end years of anguish!

For years I’ve built my own ethernet cables, hundreds of them. From time to time I would struggle getting a reliable cable made, crimping on many connectors sometimes only to clip them off and try another before getting a reliable cable built.

Today a colleague taught me that there are two kinds of RJ45 crimp-on connectors and that when you try to use connectors designed for stranded wire but the cable is solid wire it is very difficult to build a reliable cable.

Sheesh! I can’t wait to toss my stranded wire connectors and get new ones that should work much better with my solid wire cable!

When buying connectors be sure to ask for the right ones.

When you view an unused RJ45 connector from the side the solid wire design has a single tip on the bottom of each contact to pierce the insulation to make contact when crimped and the stranded design has two piercing tips.

fyi

sudo vs psuedo

in a discussion to assist Dave Winer with super user access to enable configuration of Apache on Mac OS X here I posted the following … hoping to spread the word on one of my nit-picking peeves.

Samiq said, “remember to run as super user when doing some tasks by using the sudo command!”

Nicely said Samiq.

May I add that when one discusses the sudo command vocally, PLEASE pronounce it su (as in the first syllable of super) and do (to perform a task). I hear way to many people mispronounce it as pseudo (like the first two syllables of pseudonym).