I'm running a few Cat5s through my crawlspace for my small network, and have a dumb question (I even have a special "Trailer floor drill" that will go right from the carpet through to the I-beams beneath.)
Do you guys prefer stranded or solid Cat5? I'm punching it into wall jacks, if that makes any difference to you. Also, how would you secure the cables underneath a singlewide trailer? Drill clips into the beams?

Thanks,
Ian A.

Solid wire, beam clamps and bridle rings for securing the wire.

[This message has been edited by LoneGunman (edited 09-24-2006).]

The biggest thing is not to "bruise" the cable and maintain the twists in the boxes right up to the punchdowns. If you look at the signal on a scope you can see the place where you pinch (bruise) the cable as a disruption in the signal. If you tied a knot in it there would be a big bump.
Back in the olden days we used a scope for TDR and you can see every connector, transition and damaged area as bumps in the signal.

Any wire you "punch down" HAS to be solid because that is what the block or jack is designed for. Stranded wire is for fabricating patch cords with plugs on each end.

-Hal

Thanks guys.

Ian A.

I agree with the previous statements, and want to mention that Cat5 really doesn't like to be bent with less than a 1" radius- it causes the pinching problem. Oh, and try and avoid electric boxes (AC) if possible, it occasionally causes odd problems. Good luck with the project!

I'm definitely with Hal on this one.
There is no way that you can punch down stranded wire into a block.

Definitely. If you try to use stranded on the IDC connectors you'll just end up with lots of bad connections to troubleshoot.