Ethernet cabling

[mointainwalker]

Hello there, hoping for some help with this problem in my first post on this forum.

A while back I hard-wired part of my house for Internet and crimped my plugs/wired wall-sockets with no great problem. Now that I have tried to install another circuit, I am having significant signal failures and on researching a little (more than initially ) I find that it can be important whether you are using solid or stranded cable.Mine is stranded and when I was looking to purchase it, was only concerned about shielding/twisting as I didn't know about the solid/stranded issue when connecting.

I also don't know if my connectors are for solid or stranded cable as it isn't mentioned on the packet and I can't use a tip I found on the Net about looking at the shape of the pins, because the connectors have metal side-pieces, so cannot check that way. Any other possibilities ?

My questions are therefore:

1) Is it possible to say if the fault is more likely - from the technology used -to be at the connector or wall-socket end ?

2)I have tried simple "solutions" such as recrimping the connector and ensuring that the wires are fully punched down in the wall-socket - any other suggestions ?

Thank you.

 

[bernardgreen]

the wires are fully punched down in the wall-socket

punch down socket connectors will fail when stranded conductors are used.

 

[mointainwalker]

Thanks Bernard, however when you write
[/QUOTE]
punch down socket connectors will fail when stranded conductors are used.[/QUOTE]

do you mean, will fail eventually or what ? I ask because the other interpretation is that they will fail immediately, however as I wrote initially, my initial connection - now 10 months old - works perfectly although I took no special care when making connections, because I was unaware of needing solid cable with punch-down connectors.

Since there are only a small number of connections to deal with, might a solution be to strip off the sleeve and put a drop of solder on the wires to make them similar to "solid" ? Any other ideas gratefully received .

 

[rsgaz]

Any other ideas gratefully received

Crimp a plug onto the cable inside the back box and plug it into the rear of a "jack to jack" outlet.

Gaz

 

[bernardgreen]

Some will fail immediately. some will last for years. The forks of the connector cut through the insulation and into the surface of solid copper core. This results is a cold weld between the conductor and the forked. The solid core is held rigidly wedged between the forks. When stranded wire is punched down into the fork the forks may cut the insulation of some of the strands and may then contact with the metal. The strands however are not held rigidly in the forks in the same way as a solid core is held. When the tool is removed and the pressure compressing the strands is removed then the strand move apart and pressure against the forks is removed.

Soldering stranded conductors before punching them down into an IDC connector can extend the time before failure but the connection is seldom a good cold weld between fork and conductor.

 

[mointainwalker]

Thank you both for your replies. I will look up "cold-weld", Benard, as it is something I am not familiar with.

Gaz, would it be possible to give me a link to the part you show, as I would like to plug the replacement into the face-plate, however all the parts I have turned up - possibly due to using wrong terminolgy - are variants of in-line connectors.

 

[rsgaz]

Gaz, would it be possible to give me a link to the part you show

Sure, two of these...

http://www.cmsplc.com/structured-wiring/jacks-adaptors/jack-to-jack-cat5e-utpmodule.html

...clip into a faceplate (ASFP01)...

http://www.cmsplc.com/hellermanntyton-alpha-snap-faceplates-and-blank-inserts.html

...or you clip in a full blank and single module if it's only a single outlet.

Those jack to jack modules need a pretty deep box, so you'll probably want the bevelled faceplates in the above link because they bring the modules forward, but there are flat ones available also.

Gaz