I had a job crimping lotsa RJ45 "ice cubes". 1) use GOOD TOOLS. I prefer the Tyco/Amp RJ45 Die Crimp Tool for Cat5. It punches down all the connectors equally, unlike a hinged tool. The cutter would be perfect if it had a depth/length gauge. Cut too short and the wires don't go all the way into the connector. Too long and the strain relief won't work. I find a clothes-pin style jacket stripper is just fine. 2) Put on the rubber boot FIRST! What color? That's up to you! If you get the pretty pink ones, that means I really like you :-) 3) My way of handling EIA/TIA-T568B - spread out the 4 pairs like a star - untwist each pair using the removed jacket like a straw around one wire - flatten the wires using something smooth like needle nose pliers or a metal bar - work with pairs, not individual wires - due to the center pairs being intertwined, I start from the center and work outwards: + start with the BLUE pair, solid to the LEFT + put the GREEN pair AROUND it, solid to the RIGHT + ORANGE pair to the LEFT + BROWN pair to the RIGHT - check the wires: SOLID colors always ALTERNATE with striped wires - insert into the "ice cube" connector - check the colors. again. - check all wires touch the end - check the jacket is inserted as far as possible, so the strain relief works - THEN crimp - test the cable with a cable tester. Really nice cable testers have multiple remote ends to identify up to 4 cables, and have a TDR (time domain reflectometer) to measure the cable length.

Include 10-base-2 for those who want to recreate that style of networking.

Including wire-splinters from the braid? No thank you :-0 And that opens up the can-of-worms: twist-on connector vs. crimp everything.

You could also include building serial cables (9 and 25 pin) both straight through and null-modem.

Too many variations: - ribbon cable, crimp pins vs. solder cup - there are several null modem variations, as well as cheating (only 3 wires) fondly, Jeff Jonas