RJ45's et.al.
Hi, I know nothing about pc networking but I spent 10yrs with a network cable/patch equipment manufacturer and learned a lot about plugs, jacks and tooling
1) Not all RJ45 plugs are the same! The quality varies wildly. The guys in the lab used to have to make up 20 or 30 connectors to get one that was on the line for "at the limit" testing. I agree the average home user won't be incommoded, yet! But as Gbit works through some folks will come a cropper!
I have found our polycarbonate plugs to be VERY robust, far better that say, USB, tread on that and bye bye! Maybe UK supplies are better?
Yup, the latch can catch but as someone said you can get boots to stop this, there is also a clever plug design that overcomes it.
N. very B. You should not mix plugs for patch cables for those for solid wire. The contacts are different and you will get poor and int' contact.
You should not really put plugs on solid but I know it is done.
My old company used the AMP termination tool (RS no 250-3539) and they did Thousands of terms' a year. Yes they wore out eventually but I do not think a home bod is going to do it! By the way, keep the tool CLEAN take out the dieset every 100 crimps or so, wash the tool and set in WD40, drain and serve.
Lastly, if you are doing more than a very few cables, invest in a tester, the wee yellow thing from "test um" is handy but even better is an Alpha Tester,
Dave