Home Is Home: The Physical Practicalities - Smart Home Automation with Linux and Raspberry Pi - page 145

If you read the hardware catalogs, you will see two types of Cat5 cable listed: solid core and stranded, with the
solid cores being used for in-wall installations and the stranded variety being used for patch cables, as it's more
flexible. In reality, however, making your own patch cables is rarely done because they're so cheap and more trouble
than they're worth.

N Note Pull the longest cable runs first from the drum. What's left will suffice for shorter runs between machines and routers.

Once the cables are laid, you should terminate on each end with a socket, such as the one shown in Figure 4-2 .

Figure 4-2. A typical network point. I needed to make a separate hole in this one to eliminate a sharp cable bend

You can then use patch cables to connect from the socket to the device. (Connecting an in-wall cable directly to
a plug is asking for trouble, as it's likely to move and be pulled more often, which can break the plug connection at the
other end.)
In my installation, the cables running from each socket are color-coded as follows:

u Blue : Any cable that goes from a wall socket to a switch or router

u Gray : For connecting devices—computers, media units, and so on—in the local area

u Red : Temporary devices, such as laptops

You might decide on a different color scheme, but the idea still stands because it lets you know whether the cable
can be safely removed if you need to rewire or borrow a cable.