I spent a Sunday a couple of weeks back rewiring a couple of rooms at home with Cat 5 cabling. Mostly just moving the cables from one outlet to another.
Some things I learned…
1. Making ethernet patch cables is easy: Get bulk cable and use the wiring schema from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_5e and some of these linked sites:
* http://www.incentre.net/incentre/frame/ethernet.html
* http://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/ethernetcables.html
2. Radio shack has cheap pushdown tools and RJ45 Ends. (less than $5 each)
3. Of all the places I looked at, Home Depot has the cheapest crimping tool – a $20 tool that includes a wire stripper.