Thanks. As an EE & Comp. Prof., I think too deep than is necessary for the problem at hand. I used to get things done by students and techs but as a Prof. Emeritus, I got to do things on my own now.
Anyway, I liked your chicken termination analogy!
Fenderman:
I was looking at one article on termination (http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Terminate-CAT-5-Cable-With-An-RJ-45-Connect/?ALLSTEPS) since you mentioned it. It looks like he is just talking about making the RJ45 cable from raw CAT 5 cable and not real termination in the sense of...