Rugged would be Mil spec, which screw together. How much? Don’t ask + they won’t fit on the camera housing anyway.

New ready made cables don’t cost so much. the connection should still be reliable  as long as the cord has slack, so get some a metre longer than the ones you have.

I’m with the idea of having the weak point on the cable, rather than the socket on a camera.
RJ45 crimpers aren’t expensive these days, and the plastic plugs are cheap enough; on some of my home installations, I do fit strain relief boots, which include a raised bit to protect the end of the locking lever, and prevent it getting bent back.
This also allows for colour coding of cables.
They are easy to find from the search term, and cheap.
For stripping the outer, I find the clothes peg type strippers ideal; again cheap if you search for the right item, or feindishly expensive if you only look for fibre opic ones.

Personally I prefer the one piece plastic RJ45s, rather than the ones with a separate comb for the wires.
The latter might be OK if you only have a few to replace, but I was sometimes doing hundreds at a time.
Basic continuity testers aren’t expensive either these days, though mine came from Maplin.

For cutting the 8 wire ends square, I used to prefer a ribbon cable cutter, but someone nicked mine.
The plastic pipe cutters from Lidl/Aldi with the insert Stanley knife blade work well, as they don’t crush the wire ends, but your fingers are very close to the sharp bits, so either make a safety shield, or keep them locked away.

Bill

Having been it IT ever since RJ45 plugs first appeared I have never seen any without plastic tags. You can either use plastic shrouds to cover the plug and its tag or you can get plugs with an inbuilt  cover just over the tag. If you are continually assembling/disassembling then you have to get use to tags eventually failing and having to fit new plugs

Colin

I am wondering if a female to female RJ45 connector used in conjunction with a short (150mm) male to male flylead would alleviate the issue. Make up some spare flyleads and put in the box with the equipment Then, if the extreme end that goes into the wall becomes u/s just employ a careful person to change the flylead.

If you can sleeve the connector, it will stop people accidently unplugging at the wrong joint but still allow proper access for the ‘service technician’.

I would recommend the pass through RJ45 plugs, where the wires go all the way through the plug and project, to be trimmed after crimping (for example Screwfix 7915X).

Make sure the cable gauge matches the plug, Cat wire thicknesses vary between 23 to 28awg and fitting an rj45 meant for larger cable gauges may not give a reliable connection on a smaller gauge cable