TL;DR: I am looking for good ways to stick flat Ethernet cable semi-permanently to ceilings/walls ideally suited to someone with no DIY expertise whatsoever
After successfully untwisting the very twisted Ethernet cable (thanks @Ecnerwal) I ran the cable to my room. However my parents were not keen on it being on the floor as it posed a tripping hazard. So I used a lot of sticky tape to tape the cable from the router all the way to my room via various walls and ceilings.
This worked well for about a day or so before the sticky tape became not-so-sticky and the cable started to droop and fall off in places. I attach photos:
So I'm looking for a slightly more permanent solution here. I know there are some U-shaped panel thingies (can you tell I'm a seasoned DIY professional??) that might work if I can figure out how to stick them to the walls.
Best Answer
The problem with almost any adhesive is that the longer it stays on, the more likely it is to either fall off when you don't want it to fall off, or stay on when you don't want it to (typically this means "top layer of paint comes off with the tape"). Aesthetic considerations may not be an issue right now (when I was a kid, I definitely ran wires around in unattractive ways, though not Ethernet, that wasn't an option at the time), but a "temporary" wire hanging around is less troublesome than peeled patches of paint.
My recommendation is cable clips/staples. There are plenty of varieties, but generally something like this:
There are some with a single nail and some with two nails. For Ethernet (and similar), a single nail is strong enough. If the main part is white and you switched to a white Ethernet cable then the whole thing would come pretty close to "background noise" on a white wall. But if you don't care about the look, stick with the existing cable, it is just fine.
I definitely advise against switching to WiFi as others have suggested. Nothing beats a wired connection.