[SOLVED] Can I terminate a cat7 cable to a 6 patch panel?

[Tompaul23]

Hi,
Basically I got given a reel of cat7 cable and I've got a cat6 patch panel. To save money I'd like to run the cat7 cable round my house and terminate in each room (maybe with a cat6a keystone module?). Then the other end terminate in a cat6 patch panel. I understand I won't get the benefits of cat7 as il be using cat6 ends but wanted to know if this will work?

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Tom.

 

[Lutfij]

See if this thread helps.

 

[bill001g]

It is actually much worse than you think. BUT it doesn't matter since cat6a and cat7 can both run 10g. You just have effectively made your cat7 cables cat6a. The difference between cat6 and cat6a is in the cables the jacks are the same. Cat7 jacks have a metal ground tab on them.

First Cat7 was never fully certified and the shielding provides little to no benefit especially to home users. The primary difference is the fancy shielding. Problem is to be correctly installed that shileding on both ends must be connected to a ground. Now this must be a dedicated ground wire not the same one as your power since the power can inject noise. So now in addition to ethernet cable you must have a heavy copper ground run to each location. That is impractical in anything other than a data center where they run a ground to each rack.

If you do not ground cat7 cable properly the shield will actually act as a antenna and pick up interference. BUT this is the mythical interference that doesn't really exist except in heavy industrial manufacturing so it makes no difference since you didn't need the shield in the first place.

If you have not purchased the cable just use normal unshielded cat6a. It is so much easier to work with and you will still get 10gbit

 

[Tompaul23]

See if this thread helps.

Thank you for this - most helpful.

 

[Tompaul23]

Additional question, more for clarification really.. So il be using keystone jack's for the wall ports but the other end at the patch panel I have the style that requires the punch down tool. Will I be able to punch the cable down and still create a sound connection? Or would it be better to install keystone wall ports? (I only need about 6 runs so should be fine to add wall ports at the 'patch' end. Just trying to make use of the materials I have and save money 😆).

Also, I've read in many places that it needs to be ground.. As I'm not worried about the cat7 'spec' do I still need to to ground it?

 

[Tompaul23]

It is actually much worse than you think. BUT it doesn't matter since cat6a and cat7 can both run 10g. You just have effectively made your cat7 cables cat6a. The difference between cat6 and cat6a is in the cables the jacks are the same. Cat7 jacks have a metal ground tab on them.

First Cat7 was never fully certified and the shielding provides little to no benefit especially to home users. The primary difference is the fancy shielding. Problem is to be correctly installed that shileding on both ends must be connected to a ground. Now this must be a dedicated ground wire not the same one as your power since the power can inject noise. So now in addition to ethernet cable you must have a heavy copper ground run to each location. That is impractical in anything other than a data center where they run a ground to each rack.

If you do not ground cat7 cable properly the shield will actually act as a antenna and pick up interference. BUT this is the mythical interference that doesn't really exist except in heavy industrial manufacturing so it makes no difference since you didn't need the shield in the first place.

If you have not purchased the cable just use normal unshielded cat6a. It is so much easier to work with and you will still get 10gbit

Thank you

 

[bill001g]

There really is no difference between a patch panel and a wall jack. They sell face plates with 8 jacks in them.

Most the difference is that the keystones in a wall jack are removable where the ones in patch panels are molded into the device. Some patch panels though use the same keystones as wall jacks.

The wires themselves are the same it is the way they are twisted and arranged in the cable itself that makes the difference. You have to be very careful to only untwist the very minimum when you punch them down. This has been true even for cat5e cable.

On the ground it is yes and no answer. It is simpler if you do not have the shield in the first place.

When you have shielded cable you must ground the shield or it acts as a antenna. This means using shielded cable that is ungrounded will actually make the cable worse than if the cable did not have a shield at all. So yes it needs to be grounded. The reason it is also no it doesn't is because there is no signal for the shield to pick up as a antenna in the first place. So because there is no interfering signal the not grounded shield can't make it worse because it never existed in the first place.

 

[Tompaul23]

There really is no difference between a patch panel and a wall jack. They sell face plates with 8 jacks in them.

Most the difference is that the keystones in a wall jack are removable where the ones in patch panels are molded into the device. Some patch panels though use the same keystones as wall jacks.

The wires themselves are the same it is the way they are twisted and arranged in the cable itself that makes the difference. You have to be very careful to only untwist the very minimum when you punch them down. This has been true even for cat5e cable.

On the ground it is yes and no answer. It is simpler if you do not have the shield in the first place.

When you have shielded cable you must ground the shield or it acts as a antenna. This means using shielded cable that is ungrounded will actually make the cable worse than if the cable did not have a shield at all. So yes it needs to be grounded. The reason it is also no it doesn't is because there is no signal for the shield to pick up as a antenna in the first place. So because there is no interfering signal the not grounded shield can't make it worse because it never existed in the first place.

That's great, thanks again. You've been very helpful