• Happy holidays, folks! Thanks to each and every one of you for being part of the Tom's Hardware community!

Cat5e Wall Socket Jakcs, Connectors with new Cat6 Cable or Cat6a.

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
W

warehouseonlineaus

Aug 22, 2018
9
0
10
I'm deciding to re-wire the entire home network due to some damage to the existing Cat5e cables placed in the ceiling to separate rooms in the house. I figured, since I need to pass through and re-wire 3 or 4 of them, I may as well change the other 2 rooms as well.

I've been looking at making the house 'future proof' (lol) and either go for Cat6 or Cat6a - both will be shielded twisted pairs. My home won't be running cables further then 50 or so meters, so I'd assume Cat6 will be fine to get the full 1Gb speeds right now as well as the ability to get the 10Gb in future.

Will my existing wall jack connectors that are 5e work with Cat6 or Cat6a? Or do you require other wall connectors? Since the internal cable and the patch cables will be shielded - do the wall jacks also need to be shielded? Asking to see if I actually need new wall sockets or not.. If the existing 5e work, bonus for me and save myself the money to get those.

 
Solution
B
Shielded cable is extremely hard to install correctly. In addition to the wall jacks needing to be special you actually need a separate ground connection run to each. This is not the power ground you have in outlets it needs to be completely separate even though it can terminate on the same grounding rod. The reason you can not use the power ground is mostly a safety thing but it can also cause interference if anything leaks power into the grounding wire. In general it is only installed in a data center.

Incorrectly grounded shielded cable actually acts as a antenna which can cause more interference.

The need for shielded cable is almost non existent in a residential installation. It is extremely rare even in commercial...
Sort by date Sort by votes
Shielded cable is extremely hard to install correctly. In addition to the wall jacks needing to be special you actually need a separate ground connection run to each. This is not the power ground you have in outlets it needs to be completely separate even though it can terminate on the same grounding rod. The reason you can not use the power ground is mostly a safety thing but it can also cause interference if anything leaks power into the grounding wire. In general it is only installed in a data center.

Incorrectly grounded shielded cable actually acts as a antenna which can cause more interference.

The need for shielded cable is almost non existent in a residential installation. It is extremely rare even in commercial installs also, generally it might be used in large industrial factories. In many cases it is used to prevent the ethernet from interfering with other stuff and not the other way. It is used in airplanes for example.

If you stay under 50 meters cat6 can run at 10gbit. It is not a officially certified thing but everyone knows it works to 50 meters and many time father at 10gbit.

I would buy cat6a since you are going to save money by buying unshielded cable. The cost difference between cat6 and cat6a is getting less and less.

You can hook cat5e jacks to cat6/cat6a wire. It will many times even run at 10gbit...again not a certified install.

Be very careful about your cable there is massive amounts of fake cable. A huge amount of what amazon sells is not certified cable.

The cable must be pure copper no CCA and wire gauge between 22-24...none of that silly flat or thin cable. Vendors outright lie and say their cable is EIA/TIA certified even though the standard clearly says the wire must be copper with awg 22-24.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
Ok Awesome.
Thanks Bill for the detailed reply. Highly appreciate you taking the time to write up and help me.

Having a look at the below Cat6a I can get for fairly cheap, but doesn't seem to be a lot of details describing the cable and wire gauge etc...

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Connect-100-m-LSZH-F-UTP-Cat-6a-Stranded-Wire-Cable-Yellow/312216385121?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

My other option is to choose one that's appropriate without breaking the bank from the below retailer;

https://au.rs-online.com/web/c/cables-wires/network-communication-cable/cat6a-cable/?sort-by=P_breakPrice1&sort-order=asc

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
That is stranded cable. It need different connectors and technically you are not suppose to run it in the walls. it is really only suppose to be used for patch cable between the wall and the end device. In wall cable is suppose to be solid core copper

The main problem is copper metal has gotten extremely expensive worldwide which has increased the cost of all cables......this is the reason you see that junk copper clad aluminum all over the place.

This is one of those if it looks too good to be true it likely is. Australia has higher prices on just about everything even ignoring exchange rates so I can't say what is a good price.

The local hardware store here sell lan cable. It is a good place to see if prices are in the correct range being aware that you pay no shipping when you buy it local and shipping is rather high on cable. Last time I just gave in and paid a bit more but I knew I didn't have to deal with getting fake cable and having to return it.

Your other option if it continues to be too expensive is run cheap conduit...they call it smurf tube here because the common brand is blue. You could then just run cat5e and when you need cat6a and hopefully the price is lower you can easily pull the cat5e out and run cat6a.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
@jsmithapa There is gumtree..... I did find cat6a cable being sold on there.... Left over... about 400m of it for dirt cheap.... It was this one here....

https://www.panduit.com/en/products/copper-systems/bulk-copper-cable/enterprise-data-center-copper-cable/pfl6x04whceg.html

Spewing that it's Shielded!!! 🙁 That would have been a sweet sweet buy.


I'll be running through a patch panel.... Assuming that wouldn't make a difference.... I'm guessing that will have to be unshielded patch panel as well?

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm starting to research and looks like Cat6a will cost quite a bit more then Cat6.
Measuring the distances in the home - the longest length of cable will be 17meters.
Perhaps Cat6A is overkill!! Considering at this present moment I won't be utilising the 10Gbit speeds (until further upgrading my NAS etc).

Looking at Cat6, Can save myself bit of money.

Question is. I can get a box of this for fairly cheap....

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ATcom-Cat6-100M-UTP-Solid-Ethernet-LAN-Network-Cable-Roll-Boxed-Vic-Only/113193899060?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

It is CCA. Copper coating aluminum.

Or the choice of these 2 which state they are 100% solid copper.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/HowPower-100m-Cat6-Solid-Core-Network-Cable-CCTV-Camera-Full-copper-10-100-1000/112631202827?hash=item1a3957c40b:g:jxAAAOSwK21Zervd:sc:AU_StandardDelivery!3083!AU!-1

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/263754231079?ViewItem=&item=263754231079


Think going CAT6 will save me some costs!!


By the way - Thanks to both of you for assisting with my venture of Lan Cables!!! :)



 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Sweet. Yeh I figured that.... Quite expensive down here!!! We get totally ripped unfortunately.

I've found some decent prices on Cat6 UTP Full Solid Copper 23 Gauge... so that's what I'll be going for.

This may be silly question, but is there difference in the RJ45 plugs I should be getting for cat6?
These ones are for solid or stranded..... and thinking they would be fine for the connection. Don't want to be getting cat6 cable between the walls and mucking it up with some cheaper rj45 that will limit it.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/100PCS-CAT6-Modular-Plug-Network-Connector-Ethernet-Broadband-Head-Kit-Brand-New/292642616477?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Since RJ45 plugs are for patch cords, go stranded here.

In-walls, by custom, you shouldn't use plugs, but RJ45 jacks and punched down with a tool, is the tried&true method. They sell tool-less RJ45 jacks but I can't vouch, haven't use them. Punch down tool not expensive, in the U.S.!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Yes Yes.
The in wall are going directly onto my existing clipsal wall bracket that have the 5e jacks... got a heap of those so hoping they work fine as discussed before.

I was just going to get the RJ45's to use the same wire to do patch cables? Or I shouldn't use that cable for patch leads?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I use solid core cable for my patch cables because I am too cheap to buy 2 kinds of cable. In general you will find no differences. The only time I have to have a stranded cable is the one I carry in my laptop bag. The cable rolls up easier and is neater.

Then again even though I have put many 1000s of ends on cables I just buy commercial premade patch cables. Way too easy to have a wire slip and not having the fancy test meter when I made cables at work you don't find this until something does not function. The solid core ones are cheaper so that is what I buy
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Not technically a certified cable but likely works because of the short length
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


I'd buy keystones and a patch panel and punch them down. Buy some patch cables separate. 22-23awg stuff is a real pain to crimp. check monoprice. Don't go STP or foiled. normal UTP is fine. CMR UL listed. Everything from termination to termination should be rated the same. cat6/utp/UL
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom