Cat 7 only at 100mb

G

Gallderhen

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So, I bought this cable, hoping to future-proof my house:

https://www.hdcabling.co.za/price-per-meter-cat7-sstp-full-copper-ethernet-cable-all-pairs-individually-shielded-multi-core-with-braiding-up-to-10gbits-gray-p-330.html

Turns out that it only syncs with switches and PCs (that sync with a pre-made cat5e at 1Gb) at 100mb.
Thinking that it could be a cable break, I took a 1m piece, crimped it with RJ45 jacks, and it also gave me 100mb
I then checked the cable with a basic cable tester and the tester say all 8 wires are sending data (all 8 lights go on individually when tested)

My question is, why would the cable only do 100mb? Could it be the RJ45 jacks that normally work with cat5e and cat6, but not cat7?

-G-
 
Just out of curiosity. What speeds are your network cards and switches capable of?
 
The little RJ45 plugs. What are they rated at? R1.00 says its Cat5e.
 
That is a shield twisted pair cable (STP). Are you using STP connectors and does your switch support STP ?

CAT7 Strict Specifications For Crosstalk

Category 7 cable (Cat7), (ISO/IEC 11801:2002 category 7/class F), is a cable standard for Ethernet and other interconnect technologies. CAT 7 is backwards compatible with traditional Cat5 and Cat6 Ethernet. Cat7 features even more strict specifications for crosstalk and system noise than Cat6. Shielding has been added for individual wire pairs on the Category 7 cable.

Cat7 has been designed as a standard for Gigabit Ethernet over 100m of copper cabling The cable contains four twisted copper wire pairs, just like the earlier standards. Cat7 can be terminated either with 8P8C compatible GG45 electrical connectors which incorporate the 8P8C standard or with TERA connectors. When combined with GG45 or TERA connectors, Cat7 cable is rated for transmission frequencies of up to 600 MHz. Xmultiple's UltraJAX connectors are designed specifically for these high speeds with not contact pins and a printed circuit board with contact pads integrated into the RJ45 style housing.
 
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Gallderhen said:
So, I bought this cable, hoping to future-proof my house:

https://www.hdcabling.co.za/price-per-meter-cat7-sstp-full-copper-ethernet-cable-all-pairs-individually-shielded-multi-core-with-braiding-up-to-10gbits-gray-p-330.html

Turns out that it only syncs with switches and PCs (that sync with a pre-made cat5e at 1Gb) at 100mb.
Thinking that it could be a cable break, I took a 1m piece, crimped it with RJ45 jacks, and it also gave me 100mb
I then checked the cable with a basic cable tester and the tester say all 8 wires are sending data (all 8 lights go on individually when tested)

My question is, why would the cable only do 100mb? Could it be the RJ45 jacks that normally work with cat5e and cat6, but not cat7?

-G-
Click to expand...
So howcome not with the matching CAT7 jacks, shielded or plain, at the same time? Because, if I'm reading this correctly, it may have something to do with it. Still, doesn't seem right that you got stuck down at 100TX instead of GbE.

Also, interesting way to fix the bandwidth problem:

[video=youtube;qhNhuzhj3co]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhNhuzhj3co[/video]
 
ITCynic said:
That is a shield twisted pair cable (STP). Are you using STP connectors and does your switch support STP ?
Click to expand...

Peon said:
The little RJ45 plugs. What are they rated at? R1.00 says its Cat5e.
Click to expand...

I didnt get the gg45 connectors as they were hellishly expensive. My thinking was to use normal RJ45 connectors (which can do 1Gb as I've tested them) to get atleast 1Gb/s, and later when the industry started adopting 10Gb, to then get the gg45 as they ought to be more affordable then.

Just find it odd that my RJ45s cant do 1Gb which it can do on my other cat5e and cat6 cables (tested them with the same jacks)

Thanks for all the info, will keep an eye out for more affordable gg45 connectors (maybe from ebay)

-G-
 
Either a broken cable or one of the ends not wired properly.
 
One other thing... Did you try a different switch port? On occasion I've pulled my hair out recrimping cables over and over, only to find that the switch port itself was faulty
 
Gallderhen said:
I thought so too initially, but the cable tester says all 8 wires are sending data.

Would a jack like this help?

https://shop.dbg.co.za/cab-rj45-ftpa.html

-G-
Click to expand...
Came back to suggest that very thing - not like it can hurt all that much to test with, and those are better than the ones at Scoop (that wee piepietjie sticking out to wrap the shielding on is dead handy). Also, with an up-front apology for the assumption that you may be doing it right; what tester, exactly, are you using that indicates all eight are connected? Because even this very basic thing will indicate "opens, shorts, reversals, mis-wiring and so on" (sic). And then there are the 'pro'/display ones that give you cable lengths too, like this one at Uniterm and this one at Cable Apps.

But you really do have to get the wire order correct, exempli gratia:

SNAG6400_2D0177.png
 
Sinbad said:
The plug ain't the issue.
Does your tester check that the pairs are connected correctly? Order is important
Click to expand...

I believe so, the tester is the basic one that bdt listed, so it only checks the wires one by one, but it did run through 1 to 8 in that order and I confirmed the probe also showed lights 1 to 8 in that order. So I'm guessing the order is correct on both ends. (PS did the T568A type connection)

Sinbad said:
One other thing... Did you try a different switch port? On occasion I've pulled my hair out recrimping cables over and over, only to find that the switch port itself was faulty
Click to expand...

Yup, also tried a different switch (same brand as I listed above)

bdt said:
Came back to suggest that very thing - not like it can hurt all that much to test with, and those are better than the ones at Scoop (that wee piepietjie sticking out to wrap the shielding on is dead handy). Also, with an up-front apology for the assumption that you may be doing it right; what tester, exactly, are you using that indicates all eight are connected? Because even this very basic thing will indicate "opens, shorts, reversals, mis-wiring and so on" (sic). And then there are the 'pro'/display ones that give you cable lengths too, like this one at Uniterm and this one at Cable Apps.

But you really do have to get the wire order correct, exempli gratia:
Click to expand...

I believe the order is correct, so Im going to give the shielded jacks a go.

-G-
 
Shielded vs. not Shielded shouldn't give that issue ... I think.

What happens if you force 1 Gb on the NIC ?

Have had the situation a few times where a very expensive enterprise switch struggled to negotiate 1 Gb and we had to force it ...
 
Plugs are the problem. RJ45s aren't made equal...

CAT5e RJ45 != CAT7 RJ45

The two types of cables have different wire diameters.

gg45 connectors will never take off in my opinion. Stick to RJ45, just get the right type.

That cable you linked is 22AWG, most of the plugs sold would not work with a cable that thick.

Look at the two links I posted above, the RJ45 CAT5e/6 would not work with the cable you bought for example.

I should also say, if you aren't using the right kind of crimping tool, it'll also fail. And obviously it needs to be wired correctly. I've found not ratcheting crimping tools often damage the crimp so that you get these sort of problems also.

As easy as these cables are to make, people seem to think it is all just universal. READ THE LABEL!
 
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I don't know much about Cat7, so I decided to stay quiet, learning little bit on the occasion, :) but I think that not grounding shielded wires is a primary source of your problems.

A primary rule in all high frequency cabling is that a shielded cable must be properly grounded to the equipment base (at least on one side). Failing to do so creates a large (electrical) floating surface picking up lot of noise form outside, also increasing crosstalk between different pairs.

In other words you definitely need proper shielded connectors. Which one is proper is indicated above (Gnome thanks for tips). If your equipment do not support shielded sockets you can still do it manually using a short piece of wire and a soldering iron. Not very good, but you can try.
 
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sajunky said:
I don't know much about Cat7, so I decided to stay quiet, learning little bit on the occasion, but I think that not grounding shielded wires is a primary source of your problems.

A primary rule in all high frequency cabling is that a shielded cable must be properly grounded to the equipment base (at least on one side). Failing to do so creates a large (electrical) floating surface picking up lot of noise form outside, also increasing crosstalk between different pairs.

In other words you definitely need proper shielded connectors. Which one is proper is indicated above (Gnome thanks for tips). If your equipment do not support shielded sockets you can still do it manually using a short piece of wire and a soldering iron. Not very good, but you can try.
Click to expand...

Good advice.

With all the effort is CAT7 even worth it?
What’s the minimum to do in a new home installation for media and home automation?
 
tRoN said:
Good advice.

With all the effort is CAT7 even worth it?
Click to expand...
Well, that depends - mostly on use-case. For basic networking, when CAT6 is gigabit by design that allows scope to go to ten gig (only up to 55 metres though), and CAT5e does gigabit anyway it is, frankly not necessary. But for extending 4K HDR video over some significant distance, there may be a good use-case there, and all that per-pair shielding certainly wouldn't hurt.
What’s the minimum to do in a new home installation for media and home automation?
Click to expand...
Minimum is still CAT5, but use shielded (so STP or FTP, instead of UTP) because it's frankly just the better option. That said, the recommended minimum I reckon you should go for is CAT6a FTP - all that lovely per-pair shielding, with the drain wire to boot. Remember to ground that shielding on at least one side (doing it in the cabinet/at the switch is the simpler way).
 
CAT7 isn't really special in the needs it has in my opinion.

The reality is the market has various plugs and cables available.
If you don't read their specifications the installation will become more complicated.

I don't do network installations as a job, but I have installed quite a number of them.
Back in the CAT6 (UTP) days I already had issues with bad plugs, bad wiring, etc.

And then there are companies like Esquire that sell cables that aren't up to spec with invalid specifications. (eg. aluminum copper clad cables, not to mention thinner than standard cable)

My 2c, if you are chasing cables or installing them permanently, the initial overlay cost is quickly trumped by the lifetime of the installation. In which case I would always install the cable with the highest specification.

This is especially true if you chase cables (which is what I've done)
 
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tRoN said:
With all the effort is CAT7 even worth it?
Click to expand...
For home intallations stay away. Cat7 was born to deliver solid 10Gig performance in the industial environment and does it well, while Cat6 had limitations. It is exclusively a shielded cabling standard. A quote from https://web.archive.org/web/2016052...0-series-switches/white_paper_c11-609513.html:
Note that shielded cabling can offer improved immunity to external noise sources and can eliminate the alien crosstalk within the bundle. However, if the shielded cabling has not been terminated or installed properly, it may cause problems for 10GBASE-T that are not detected for Gigabit Ethernet.
Click to expand...
Do you have high energy power sources running next to your cable? Do you run a dozen cables in parallel? If not, you don't need shielded cables.

When Cat7 was approved in 2002, industry already started to ask a question "Quo Vadis with coper" and subsequently Cat7 hasn't been approved by TIA/EIA. As an intermediate solution Cat6A was born in 2008 and in result all current equipment still use traditional RJ45 sockets. Currently the third edition of ISO/IEC 11801 is in works. "It is a major revision of the standard which will unify several prior standards for commercial, home, and industrial networks, as well as data centers, and define requirements for generic cabling and distributed building networks." /Wikipedia/

Before it happens I predict long live for Cat6A. Please do not mistake with Cat6e, which is a marketing term for something like "better than our Cat5e".
tRoN said:
What’s the minimum to do in a new home installation for media and home automation?
Click to expand...
For Gigabit installations you can safetly use Cat5e UTP if you shop carefully for a quality one. If you think you need 10Gbit, then Cat6A is recommended by the Cisco (on the link above). For home installations I do recommend to not use shielded cables. Happily Cat6A is also offered in UTP variant too.

My choice would be Cat6A UTP cable terminated with Cat6A UTP plugs like this: https://www.belden.com/products/enterprise/copper/connectors/cat-6a-plugs

A reason for not using shielded cables in home installations I explained number of times, lets say it again:

- Shielded cable requires larger ducts due to the fact that the cable must not be kinked or bent too tightly.

- The wire pairs must not be untwisted and the outer jacket must not be stripped more than 0.5". It looks like for me a requirement for professional installation (for Rxxx).

- Grounding is required on both sides (not at least one side as I mentioned earlier - it was in generic). The equipment should have grounded connectors. Grounding to the equipment base with a separate wire is less effective.

- Terminating ground on both sides creates possibility of generating ground loops between power connections. Watch power surges and lightning strikes in future!
 
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