Cat 7 only at 100mb

I read a bit about the complexity of shielding after reading sajunky's post and he has some points on the complexity it adds.

Generally speaking, those complexities are simple to overcome (eg. transformer for ground loop or understanding your noise injection sources) but you need an understanding of the underlying problem which aren't always so simple to understand.

I haven't had any issues with my shielding, personally, even with it running right next to power wires, but thinking about his arguments I really want to hook my oscilloscope up to the shield wire just for curiosity sake.

His point about sticking to UTP is appropriate.
However STP can work assuming you do your research and buy the right things.

FYI, in my experience UTP still deals pretty well next to power cables, I haven't needed STP explicitly.

Of course in South Africa running power cables and any other cable together in the same trunk is 100% illegal.

And once they are in different trunking the cross talk decreases significantly due to the distance between the conductors.

Generally just a few cm decreases the interference by a few orders of magnitude.
 
Isn't it better to use a patch panel and keystone jacks for your cabling needs?
 
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sajunky said:
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:
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".

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!
Click to expand...

Cool thanks.

So where can I buy “good quality” Cat6a UTP from?
 
LaraC said:
Isn't it better to use a patch panel and keystone jacks for your cabling needs?
Click to expand...
Yes, Do you refer to using a soldering iron? :) :) :)

It adds a cost and requires another punching tool, but is is how it is done by professionals. I forgotten that patch panel will transfer ground to the schielded cables. More complicated is on the wall jacks side. It is still tricky if user equipment (like PC's, printers) have no shielded sockets.
 
sajunky said:
Yes, Do you refer to using a soldering iron? :) :) :)

It adds a cost and requires another punching tool, but is is how it is done by professionals. I forgotten that patch panel will transfer ground to the schielded cables. More complicated is on the wall jacks side. It is still tricky if user equipment (like PC's, printers) have no shielded sockets.
Click to expand...
With a metal keystone jack (RJ45 socket), to which your fixed cable is properly connected, you can at least get the ground link all the way to the wall box. From there it takes making flyleads out of solid core cable (not so much in spec) to get all the way to end device. Which, in the case of a PC at least, stands a decent chance of having metal to connect to ...assuming getting a shielded connection all the way to the end is the intended outcome.
 
sajunky said:
Yes, Do you refer to using a soldering iron? :) :) :)
/Snip
Click to expand...
I was actually thinking of planning cable runs between two points. (Patch panel and wall sockets.)
It will ensure that no unsightly cables are in the way and the chances of cable breaks will be minimal. It will also allow you to move your equipment without the need to run a new line. :)
 
LaraC said:
I was actually thinking of planning cable runs between two points. (Patch panel and wall sockets.)
It will ensure that no unsightly cables are in the way and the chances of cable breaks will be minimal. It will also allow you to move your equipment without the need to run a new line. :)
Click to expand...
3x Yes. Promped by tRoN I made a local search for proper UTP Cat6A cables and found... nothing. My Internet bundle runs out. I have to stop now, so you have to make your own, you can try based on the following guide.

All of currently available Cat6A cables have some form of shielding, so the U/FTP variant (unshielded overall, foil covering individual pairs) is the only one I would use. This means a requirement for a patch panel with Cat6A sockets. Grounding would be made at this point to the power mains ground (or a network switch if a grounding point is available).

When shopping for the cable you should be aware that there are are two similar Cat6A standards (it should be printed on the cable):
1. EIA/TIA: ANSI/TIA-568-C.1
2. ISO/IEC: ISO/IEC 11801 Ammendment 2
The later one is a global standard, higher spec and should give better performance, especially when used with Cat6A connectors.

Not required:
A "Backbone". Mechanically reinforced for vertical installations.

Insulation. Ordinary PVC is fine for outer jacket. You pay extra for better dielectric with little benefits.

Not desired:
Any form of "plenum", "low-smoke", "low-fume", "zero-halogen" on one side and "UV-rated" on the other gives inferior dielectric properties and costs more.

Insulation of individual wires is at minimum PE (Polyethylene), but in better cables expect FEP (Teflon varietes) or high-density polyolefin. [Considering a pure-anodised-copper core, it makes it an excellent cable for HiHi speakers, seriously!]

Where it is not specified what dielectric is used, US fire Class (two or three letters marking) or a fire certification printed on the cable can give some clue (not conclussive).

Patch cables. Currently home equipment have no grounded sockets, so use a minimal lenght (30cm) UTP (unshielded) patch cables, Cat6A if available. Or make it yourself using Cat5e UTP cable and Cat6A UTP (unshielded) plugs designed to use on stranded cables. Watch out to not untwist pairs more than it is needed. A shielded Cat6A patch cables would have ground termination on one side only, it can be better or worse than UTP, I don't know. In future when you upgrade your network switch (router) and a new one has shielded connectors, change to a shielded Cat6A patch cables, but you would also have to re-examine proper position of the grounding point.
 
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Gallderhen said:
This got interesting and complicated quickly :)

In the new year I'll give the unshielded cat7 sstp connector a go. If that doesn't work I'll have to wait for the shielded connector (as its currently out of stock).

-G-
Click to expand...
Just wondering if you eventually managed to get the cable to sync at 1gb?
Had a similar problem with cat 6 cabling recently
 
skyw4lk3r said:
Just wondering if you eventually managed to get the cable to sync at 1gb?
Had a similar problem with cat 6 cabling recently
Click to expand...

Hi,
Yeah, got it to sync at 1gb, but you have to be very careful with the cable, its very unforgiving when bending too far e.g. too much (or too sharp) around a beam.

And you have to trim the inner wires almost exactly the same length, as both "teeth" of the crimp needs to grab onto the wires. You miss one "tooth" and you have a high probability that it won't fully sync at 1gb.

-G-
 
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