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So first off, I have no idea how this ish works but I got myself deep down with it.

I was building my new house and in the garb of moment, when I was thinking of having Ethernet connectors all over the house (41 to be exact), I got convinced to put Cat6a all over the house. I also got Cat6a metal keystone connectors all over the house.

I never realized that industry doesn't like/care/need Cat6a and is still lurking with Cat6 or Cat5e. I have my Cameras or other equipment which have their own old Cat cables.

My question is: can I use Cat6a cable in these equipment (router/consoles/video hub/etc)? or can I use Cat6 or Cat5e cable in my connectors all over the house.

As you might have guessed through my post, I am so confused.

user219492
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  • You will need a lot of experience and expensive testers and tools to properly install Category-6 or Category-6a cabling. Even experienced installers have trouble getting those to pass the test suite. You need a professional cable tester that costs several thousand dollars to even run the test suite, and the horizontal cable is solid-core and fragile. Even with Category-5e, you must not exceed the maximum pulling tension, or the minimum bend radius, and you cannot staple it to studs the way electricians do for residential wiring, otherwise your risk permanently damaging the cabling. – Ron Maupin Jul 30 '17 at 17:24
  • I hope you just answered the question instead of whining about why it would be so expensive and usual blah. Thanks though. – user219492 Jul 31 '17 at 02:12
  • I was neither whining nor answering the question. I made a comment that I hope you found useful. – Ron Maupin Jul 31 '17 at 02:14

2 Answers2

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You can use cat5e or cat6 for the equipment without issues. There is not any benefit you will see using Cat6A cable with security camera at this time due to the low bandwidth of the cameras.

If you use a lower cable than Cat6A between switch and end terminals (ehich are Cat6A from your statement) the capability will round down to the lowest item such as cable, connector or patch cable. Running cat6 or cat5e wire with cat6a keystones is a waste of money as there would not be any benefit, because it is being limited by the cable. Also the metal keystones are only beneficial is you have a grounding wire in the cable and a place to ground on switch or patch panel.

I am also in the same boat of building a new home, I will be running Cat6A to all points, including cameras (PoE). This is not needed now, but while walls are open it will alloe for future expansion to 10Gbe in the future without having the additonal cost of time and money.

Lachevyguy
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Cat6A is fully backwards compatible, it'll just be bulkier cabling, and more expensive. But you'll be more future-proof, as 6A supports 10 gig ethernet over much longer distances than regular Cat6 would. 25 gig and 40 gig ethernet will require Cat8, though.

Stingray
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  • There is no such thing as `Cat8` cabling. ANSI/TIA/EIA register the cable categories, and there currently are no cable categories above Category-6a. – Ron Maupin Jul 30 '17 at 17:29
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    Actually the standards for Cat 8 were published in July 2016 (ANSI/TIA-568-C.2-1 “Addendum 1, Specifications for 100Ω Category 8 Cabling”). I've been in no hurry to consider this as a replacement for any of my existing fiber runs though. (in other words, no idea if SFPs, switches, etc. are commercially available yet) – Brandon Xavier Jul 30 '17 at 19:34
  • [TIA's announcement of the Cat8 spec](http://www.tiaonline.org/tia-issues-new-balanced-twisted-pair-telecommunications-cabling-and-components-standard-addendum-1) – Stingray Jul 31 '17 at 04:19