CAT 8 Network cable

[ukracer]

I am a little confused about using CAT 8 network cables.
I am using it primarilly as it was a good price and it is actually easier to run throug walls and its well protected to run round the outside of my house.

But I can't locate a cat 8 Rj45 wall socket on amazon with next day delivery. I cant search for one at screwfix as the search keeps ignoring 8.

Whilst looking round for one i see a number of people saying its a waste of time for a home network and its not just the cable but workmanship that dictates CAT 8 so can I use CAT 6e wall sockets.

Any education welcomed.

 

[LewisT]

Just use cat6 wall sockets maybe loop the cable at the end to you have some spare if you want to replace them with cat 8 ones in the future.

 

[MetalMonkey]

I am a little confused about using CAT 8 network cables.
I am using it primarilly as it was a good price and it is actually easier to run throug walls and its well protected to run round the outside of my house.

But I can't locate a cat 8 Rj45 wall socket on amazon with next day delivery. I cant search for one at screwfix as the search keeps ignoring 8.

Whilst looking round for one i see a number of people saying its a waste of time for a home network and its not just the cable but workmanship that dictates CAT 8 so can I use CAT 6e wall sockets.

Any education welcomed.

I'm afraid Cat 8 is really a poor choice for several reasons.

Firstly its only rated for a maximum length of about 30m compared to the 100m for Cat 5e or Cat 6.
It is designed for short interconnects in data centers between switches, or other high bandwidth applications, not for cabling buildings.
Its also thicker making it more difficult to route, with a greater bend radius.
It won't be rated to run around the outside of your house unless it is specifically external grade cable, as with any network cable, it will degrade with UV.

You should be able to terminate it with cat6a components, but no guarantees - a lot of "Cat 8" cable advertised is not really "Cat 8" its just fake.

If you were starting over, the best thing to do is to use Cat 6 (that’s non shielded, almost nobody ever actually needs shielded and its requires special terminations)
Cat 6 is cheaper, easier, more available, more compatible and more than sufficient for any network for decades to come. Excel is my brand of choice, and you'll find that used or specced by most professionals.
Cat 5e would still be fine for the majority of situations as it will actually handle 10Gb over short distances, and very few people have that sort of requirement at home.

For any cables run outside they should be external grade cables or run through ducting or conduit (even then they should really be external grade).

If you have already installed the cat 8, then you'll probably get away with it if you can terminate it on cat 6a sockets. But you may find it doesn't work as well as just using decent Cat 6 cable.

 

[northwest]

As noted above Cat 5 or Cat 6 wall sockets are what you want.

 

[Domdom]

Cat-6 is the way to go. Cat-8 is designed for super high speed interconnects in core networks where over 100 gig is connecting devices like core switches. It has only really been developed because of the crazy high cost of fibre channel with colour. These are FC modules which have multiple lights sources in the same fibre but all on different wavelengths, hence “colours” and I have seen them cost in the tens of thousands each.

Because of the high data transfer rating on Cat-8 you definitely won’t get that on manual termination either, these need to be machine terminated, certainly the patch cables, but even the panels will not be standard Krone knock-down style. It’s just not good enough.

If you do go Cat-6, only ground one end of the screen. If you have a potential difference between the ends of even a few volts you will introduce a lot of noise into the screen by grounding both ends.

 

[Onoff]

If you do go Cat-6, only ground one end of the screen. If you have a potential difference between the ends of even a few volts you will introduce a lot of noise into the screen by grounding both ends.

Hmmm...I've run duct grade Cat-6e for my EV charger goes 39m from the charger point here:

All the way back through the garage, then ducted underground to the house consumer unit where it will terminate in an adaptable box. It'll split here, blue pair to the CT clamp on the incoming L. Green and orange pairs to the router.

Are you saying to ground the shield? I could easily by running a fly lead to the MET.

 

[Domdom]

Yes. Ground one end only. If you do both ends you will get noise into the screen, and across the distance you will get a few volts of PD on the earth, especially if it’s a PME.

If you don’t ground either end it will act like an aerial and pick up all sorts.

 

[ukracer]

Cat-6 is the way to go. Cat-8 is designed for super high speed interconnects in core networks where over 100 gig is connecting devices like core switches. It has only really been developed because of the crazy high cost of fibre channel with colour. These are FC modules which have multiple lights sources in the same fibre but all on different wavelengths, hence “colours” and I have seen them cost in the tens of thousands each.

Because of the high data transfer rating on Cat-8 you definitely won’t get that on manual termination either, these need to be machine terminated, certainly the patch cables, but even the panels will not be standard Krone knock-down style. It’s just not good enough.

If you do go Cat-6, only ground one end of the screen. If you have a potential difference between the ends of even a few volts you will introduce a lot of noise into the screen by grounding both ends.

OMG it seems all that work was for nowt.
I have almost finished installed the cable run from front to rear of house as well.
I am pretty sure its genuine external grade.
I just assumed the higher the number the better the cable

 

[PhillipM]

There's a massive amount of completely fake cat 7 and cat 8 cable out there precisely because of that - people think they need it. IIRC something like 90%+ of 'CAT 8' cable in the consumer space is just cheap Chinese basic cat 5 with fancy sleeves or ends on to make it look 'better'

 

[MetalMonkey]

Hmmm...I've run duct grade Cat-6e for my EV charger goes 39m from the charger point here:

Did you mean Cat6 or Cat6a? Cat6e isn't a thing. If its shielded then yes.
Although most of the times I've come across shielded/foiled cable in use which is ungrounded - because people think they need it, spec it and then don't install it properly.

I am pretty sure its genuine external grade.

I'm not saying it isn't, but I would be surprised if it is.
If you look at the cable jacket it should have information printed on it so you can check.

External grade cable is normally black, and it will often have it explicitly printed on it, the direct burial stuff is usually gel filled as well.
Can't say I've seen external cat 8.

 

[Domdom]

OMG it seems all that work was for nowt.
I have almost finished installed the cable run from front to rear of house as well.
I am pretty sure its genuine external grade.
I just assumed the higher the number the better the cable

As long as you can terminate it onto Krone connectors (patch panels basically) just go ahead. Ground it at the end where the main router will be connected. Should be fine.

 

[Onoff]

Yes. Ground one end only. If you do both ends you will get noise into the screen, and across the distance you will get a few volts of PD on the earth, especially if it’s a PME.

If you don’t ground either end it will act like an aerial and pick up all sorts.

It's TT.

I must admit I've never, ever grounded any Cat cable like this. Done plenty of screened cable on motors and inverters mind by twisting the braid, sleeving with a bit of green and sticking a ring crimp on.

What's the best way to ground Cat-6e then? Some sort of clamp?

 

[Matchless]

Try it and see as you have it installed, I ran coax well over 150 feet from house to shed for cctv, it worked fine, direct burried it as well! real world and theory.......................

 

[Kayos]

When I was into car audio, I would always source ground the shield on RCA cables, some complex installations had many, many cables

I never suffered ground loop him

Did it work? Don't know but someone used the same cable as me left the shield disconnected both ends and suffered hum

 

[sako243]

Don't know but someone used the same cable as me left the shield disconnected both ends and suffered hum

Well then it's basically an antenna so I'm not surprised.

 

[MetalMonkey]

TCP is incredibly resilient.
In a pinch you can get a connection working over all sorts of random cables, phone pairs etc. But all of that error correction drastically effects the speed.

So while it may work, speed may suffer.
I recently re-terminated an extremely poorly installed cable, where they were getting around 2mb of throughput and it kept dropping connection.
If you put a basic network tester on it that just does continuity, it would have showed everything physically connected fine.

After re-terminating they got 98mb. Cable was still trash, multiple joints etc - but shows just the effect poor termination can have.

 

[ukracer]

Did you mean Cat6 or Cat6a? Cat6e isn't a thing. If its shielded then yes.
Although most of the times I've come across shielded/foiled cable in use which is ungrounded - because people think they need it, spec it and then don't install it properly.



I'm not saying it isn't, but I would be surprised if it is.
If you look at the cable jacket it should have information printed on it so you can check.

External grade cable is normally black, and it will often have it explicitly printed on it, the direct burial stuff is usually gel filled as well.
Can't say I've seen external cat 8.

 

[ukracer]

Did you mean Cat6 or Cat6a? Cat6e isn't a thing. If its shielded then yes.
Although most of the times I've come across shielded/foiled cable in use which is ungrounded - because people think they need it, spec it and then don't install it properly.



I'm not saying it isn't, but I would be surprised if it is.
If you look at the cable jacket it should have information printed on it so you can check.

External grade cable is normally black, and it will often have it explicitly printed on it, the direct burial stuff is usually gel filled as well.
Can't say I've seen external cat 8.

I am not even sure what put it into my head that it was CAT 8. Its CAT 6 which for my purposes its exactly what I need.
(what's the difference between CAT6 and CAT6a)

 

[MetalMonkey]

What you have there is steel armoured cat 6.

That is probably overkill for what you need, but that will certainly be rated for external use, it actualy can be used for direct burial.
Not the easiest of stuff to work with, and still difficult to route in comparison to normal external rated cat6 cable, but you should be fine to terminate that with normal cat6 sockets.

Cat 6a is an upgraded (augmented) specification, its capable of 10gb over a longer distance, thicker conductors and rated for higher frequency.
It requires different jack ends as the conductors are thicker but will punch down on cat6 modules fine. It’s more difficult to install as its thicker and doesn't bend as easily.

In all honesty cat 6 is just fine. Technically Cat 6a is better, but in reality you’ll never see any difference other than the cost and how much of a PITA it is to work with. Its more common to find it shielded as well, which again creates more challenges.