Network with Cat6, Cat6a or Cat7 cable

[Lk1980]

Hello
I was wondering if anyone could help.

I am planning to re wire the network cables and trying to future proof as well.

I was wondering whether there is any difference between cat6 and cat6a cables.

Also reading on the internet, users have commented that cat7 is a pain to install and if not done correctly, it can mess the speeds up. So I am trying to establish a middle ground.

Also, i wanted to ask if the cat6 rj45 module wall socket is compatible with cat6a (if there is a difference between cat6a or cat6)

The future plan is to install a cctv camera that would be powered over ethernet (thinking to get a Swann cctv system installed in future)

Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated and thank you for your help in advance. Stay safe

Cheers
LK

 

[scott1980]

It's highly unlikely that your average domestic installation is going to exceed the capabilities of even CAT5e cabling to be honest, especially where CCTV is concerned. CAT6a is basically a higher performance version of CAT6 but again, the advantages aren't likely to be apparent in short cable runs. Personally I would stick with CAT5e as it's a bit cheaper, has a smaller diameter and is easier to work with compared to the bulkier CAT6.

 

[reds42]

In a domestic setting:

Cat7 - totally over the top and uneccasery.
Cat6/cat6a - overkill, but if it makes you happy so be it.
Cat5e - perfectly adequate and easy to run/work with. Not going to have any problems running a few cameras.

As someone who's run a fair bit of cat5e, cat6a, even run and terminated fiber in a profesional capacity my house is wired with.... cat5e. Cheap and more than adequate.

Edit: just be sure to steer clear of CCA (copper clad aluminium) junk and stick to pure copper cables.

 

[RF Lighting]

Yes the absolute best piece of advice is to make sure you only use solid copper cat cable, and absolutely avoid copper coated aluminium cable (CCA)

Even some “reputable” companies such as toolstation will supply CCA as standard, and you will have nothing but trouble with it.

I have a mixture of cat5e utp, cat5e ftp and cat6 at home, just what ever I had on the van at the time, and send 700TVL and 2MP CCTV, and HDTV (sky) as well as internet over it no problem.

We occasionally install cat6a and cat7 at work but only really for longer runs of things like HD projector feeds but it is not necessary for domestic installations.

I recently did a full refurbishment of a family members house and installed 36 outlets all wired in cat5e ftp as it was what I had, but you need to buy ftp outlets to take advantage of this cable.

 

[securespark]

Some of our house is run with Cat 7 only because I got a stellar deal on it.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Running some CAT6 at the moment, biggest pain is not kinking it in the wallplates. Plus point is the cores are chunkier than CAT5 so it'll be more tolerant of terminal block (if you're using it for some random non-data application)

 

[Lk1980]

Thank you everyone for your advice. I think I will go with cat5e most probably. If I decide cat6 shielded, do I need to have a ground / earth connection in the wall sockets

 

[motorbiking]

The cost of cat6 really isn’t that much more than cat5. But I agree with everyone else on performance. If you are running PoE then it’s likely that your switch will have a 2gbit limit unless you are looking to spend a lot. CCTV will run fine on 100mbit switches.

 

[danechip]

I would cat6 twice to each position and die old and gracefully not ever worrying about it again.

EDIT: I believe cat6a starts with grounding. I have never used this but read works manuals.

 

[SimonH2]

Grounding in FTP applications is a dark art in itself, I would install UTP. Cat5e will do pretty well anything I can think of in a normal house, Cat6 is a better spec, but more work to terminate, above that is a waste of time and money.
Be aware that screened (FTP) cable can actually have worse performance for some application than UTP - due to the extra capacitance between cores and the screen.