Nightmare fitting cat6 faceplate modules.

[leenowell]

Hi All

I bought a load of these (or at least they look like then) ages ago to terminate my cat 6 cables have clip into a faceplate

The cables are run in conduit in the wall and enter the back box either from the top or bottom. There is very little movement in the cables within the conduit. As far as I can make out, these connectors assume the cable comes in horizontally to the rear of the connector. The black plastic connector then helps to keep the individual wires in place and the main cable in position.

Problem is that in my situation, getting cat6 to doing a 90 degree bend is difficult and to do this in such a confined space with little play on the cable in the wall almost impossible without disturbing the wires in the connector.

I'm sure there must be a trick to using these but I can find it. I have tried wiring it so cable comes from above the connector and then pushes in to the connector(ie the top row are shorter wires and the bottom row go over the first and push into the second). This is more doable but I can't fit the connector on to hold the wires in place.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

Lee

[Roger Hayter]

Use much deeper back boxes so there is room to bend the cable?

[leenowell]

Unfortunately they are the deep boxes and the walls are already made good so changing them will be difficult. TBH even a deeper box will be problematic as bending the cable seems to dislodge wires. Unless there is a trick to doing this.

[stephenten]

There should be a cable tie with the cat6 sockets.

Punch down the wires with the krone tool and then use the cable tie through a hoop that's on the the back of the socket to hold the wires down.

Then refit wall plate and the wires should not dislodge.

[leenowell]

On these unfortunately no cable ties or slots for some reason

[Roger Hayter]

That sounds like the type of modular connector that is right for the job

- with cable entry at right angles. But the ones in the OP are designed to have the cable retained by a special clip in line with the socket, in the opposite direction. It would be expensive, but perhaps best, to replace them.

[Andrew]

CAT6 has a much stricter bending radius limitation compared to CAT5.

You might find that all you have achieved is installing CAT5 if you introduce signal errors by bending it too much.

Does a domestic installation actually need CAT6 ?.

[Andy Burns]

cat5e is good for 1GbE and 2.5gbE to 100m, 5gbE "up to" 100m, and 10gbE "up to" 45m, so generally below mansion sizes there's no need to rip it out if you've already fitted cat5, but put cat6a in for future proofing.

[leenowell]

Quick update. After some trial and error I have come up with an alternative which should work for those cases I need it. Essentially bring the cable in from the top (or bottom) and connect the correct wires to the nearest row of connectors. Then for the other row run the 2 left along the left side of the fitting and the 2 right along the right and then connect them in. This way I can put the plastic connector on to hold them in place. Clearly this doesn't help secure the cable itself but it seems secure once the cap is on.

[Andy Burns]

Careful you don't end up with relatively long sections of untwisted pairs, which can give you cross-talk.

[leenowell]

Ah - that doesn't sound good. The length of the longest piece would be about 25mm. Is that too much?

[Andy Burns]

Twice as much as you're supposed to have for cat5e, and you're not supposed to untwist any for cat6.

[harry]

Get a box extension.

[Lee Nowell]

Thanks for all the advice. I guess the question now is whether it is least worse to have 4 of the wires longer (Circa 25mm) than the recommended amount or have a 90 deg bend in the cable.

Any thoughts

[Andy Burns]

What is the cable to actually be used for?

[Lee Nowell]

They will largely be used as network sockets. Although most won't actually be used at least for the foreseeable

[Steve Walker]

As long as you maintain the twist in each pair right to the connections, you are unlikely to suffer any problems at the distances you are likely to be running cables.

SteveW

[Lee Nowell]

Thanks Steve. Do you mean neither scenario should make a difference?

[Steve Walker]

I don't know how important the bend radius is, but as long as the twists are maintained as far as possible, each leg of a pair will still vary the same as its twin to any interference and the interface will not see the common mode noise.

SteveW

[Erik the Pink]

I'm not sure I would advise speculative cat-6 wiring for future proofing.

The rapid improvements in Wifi: high throughput, low latency, mesh, reliable connections suggest you against going to need it.