Questions:
1, if the cable I am working with has a metal ground wire, am I required to use a shielded rj45 connector. This will only be a gigabit network, so I don't need the full speeds a cat6a cable will give me.
2, the guy in the video didn't talk about *cat6a* cables, just "cat6". Can I use cat6 rj45 connectors on a cat6a cable?
3, if I use a cat5e rj45 connector, will the cable still work fine?
4, if I use a cat5e rj45 connector, will the speed of the cable drop to cat5e speed, or would I get the speeds cat6a can deliver?
5, do all these connectors/cables go through a standard rj45 crimper, or do I need a different crimper?
6, i understand that the cat6 rj45 connector opening is wider, but I don't think the cable will fit. It is REALLY thick??? should I use pliers to make the piece of cable tighter/flat to force it in?
Answers:
1. If you don't required shielded cabling, not connecting the earth will not affect the function of the cable. Shielded plugs are different again as they have a metal coat to ensure end to end earthing of the cable.
2. In theory there is no functional reason why a Cat5e end couldn't be used on a Cat 6 cable and vice versa, clearly the combination of Cat6 cable and the Cat6 end is the optimal choice if available.
3. I can't think of any reason why not.
4.The cable is more important, as long as the connection is a good one, I don't think the available speed would suffer, I would suggest you would be at hight risk of cross talk (where the signal from one pair affects another),. Unless you at in a really high availability environment, in which can I would suggest you use fibre, I think you should be ok. Not ideal, but ok.
5. As long as you have a decent set of crimpers you should be ok.
6. Remove about an inch and a half of the cable sheath and untwist the cables back to the sheath, get them flat using your hand to pan them out, the plier may damage the cable.
Of course, I should point out that ideally you should be using the correct end for the correct cable, ideally the same vendor to ensure warranty and compatibility, I'm sure you doing one of those "best endeavour" jpb we get from time to time.
