Cable Matters (5-Pack) RJ45 Cat 8 / Cat8 Shielded Metal RJ45 Keystone Jack

These Cat 8 keystones work great and are very high quality. After installing a couple of times on the ends of my Cat 8 shielded cables I got the technique down. While it says no tools required, I found I couldn't snap the keystones closed with my fingers but found that channel lock pliers worked great. Having enough extra length of twisted pairs really helped when trying to work each wire into its proper slot.

Over the past 5 years I've installed well over 100 of these keystone jacks, all on 22 or 23 AWG Cat 7 or 8 SFTP cable, and I'm having trouble remembering ever having one of these fail to work (though I have miswired a couple, it takes some work to get them back open to fix that). While dealing with shielded cable with foil-wrapped pairs always requires a bit of fiddling, getting the connector on once the fiddling is done is quick and simple. Beyond the cable stripper the only tools required are a pair of flush cutter pliers and, if you aren't strong enough to squeeze the shell closed with your fingers (I'm not), something to do that; I invested in the Cable Matters tool for this but vice grips work just fine too. I do find that the foil strip included with the connector is a bit too small so I cut my own from a roll of 1/2" 3M 1181 instead. Last, I'll just note that with all the cables I've used these on so far the 568B wiring has been a slightly better match for the cap arrangement (the wires come out of the cable exactly where you want them for 568B at one end and just one crossover at the other), though that depends on how the cable manufacturer arranges the colors and I don't know if they all do it the same. In my experience these are really nice connectors that install easily and work well. I usually use a Fluke tester to verify newly-installed links and I don't recall ever having one that didn't pass for the tester's 10GBaseT maximum and the POE test. It may be that these connectors work less well with smaller wire sizes and/or thinner insulation, though.

I was looking to simplify my installation of female RJ45 plugs and found these. With the exceptiion of an ethernet cable stripper, and a pair of pliers, no other tools were required to wire up these female RJ45 keystone connectors. After installation I verified that I was betting 10gb throughput on the line. The only reason I did not give a 5 star review was that some the female RJ45 connectors had been pressed together an locked in the closed position -- and they are extremely difficult to unlock once locked.

Easy to install. Pricey but the frustration free installation is worth every penny. They work great with my CAT 7a cables. No need for a punch down tool. However I used long angled needle-nosed pliers to pinch down the 2 pieces. Unless you have a strong grip, it’s tough. I also installed on CAT 6, unshielded wire and it’s a little overkill as these are made for the thick shielded cables. They will work nicely however on the 6. No degrading of speed. These are definitely heavy duty, I ordered more just in case there is a need in the future.

I bought 10 expensive cat 7 keystone wall jacks from sunny tech to fit into two 6 keystone wall plates. All of them had weird loose connections that sent me through the roof trying to jiggle them to figure out what was the best position for them to stay connected. Breath on them and I’d loose connectivity. Called and their support was no help and refused to accept a return even after I had bought over 2000 feet of cat cable, over 100 connectors and more than 2 dozen keystone jacks from them. I replaced their cat 7 with ones from cable matters and fixed my problem in one afternoon - all of them! No matter what position my cables are in, my connectivity stays! No more loosing internet. Installation was easy and fool proof if you have sliding jaw pliers and flush cutting scissors. A little expensive but well worth the cost for the trouble I’ve been through. Thank you, Cables Matter!