Are you using cat7?

[Scheer]

I've always figured that TIA doesn't have a standard for Cat7 because they don't need it. They already standardized Cat6a which is pretty much identical to ISO Cat 7. Cat 7 is slightly higher frequency, but I have no idea why because the 650Mhz of Cat6a works for 10g just fine. Likely a e-peen thing between standard bodies, look mine is bigger.

 

IMO, If you are tearing your walls apart to run cable, just put in Cat6a and be done with out. If you are draping it along the floor, buy Cat5e and replace with better cable when you need it, if you ever need it.

 

Cat6a is a PITA to terminate due to the S/FTP part that leadeater is talking about. Each pair, e.g. orange-white/orange, is wrapped in foil, then the bundle of four pairs is wrapped again in shielding wire. It is primarily for cross talk when you have hundreds of them running next to each other.

 

Also for some stupid reason a lot of Cat6a cable doesn't run a tracer line on the white of the pair, so make sure you don't untwist it back into the jacket... Not a huge deal, but when you want to strip and straighten 24 cables for punching you can get confused a lot easier.