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I'm about to run about 30 m of Cat 6, but I'm struggling to find local vendors that supply keystone modules (or 8P8C/RJ45 connectors, for that matter) that are explicitly labeled as Cat 6. I'm under the impression that the differences between Cat 5e and Cat 6 primarily pertain to the cable itself (properties such as twist rate) rather than whatever terminates it, and that keystones and 8P8C/RJ45 plugs should be interchangeable with 5e ones. Am I correct, or should I keep looking for explicitly Cat 6-rated components?

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I've used Cat5e keystone jacks on Cat6 cable runs before and the signal/speeds were fine. But you can get CAT6-specific keystones - check out CablesToGo's selection.

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Thanks for the input. I'll leave the question as unanswered for now in the hope that someone has something definitive to say. – gspr Apr 20 '11 at 17:15
Try to get the CAT6 jacks if you can. It's really hard (and is a bad idea?) to stuff the larger CAT6 cable into (properly anyways) a CAT5e jack... – Brian Knoblauch Apr 20 '11 at 19:16
The cable itself is only marginally thicker, and if you push so much sheathing in that you notice a difference in how it sits then you'd have the same problem on a cat6 jack too and you are wiring the jack wrong. Only the tip of the sheath should enter into the jack itself. If you're pushing more than that in then you are creating potential connection problems as it can put stress on the termination points that can cause them to lift in time, especially if the punch down was not done well. – MaQleod Apr 21 '11 at 7:23
The sheath does have to make it all the way to the sheath crimp point though. It can be pretty hard to even get that far. – Brian Knoblauch Apr 21 '11 at 16:31
There's no sheathing crimp point on keystone jacks. Wall-plate installs shouldn't have cable-tug problems, and surface-mount boxes usually have the sheathing crimp on them (and it often sucks). – techie007 Apr 22 '11 at 0:48
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There really is no difference. The only difference in jacks to pay attention to would be the wiring standards (568 A or B). The main difference between the two standards is twist count, shielding and the separation of the pairs within the cable. Both cat5e and cat6 keystone jacks fulfill the same requirements:

Meets FCC subpart 68 requirements Jack contacts, phosphor Bronze alloy with a minimum 50 microinch gold plating over nickel.

Insertion life -- 750 cycles minimum UL listed

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