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I'm going to be wiring my home for ethernet soon, and I've already decided that I want to use Cat6 cable to do it (faster speeds, better performance, etc). During the installation, I'd like to add wall-plates to certain rooms in my house, and the keystone blocks look like the best option for me.

My question is: I've seen different keystone blocks on many cabling websites, some say Cat5e and some say Cat6. The Cat6 ones are slightly more expensive. Is there any noticeable performance gain from using a Cat6 keystone? To me, it just seems like the keystone really wouldn't matter, since it's basically like putting an RJ-45 end on a cable. Can I buy the cheaper Cat5e keystone blocks and still have the performance that Cat6 cable will give me?

Thanks!

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  • For home use? Sure, you'll be fine. Should be asked over on SU, though.
    – mfinni
    Mar 29, 2012 at 15:02
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    Basically, I want a blazing fast gigabit LAN. I've already grabbed a 24-port gigabit smart switch (NetGear GS724Tv2), and I want to make sure that my performance is optimal. To me, the Cat5e vs Cat6 keystone blocks just seemed like clever marketing to make you think there is a difference when there probably really isn't. I'm asking here to see if my suspicions are correct :)
    – Scott Arrington
    Mar 29, 2012 at 15:08
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    You can do GigE on Cat5e, you don't even need Cat6.
    – mfinni
    Mar 29, 2012 at 15:36
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    Faster speeds and better performance? Not so much. Cat6 is/was one of the biggest shams perpetrated on the networking world. Cat5 and/or Cat5e is perfectly acceptable for ethernet up to GbE.
    – joeqwerty
    Mar 29, 2012 at 16:22
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    A Keystone block is the "jack" socket in a wall outlet, it snaps into the outlet after it's wired.
    – mfinni
    Mar 29, 2012 at 18:13

1 Answer 1

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Cat3  = 10MbE (Telephone wire is Cat3)
Cat5  = 100MbE
Cat5e = 1GbE
Cat6a = 10GbE
CatFa = 40GbE (100GbE up to 15m)
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