Cable Matters UL Listed 10Gbps 12-Pack RJ45 Shielded Cat6A / Cat6 Keystone Jack with Integrated Shutter

Works perfect, able to get well over 2.5GB speeds and confirmed that the run is grounded properly using these. They are heavy and feel & feel premium, make sure you have some flush scissors. Because the way that these work you need to cut the excess wire flush to let the hinges go down to lock the keystone tightly. This even comes with zip ties to help secure it down which I recommend waiting to do once you confirm you terminated it correctly. These also do have very easy to read legends to figure out if you need to wire in A or B which I used rather than having to reference back to the legend on my crimps. Overall, highly recommend these, they are a little pricey, but I would much rather pay this price for the quality than save a couple dollars and the quality takes a dive.

Here is the break down of the jack: Design (5/5): This is the design where you lay the wires across the jack portion and not the plastic cap portion, which means that you can punch down these wires instead of pushing the cap down to finalize the wire connections. The cheap Chinese connectors will have a design where you are forced to wire the cap instead of the jack and then force it down to finalize the connection, which results in bad connections many of the times. This jack also comes with the peaks required to split the wires, making it easy to use the peaks to split the wires (the correct way) instead of having to unwind them prior (incorrect way). However, in order to accommodate larger sized wires, they have opted for a zip tie to bring the metal shield up to become flush with the wire at the end. I find this to be both a good and bad thing, but I am glad that they added support for larger cable sizes. Quality (4/5): Metal could possibly be thicker, and some of the mechanisms used in the jack could be done to be more sturdy. However, this is still a vast improvement from the alternative cheap Chinese jack which has MAJOR issues, and the stamped jack which features thin metal which can be bent with a little force from the fingers. This jack is also machined well, and fits RJ45 jacks with no issues, unlike the Chinese jack, which must be forced. Value (5/5): Comparable jacks are big branded, such as Belkin, however, those are $10-11 a piece. These are vastly cheaper. The review which states this cannot be used with a 110 punch is incorrect. That was for an older version of the jack, and Cable Matters has updated the design to allow for punch down tools. I highly recommend using the Trendnet 110 Punch as a cheap punch tool, as it will give you much more solid connections. It's a very good value buy as well. This jack is the best all-around buy hands down. There are several other competitors out there, but they are either too expensive or poorly built.

I have steadily relied on CableMatters for our entire house project. These are the cream of the crop when it comes to keystone jack quality, installation ease, and performance. Over the last 5-6 years, we've used them for our entire house. 48 drops, patch panels, keystones, 1 gang, and 2 gang outlets, CAT6, CAT6A, and CAT6A Shielded. Bullet proof and forever reliable.

Nice the learning curve is a little steep, however coma they do work once you get them seated. It need some type of video for installation.

I used these for long distance, high throughput cable runs. Aside from cutters to expose the wires on the cable, these things are tool-less as advertised. It's worth paying extra because you get what you pay for and it takes away (most of) the frustration of network installs.

Like other Cable Matters products I've gotten, these seem to be of high quality. However and after some correspondence with the seller: (1) They are designed for use in metal racks/ distribution panels to provide the grounding required for shielded cables. If they are to be inserted into plastic wall plates at both ends, expect to do considerable improvising. (2) The only clue to the relationship between the pins into which the wires are inserted and the RJ45 pinout is the color coding on the tool-free cap, which can be a bit hard to read. If you are not using that cap, don't discard it. I found it helpful to mark the jack itself. (3) Especially with heavier cable (e.g.., Outdoor-rated Cat 6 or above, 23 AWG solid, shielded, with center spline), getting everything into the right place and secured is not easy. I used an industrial-grade 110 punch-down tool rather than either their special crimp tool or the tool-free cap, closed the jack as directed and secured it with the cable tie only to have two of the wires come loose when I tried to put it into service. There is an instruction sheet on the manufacturer's web site that is different from the one provided with the jacks or accessed through the description on the Amazon page. It provides some useful hints (such as the angle of the cable when wiring) but also shows an alternate cap that looks as it it might hold things in place; that cap does not come with the kit sold through Amazon and the seller didn't respond to questions about obtaining it/them. (4) At least with heavier shielded cable, the metal collar and cable tie are needed for bonding the shield and drain wire to the jack and hence are not really a strain relief mechanism I think these might be great if installed in the sort of rack or panel the manufacturer intended, with indoor cable, and after some practice. However, if the installation does not go perfectly the first time, the jack is very difficult to open up for a second try (by design, I think), so anyone purchasing these should probably assume that at least one or two will have to be sacrificed to learning and estimate the number needed accordingly.

I was initially a little skeptical of the toolless punchdown, but it worked really well on 23 AWG solid core CAT6a. I used a C-clamp to cinch mine down tight, but a small bench vice with soft jaws would be most ideal. Channel lock pliers would do it, but will scratch the metal. The plastic guide is designed to accommodate the cable jacket, which encourages you to pull the wires tightly through, and it holds the wires in place before crimping. This helps to minimize the untwisted portion of wire. The finished termination is tidy and strain relieved with no exposed wires on the back side of the keystone. I like that the shielded metal housing completely encloses the connections, and the zip-tie strain relief is a convenient place to attach the foil shield and drain wire. You could use this to make a male to female extension cable for your toolkit, although flexing it too much would eventually make it fail. The plastic gate cover is of debatable usefulness, but for my application (home with 2 dogs that shed a lot) it's definitely a plus, and I think it makes open ports look a lot more presentable.

I've been slowly running cat6 cable through the house, on and off for years. Since my last crimping round, my near-field vision has deteriorated awfully, and pulling apart Belden's bonded pairs in unshielded 6a cable (real performance although at a numbing price) pushes my patience to the limit. So a few thoughts are that the tool-less termination option was wonderfully easy, and my signals test beautifully. It might have been less enjoyable without a Knipex adjustable wrench. I'm also surprised by earlier reviews that complain about shouts if wire aren't trimmed closely. With the metal case precise trimming seemed obvious. We'll have to see it I ever get to 7Gbps someday, but these are the best jacks I've seen, and the termination impedance seems negligible.