How to ground shielded cat6 without a patch panel

zel · 19 Jan 2024 at 15:19

I'm wanting to run a cat6 shielded cable (cable will run close to mains for a bit and will be powering a POE access point) within the house.

I've got a few unshielded cables installed in the house already and thought no problem, will just do the same with shielded cable/jacks.

Having bought the cable and keystone jacks I've hit an unanticipated problem.

How do I ground the jacks without using a patch panel?

Currently the cables I have installed all run into jack housing similar to this which is slotted into something similar to this and then mounted to standard back boxes.

Problem is I don't see any way to attach a ground cable to the keystone jacks and the housing is all plastic.

Anyone any ideas?

ChrisD. · 19 Jan 2024 at 16:50

Don't worry about it IMO, I've got cat5e running next to power over short/house distances running perfectly fine at 10 Gbps.

Armageus · 19 Jan 2024 at 16:52

zel said:
I'm wanting to run a cat6 shielded cable

Don't - just run Unshielded. Honestly there is no need for shielded cable in a home environment.

zel · 19 Jan 2024 at 16:58

This cable is 25m though and will run next to the main power cable between the consumer unit and meter for for 1.5m, not even sure it will work...

I'm thinking I might try these, assuming I get continuity between the shielding that's wrapped over the end of the cable and the keystone housing.

Caged · 19 Jan 2024 at 17:10

You don't need shielded cable in a house just because it's running alongside some mains power cables. Shielding is designed for industrial applications where it's got to exist alongside a bunch of massive motors chucking out EMF all over the place.

Zefan · 19 Jan 2024 at 17:12

+1 do not need.

Armageus · 19 Jan 2024 at 17:55

zel said:
This cable is 25m though and will run next to the main power cable between the consumer unit and meter for for 1.5m, not even sure it will work...

1.5m next to single phase is nothing - we've run unshielded cat5e in the same ducting as 3 phase mains cable for 50m+ runs without issue.

zel · 19 Jan 2024 at 18:10

Armageus said:
1.5m next to single phase is nothing - we've run unshielded cat5e in the same ducting as 3 phase mains cable for 50m+ runs without issue.

Thanks! I guess all the warnings I found googling are exaggerations. Should have asked before buying the cable & jacks I guess!