[r1ch]

OP mentions using "Cat 7" cables - please don't buy these. Cat 7 isn't something that exists in TIA/EIA standards, only in ISO/IEC and it requires GG45 or TERA connectors. Cat 7 with RJ45 connectors isn't standardized, so you have no idea what you're actually getting. Stick with pure copper Cat 6A.

[Arrowmaster]

Absolutely agreeing with you but replying to you instead of multiple others below with my views on this.

Cat6A can do 10Gbps at 100m. Cat7 and Cat8 can do higher speeds in short runs but those technologies are DEAD in DC tech now. 40G is legacy tech using four lanes of 10G, replaced by 100G which is four lanes of 25G. Copper patch cables are not used with these, everything is fiber or DAC.

If you use a Cat7 or Cat8 cable the higher MHz support listed on the spec will never be used. When using a real cable of these qualities all you are really getting is better protection from outside interference.

When buying premade patch cables only buy Cat6A. Anything you see online saying Cat7 or Cat8 has probably never been properly tested by the manufacturer.

When buying a spool of wire do your research on the manufacturer. There's plenty with false labels out there. I once saw a spool of 'Cat6e' which is not a real standard.

When paying others to run cables find out what brand and what warranty the installer is providing. If they only use Cat7 and cannot provide a good explanation on why they might not actually know as much as you should be expecting them to.

[kuschku]

Cat 7 with RJ45 sockets is standardized, which is ideal for running it in walls. Sure, you don't want to use it for patch cables, but over long runs in walls it's a great solution, especially due to the better shielding of Cat 7.

> so you have no idea what you're actually getting

As Cat 7 is only sold by the meter on a roll, you know just as much what you're getting as with Cat 6A, spec-compliant network cables.

[hiAndrewQuinn]

OP here, I looked into it. For legal reasons I will neither confirm nor deny any marketing claims here and let the experts decide. I will merely list the equipment I bought. [0] [1] [2] [3]

[0]: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01EXDG2MO - "TP-Link TL-SG108 V3 8-ports Gigabit Network Switch"

[1]: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07WG8TNDL - "CSL Cat 7 Network Cable, Gigabit, Ethernet, LAN Cable, PiMF Shielding With RJ 45 Connector, Switch, Router, Modem Access Point, White"

[2]: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B06XCYC4K7 - "deleyCON 5 x 0.5 m Cat7 Network Cables, Short, 10 Gigabit, RJ45 Patch Ethernet Cable, Copper, SFTP PiMF Shielding, LAN, DSL for Switches, Modems, Router, Patch Panels, Cat6, Cat5 Compatible, Black"

[3]: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B089MF1LZN - "Amazon Basics 30.5m White Flat RJ45 CAT7 Gigabit Ethernet Patch Internet Cable"

One copy of each would run you around 75-85 euros in total by my napkin math. Sticking with standard CAT 6A would have probably been 10-15 euros cheaper, and since I'm only aiming for 1 Gbps, not 10, I might have been able to get away with CAT 5e, even.

I suspect that the additional hours of time I would have had to spend actually doing my research here to make a fully informed purchase would have made this a slightly net negative decision financially. But that's mostly because of the small size and modest needs of the network I was wiring up. If I were wiring up anything that scaled beyond my own apartment it would have been valuable to know this, so thank you, my career will go better as a result of this correction.

[Arrowmaster]

So everything I say in this comment is unlikely to have any real impact if you were to replace the cables and retest, but I'm saying it for educational purposes. The reason the specs are strict is not because it cannot be done on less but because the acceptable margins for error and risk are lower in non consumer settings.

That switch does have metal around the ports but I could not find any indication in a datasheet that it designed to accept shielded cables. I also don't know what other devices you are connecting to the switch. Proper usage of shielded twisted pair needs the shielding to make contact to ground on both sides of the cable. I was taught years ago that using a shielded cable with neither side grounded or just one side grounded had the potential to turn the shielding into an antenna and make interference worse than with an unshielded twisted pair cable.

The flat cable is concerning. Flat cables are not part of any twisted pair spec. There tends to be two kinds of flat ethernet cables. The first being completely flat with no twisted pairs at all and the second kind having each pair twisted around each other but then the four pairs are parallel in the falter sheathing. The second kind is better and from the pictures that cable might be the second kind. However 33 meters is very long for a flat cable. Ideally you shouldn't use them but if you have to keeping them very short like under 2 meters is ok.

The pages for the other two cables never even show the cables but what looks like 3d renderings. I personally do not like that and it makes me think less of the vendors. I doubt any of the three cables would pass a full qualification test for Cat7 but they are probably completely indistinguishable from qualified Cat5e (since you are only using 1g) unless you are using them next to high voltage power conduits or next to a high power broadcast antenna. This just comes down to "Cat7 consumer products are a marketing scam."

[hiAndrewQuinn]

Thank you! The flat cable was a necessary conceit for my apartment. I can't cut a notch out of the doorframe and expect to get my deposit back...

[someguyiguess]

What about Cat 8? I know it’s not really used in consumer grade applications but is it in TIA/EIA standards?

[r1ch]

Yes, that's standardized but is only rated for up to 30 meters at the higher speeds you get from it, so it's not very useful outside of server room / data center applications and you probably want to be using fiber at that point.

[0xC0ncord]

For what it's worth, I recently bought a spool of CAT7 cable and a bunch of RJ45 connectors and made my own cables that perform well and reliably. I don't know if this was wise in the end but I was able to get what I needed out of it.