On April 9, 2012 at 22:51, cgav said...
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Every Cat5 or Cat6 keystone jack I have EVER used say either cat5 or cat6 on them, not RJ45.
What you mean is that every RJ45 keystone jack you have ever used says CAT5 or CAT on it. The label doesn't name the jack, but labels the kind of wire to be used. RJ11s probably don't say CAT5 or 6 because the RJ11 does not use all of the conductors of the CAT5, while the RJ45 jack does.
The phone (rj11) ones I use either say Cat3 or nothing on them. A Cat5 keystone jack is a Cat5 keystone jack. Can you use cat5 cable with a cat3 keystone jack? Yeah, but in that case I would have said Cat3 jack.
You know, I see your logic; on audio equipment, every phone jack says "Phone" or "Headphones." However, these just aren't called CAT3 or CAT5 jacks. They just aren't.
And on the backs of AVRs, none of the phono jacks (RCA) are labeled RCA, but we call them RCA jacks. The HDMI jacks do indeed use HDMI wire... so it depends on the connector and the habit in the industry.
Which is clearest? I'd say it's clearest to call the jacks we're talking about RJ45 jacks. First, that's what they are and that's what they were first called. Second, they can use CAT5 or CAT6, so should we call them CAT5/CAT6 jacks instead?
Since RJ11 plugs are loose in RJ45 jacks, this combination should not be used. Since you can't put an RJ45 plug into an RJ11 jack (that can have 60 volts DC and more than a hundred volts ring voltage on it), RJ11 jacks should be used for phone.
