Cable Matters 50-Pack Cat6A RJ45 Shielded Modular Plugs with Strain Relief Boots/Cat 6A Shielded RJ45 Connectors

Bought these for terminations in new Cat6 wiring for a new house build using this wire: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005JD96C6They work very well, especially with the extra tabs on the back of the connector to grip the cable and give you a place to ground the shielding using the strengthening wire. Pass through design might be a little easier to thread, but the alignment blocks that come with the kit help with that very nicely. These are about as professional as you can get.

The only hard part is feeding the wires through the grouping piece and finally the main connector body. They will be plenty durable using Ethercon shells on the cable ends. Unfortunately, the cables I received from another vendor are incorrect in that they aren't shielded. I'll have to order the correct cable now.

Product is the right diameter for those fat shield outdoor CAT6 cables. The manufacturer wants you to be SUCCESSFUL with their product and invest in adding an instruction sheet for how to use their product with the packaging-BRAVO! In fairness to all TECHNICAL WRITERS, they did a great job with images and descriptions with the only obvious ambiguity around the bar. It is more important to the novice user that there is a 'front' and a 'back' to the bar along with how that orientates with the front and back of the connector. This ambiguity focusing on ridges and top and bottom instead of the differences in 'front' and 'back' is why I gave it 4 stars for ease of use because trying to follow the instructions at this stage can lead user problems. The loading bar face which goes first (front) in to the connector has 'thicker' end wall than the rear face (back). You can visually verify this because the graphic is accurate enough in the offset wire holes of the loading bar to match the patter between the loading bar and connector image. I took the time to write this because of the OEM's effort to provide an instruction sheet and ensure minimal waste in crimping from your first to last connection! Nice fit past wire-mapping and performance test on the first one!

NOTE: Although the little loading bars helped when ordering the striped wires, the loading bar clearly does not solve the age old problem and time consuming method of ordering and inserting the striped wires. Matter of fact, I do not believe the loading bar helped much at all for my first crimped connector for these types of connectors, and may have significantly increased the amount of time to complete the crimp, due trying to perform this task using vague instructions noted on the Amazon.com product's page. 2017.10.09: Completed another male connector, and the loading bar does significantly aid with retaining the ordering of the wires while inserting and reinserting into the male plug for test fitting. Can also use the bar as a marker for trimming the wires to ~5/8 inches or whatever length you measure and cut at.I'll update this page after my second or third crimped connector, and try to advise if the process is shortened compared to the time to crimp Ideal RJ45 connectors.One last note, these RJ45 connectors are even more difficult to distinguish through the clear translucent connector window, whether the ordering is correct after crimping. Maybe using the larger gauge CAT-6 UF (Direct Burial) cable is the cause, but doubtful.Here is a complete listing of installation instructions, including the approximate jacket stripping length and the minimum boot insertion clearance.1) Slide the boot over the CAT-5/CAT-6 wire and out of the way.2) Strip back approximately 3/4 to 1 inch of the jacket. (The wire will eventually be trimmed down to a usable ~5/8 inch.) TIP: To avoid risky cutting, use a Home Depot purchased NM/Romex wire slide style jacket stripper, more exactly called a "Lil' Ripper Stripper" manufactured by Ideal.3) Remove the foil and wrappings & inner core.4) Fold back the bare stranded aluminum ground/drain wires. Since these ground/drain wires tend to always bunch-up into one location when folded back, I tend to like to make sure the bunch of ground/drain wires are running parallel to the main arm of the ground/drain crimp of the aluminum shielded RJ45 connector, with the arms of the aluminum crimp wrapping around the outer jacket. Some suggest soldering these ground/drain wires, but I caution the heat may significantly damage the protective wire/cable jacket regardless of using a heat sink due to a lack of clearance.5) Line-up the striped wiring, trim the end for a straight edge, order and insert into the load bar. Use T568A or T568B wiring pattern order. T568A pattern seems to be the more common pattern, with T568B pattern being an older pattern. (Reference TIA/EIA-568 Wikipedia article, and make a print-out of the wire color patterns and the plug pin-out numbers.) There is a correct alignment of the loading bar, if you're looking at the loading bar from the rear, the "M" pattern will start with the bottom leg of the "M". This will match the "M" pattern of the plug, with the RJ-45 plug's tension snap release facing down, so that pin number one is to the left or the green pairs to the left.6) Once the wires are ordered and successfully loaded into the loading bar, push the cable into the RJ-45 plug, making sure pin #1 and #2 are the green pair, etc. There will be some excess striped wires still showing, and this is merrily a test fit.7) Pull the cable along with the loading bar away from the plug and trim the striped wires for showing at least 5/8 inches of stripped wire. Insert into the rear of the RJ45 plug and prep for crimping. TIP: Use the loading bar as a marker when using a tape measure or rule, for measuring the ~5/8 inches or whatever length you choose to cut at. The bar easily moves though.8) Secure the cable means, use an RJ45 crimp tool! (I'm not sure if there's specific compatible crimp tool, but I used an affordable Klein Tools RJ45 crimp tool purchased at Home Depot.)9) Tightly wrap the bare stranded aluminum ground/drain wires over the jacket of the wire and crimp the aluminum ground/drain straps using your fingers & pliers, trimming any excess bare stranded ground/drain wires.10) Slide the blue boot cover over the crimped connector until 7/8th's of the crimped connection is showing, or the crimped connector into a female port while firmly gripping the crimped connector, push the boot until the boot is flush with the female port.TIP: I'm always rechecking the ordering of the wires each time I insert and remove the striped wires from the RJ-45 plug.PROS1) Very light weight cable2) Jacket is very slick, seemingly containing some sort of Teflon coating?CONS1) Vague Cable Matter's instructions.2) Connectors' clear translucent window does not clearly display the colored ordering of the wires. Slightly more difficult compared to Ideal RJ45 connectors, as if this has every been an easy task to begin with!

Looks like good quality. Happy with purchase, this works well with larger diameter underground sheathed cableTiny wires are hard for big hands. Plan on practicing terminating and testing a few test pieces before assembling final cable, wires can become out of order upon insertion in housing/ good design, just small pieces

Horrible product! The holes don’t match up exact cause it’s too big. I’m using standard 22g cat 5e wire and it’s frustrating how many times I gotta redo a wire cause they move around in the connector. You have to get it exactly perfect and not move it AT ALL or it’ll hop the groove the wire is suppose to sit in causing miss connection or possibly doubling the contact points with one wire. Good thing I called a friend who does installs for cable company for a handful of connectors or I would’ve been screwed!!!

The bottom line -- Cable Matters was a bust and returned. The longer version -- the wiring boot is poorly designed for "thinker" shielded cabling. Guys tried to crimp 3 times, but every single one failed because the "thicker" thread of the shielded CAT6 cable didn't fit correctly in the boot. Got TruCable -- and first got it on the first attempt.