Cat7 Ethernet Cables Are Obsolete: Your 2024 Networking Guide

cat 7 ethernet is officially dead and if you don't believe me then let me explain I'm Michael Scott and this is the ultimate Tech [Music] Hub cat 7 also known as category 7 ethernet was ratified way back in 2002 even before cat 6A was developed and that's just one of the many issues with cat 7 that we're going to talk about today cat 7 was the first ether type to offer 10 gbits per second over 100 m and Cat 7 can provide up to 600 MHz of bandwidth and that's pretty impressive and these specifications are quite a bit higher than cat 6 cables although cat 7 capabilities fall very close to cat 6A which debuted 2 years later even though cat 7 was designed as a 10 GB cable it actually proved to be more powerful in real world use in some cases cat 7 cables were able to transmit 40 GBS per second over 50 m and 100 gbits per second over 15 M and that's pretty impressive especially since cat 7 cables are not rated for that kind of speed but it does prove that cat 7 was a very good cable when it launched in 2002 but even with those speeds cat 7 wasn't widely adopted and that's kind of strange cat 7 cables have a stricter standard for cross talk than cat 6 but roughly the same as cat 6A it typically achieves this with tighter twisting of the internal wires but you can also get cat 7 cables that have shielding of the Twisted Pairs and even a braid or foil wrap which doubles the layer of the shielding while cat 7 cables do sound great on paper especially considering when it was released in 2002 however there are many compelling Reasons Why cat 7 is not as useful as cat 6A or even cat 8 and the main reason is that the cat 7 specification is a proprietary standard developed by a group of companies which means cat 7 is not an i standard or approved by the Tia eia and to make matters worse cat 7 does not use the typical RJ45 connectors instead cat 7 uses gg45 connectors however it is backwards compatible with RJ45 connectors and most networking equipment which means this does work with all routers and switches and the lack of approval and the use of an alternative connector means that networking Hardware developers have focused their support for 10 gig ethernet for the RJ45 connector and not the gg45 connector and the lack of Conformity with the product cable standards means that cat 7 is basically dead and this ultimately drove the development of cat 6A 2 years later and Cat 6A became more popular which also added to the confusion and marketing cat 6A cables is difficult when cat 7 sounds better and newer and Cat 7 is a higher category number than cat 6A so there's a ton of confusion and once again very strange and yes this has resulted in some sellers using cat 7 to sell cat 6A cables so make sure to check specifications before you buy on Amazon and to make matters worse and more confusing cad8 was developed in 2016 and CAD 8 uses RJ45 connectors and CAD 8 provides 40 gbits per second over 30 m and an astonishing 2,000 MHz of bandwidth and CAD a does come in a wide range of shielding options and some cat8 cables have splines or foil or braided shielding and as far as cost goes cat 8 is slightly more expensive than cat 7 but not by much unlike cat 7 cat8 is officially recognized with i e and the Tia eia in side by-side comparisons cat8 is a better cable than cat 7 in all aspects it's just the facts proving that cat 7 is officially dead so with all this information consider buying cat 6A or cat 8 instead and if you want more information on cat8 cables check out the this video right here and if you're in the market for a badass gaming router check out this video right here high five peace