I have been working on a small network cable install for my work. (Roughly 41 drops split between two sites). I was using Monoprice keystones for the wall plates and had intended to use them for the patch panel (TRENDnet) as well until I found out that they are too wide and you cannot place two of them next to each other in the patch panel. I found this out after doing all 20 keystones at one site.
Do you know of a patch panel that will fit the Monoprice keystone jacks? There is some debate on Monoprice’s own website whether their own patch panel fits their keystones.
Looking towards the future:
What brand of keystones do you use? (I have used some Cable Creation ones and they seemed nicer than the Monoprice ones and did fit in a patch panel.)
Do you use 90 degree or 180 degree keystones? Issues you have had with either kind?
Do you prefer tool-less keystones or the kind that requires a 110 punch down tool? Issues with either kind?
Any of that narrow style should work fine, unless your panels are out of spec.
I fully recommend one of these tools to help you punch them down (I only use the 110 style jacks) :
Amazon has them too, but at twice the price. You can get them cheaper, but never bought from the cheaper places.
I also have some jacks that punch from the end, but haven’t really used them enough to say yes or no, and certainly don’t remember where I bought them. They are also cat6a 10gbe rated. The punch on the end helps keep the twists in place all the way to the punch point.
Thanks for the advice on the termination fixture. I have one that I got with an order of Cable Matters keystone jacks. It doesn’t fit the Monoprice ones perfectly, but I would never have been able to do this with out it.
I did some more research and looks like we purchased the standard non slim version of the keystones. So, that is probably why they did not fit.
Replying to my comment for anyone in the future that may or may not have the same questions, now that I am done with my project.
First, there appear to be two main types of keystone jacks (Ignoring 90 degree vs 180 degree) . Non-slim and slim keystone jacks. Slim keystone jacks will say they are slim keystone jacks. Non-slim keystone jacks will not say they are non-slim keystone jacks.
So, if you are unfortunate enough to find yourself using the Monoprice keystone jacks P/N 5384 (These are non-slim keystone) you may need to buy the Monoprice keystone patch panel P/N 7260, other keystone patch panels may not fit, the TRENDnet keystone patch panel I had did not.
During my project I found the Monoprice keystone jacks to be rather lackluster in their build quality. So even though I now have a patch panel that will fit them I do not plan to use them in the future.
I found the slim keystone jacks sold by Cable Matters to be of a much higher build quality. (Note they sell both a slim and non-slim keystones so be careful which you buy.) However, Cable Matters has a limited option for colors, so if you need more colors you will have to go to Infinite Cables.
Infinite Cables sells the exact same slim keystones as Cable Matters(minus the logos) but in every color option you could want.
No matter how many you are doing I cannot recommend getting punchdown puck enough. As mentioned by Greg_E above/below. Cable Matters sells one for their keystones and it works very well.
Also apparently Leviton sells keystone as well. They sell them under the eXtreme brand name. While I have not used them personally, we have used them in my buildings before and seem to be of a high quality.
Those jack holders are everywhere, but I did recently order one for home because I can’t find my other one. Had to order 6 inch shielded cables for a cable/network tester that I just bought and decided o go ahead and toss in another of those holders. Invaluable if you have more than a hand full of them to punch. They also keep the jacks from damaging sheet rock walls when you are punching short cables near a box. Found this out the hard way years ago and used to carry a metal box cover with me , until I bought one of the holder.