SOLUTION: I have found RJ45 connectors that are compatible with Cat7 and can also be used with the standard cat 5/6 crimpers. These do not provide speeds higher than would be expected of Cat 6a, and are a bit more expensive, but at least I can use the cable without paying 30€ a time for TERA connectors or having to bodge the whole thing by stripping the internal wires.
ORIGINAL QUESTION:
I have a lot of Cat 7 shielded cable and I want to make sure I am using the most advantageous connectors to get the most out of the cable since I now have a top of the line D-Link switch that supports Cat 7. Literally ALL of the connectors I have viewed online say they are for cat 6 or earlier. I understand that I will need a specific cat 7 crimper for the cable itself because it is slightly thicker than previous ethernet cables and that is not a problem. The issue for me is that I cannot tell from all the reading online whether I can use a standard RJ45 cable ending or whether I need to get something more specific for cat 7.
Here is a brief example of some of the relatively useless information I have found: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_11801#CAT7
Can anyone give me a definitive answer: Can I just get standard RJ45 connectors or do I need to search for something more specific? I see indications that I need 8P8C connectors, but I thought these were the same as ARJ45; and at any rate, I cannot find 8P8C connectors that do not also describe themselves as ARJ45…
Clearly I do not know what I am doing. Answers please!
UPDATE: Ok, I have used the standard RJ45 terminators and these have allowed me to use the cable although, as predicted, I have not seen a clearly higher performance in cat 7 over cat 6/6a. I considered using the TERA terminators, as described below, but I agree these look too big to be of much practical use and I am sure I will end up breaking the cables and connection points, so I gave up on this idea.
One interesting thing to note is that, although this cat 7 cable is noticeably thicker than previous ethernet cables, the cat 6 crimpers DO NOT seem to have much trouble stripping the internal wires (necessary to make the fatter wires fit standard RJ45s) and connecting them up with the RJ45s. A bit of a bodge that has caused me some problems, but practice has made it a reliable solution.
However, the RJ45 endings I have bought come with rubber seals that are supposed to slip over the cable and thus protect the cable terminators. Since these are rubbery plastic they can ONLY JUST, with much force applied, be stretched to fit over the slightly thicker Cat 7 cable.
After all this effort, I wish I had bought Cat 6a cable instead.
Best Answer
If you want to connect these cables to your D-Link switch's 10GBASE-T ports, then you need to put whatever connector your D-Link switch has, and your D-Link switch almost certainly has Cat 6a 8P8C ("RJ-45") connectors, because it's been designed to work with Cat 6 and Cat 6a cabling.
Your D-Link switch almost certainly doesn't have those weird ARJ45 or GG45 connectors that put two of the pairs on the bottom (tab side) of the connector instead of keeping them all in a full row of 8 pins on the top.
IEEE 802.3 10GBASE-T 10 Gigabit Ethernet over twisted-pair copper requires ISO/IEC Class E (which maps to ANSI/EIA/TIA Cat 6) or better. Unscreened (unshielded) Cat 6 can do 10GBASE-T at up to 55 meter distances, and shielded Cat 6 can do 10GBASE-T at up to 100m distances.
So, in summary:
OK, but what about wall jacks and patch panels? If you want to preserve the Cat 7 compliance of your structured cabling in your building, I suppose you could use ARJ45/GG45 or even TERA connectors in those other locations. You'd just have to make ARJ45/GG45-to-RJ45 equipment cables to go from the wall (or patch panel) to the Ethernet ports on your switches or host NICs. But that seems expensive and a little outside of the mainstream. If I were you, for now, I'd terminate it "Cat 6a" style everywhere, even if I'd pulled Cat 7 compliant cable through the walls. If GG45 or ARJ45 (or something else) ever catch on, I'd re-terminate my wall jacks and patch panels at that time.
[Updated to remove my "But ANSI/EIA/TIA are who really get to define Cat 7" quibbles. ISO/IEC 11801:2002 defines Cat 7, not just Class F.]