What You Need Before Starting
Installing an Ethernet wall jack means terminating an in-wall cable run into a keystone jack that snaps into a wall plate. The job has two distinct parts: routing and pulling the cable inside the wall (covered in the wall-fishing guide), and terminating and mounting the jack. This guide covers the termination and mounting steps, assuming cable already exits the wall at the correct location.
Tools required: punch-down tool (110-type blade), cable stripper or sharp knife, flush cutters, a basic wire map tester, a pencil, and a drill or drywall saw if cutting a new hole. Materials: keystone jack matched to your cable category, low-voltage mounting bracket (for new construction or open wall) or old-work single-gang box, and a wall plate that accepts the keystone format.
Mounting Options
| Mount Type | When to Use | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Old-work single-gang box | Existing drywall without stud access | Self-clamping wings grip the back of drywall; accepts standard wall plates |
| Low-voltage mounting bracket (mud ring) | Open wall or new construction | Screws to stud face; no back box; keystone wall plate mounts directly to bracket |
| Surface-mount box | Concrete, brick, or when cutting drywall is not possible | Mounts flat on the wall surface; no in-wall hole needed beyond cable entry |
| Brush plate / cable pass-through | Equipment room or desk cable entry | No keystone jack; just a hole with a brush insert or blank plate; cable exits freely |
Step-by-Step Installation
- Cut the opening: Trace the bracket or box outline on the wall. Use a drywall saw or oscillating tool to cut the opening. Check for pipes and wires by probing with a stiff wire before cutting. If cable is already routed, thread it through before mounting.
- Mount the bracket or box: For old-work boxes, insert the box, tighten the clamping screws until the wings grip the drywall. For low-voltage brackets, screw to the stud face. Leave 12–18 inches of cable slack hanging out of the opening — you will trim this after termination.
- Strip the cable jacket: Remove 1.5 inches (38 mm) of outer jacket. Do not nick individual conductors. Leave the pairs twisted; do not untwist until you are seating each conductor into the jack.
- Terminate the keystone jack: Most keystone jacks have color-coded slots labeled for both T568A and T568B. Choose one standard and use it consistently throughout the installation. Press each conductor into its slot following the color diagram, keeping the pair twist intact until the wire enters the slot. Use the punch-down tool with firm single strikes — the tool cuts the excess wire and seats the conductor simultaneously.
- Snap the cap on: Snap the strain relief cap onto the jack body. This protects the IDC contacts and provides a bend radius for the cable entering the jack.
- Test before closing: Plug the remote unit of a wire map tester into the jack and the main unit at the patch panel or other end. Confirm all 8 conductors pass before snapping the jack into the wall plate and mounting the plate.
- Mount and label: Snap the keystone jack into the wall plate, screw the plate to the bracket or box, and apply a label with the port identifier that matches your patch panel labeling.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to match keystone jack brand to wall plate brand?
Not necessarily — the keystone form factor (the snap-in rectangular format) is a standardized footprint that most manufacturers follow. A Leviton keystone jack will snap into a Panduit wall plate and vice versa in most cases. The exception is some proprietary formats (Legrand/On-Q uses a different snap pattern than standard keystone). Stick to one brand for an installation to be safe, but cross-brand keystone compatibility is very common in practice. What must match is the cable category: a Cat6A jack should be used with Cat6A cable throughout if 10G performance is needed.
The jack is terminated and the tester passes, but the link only comes up at 100 Mbps — why?
A basic wire map tester only verifies DC continuity and pin order — it does not detect split pairs or measure crosstalk. A 100 Mbps link on a gigabit port almost always indicates excessive pair untwisting during termination (more than 13 mm of untwisted pair past the jack body), a split pair (two conductors from different physical pairs treated as a pair), or a marginal punch-down that makes contact at DC but fails at high frequency. Re-terminate the jack: strip fresh cable, keep pairs twisted until the moment the conductor enters the IDC slot, and punch down firmly. If re-termination does not fix it, test the cable with a proper TDR or certifier.
Can I install a dual-port wall plate with one Ethernet and one coax jack?
Yes — keystone wall plates accommodate a mix of keystone modules: Ethernet jacks, coax (F-type) keystone couplers, HDMI keystone couplers, and blank inserts all use the same snap-in format. A dual-gang plate with one Cat6 keystone and one F-type coax keystone is a common configuration for living rooms and home offices where both TV/cable and Ethernet are needed at the same location. Run separate in-wall cables for each — do not bundle data cable tightly with coax or power wiring.