Ultimate RJ-45 Jack Cover

If you have network equipment anywhere outside a clean room you know sooner or later those unused ports collect all sorts of dust and crud. Since it's always better to prevent a problem than solve one, capping off unused ports is a good idea. I looked at commercially available dust caps which got mixed reviews and seemed expensive. I tried printing a few from Thingiverse but none met my requirements. It turns out there is a fair amount of variation between RJ-45 jacks so a cap that fits one is too tight for another, or so loose it falls out.

So I whipped up this one which completely covers the port opening and fits a wide range of jacks including:

Netgear switch

TP-Link switch

D-Link switch

TRENDNet patch panel

ASUS router

Leviton keystone

Cable Matters keystone

CE Tech (Home Depot) keystone

ICC EZ keystone

They are easy to remove with your fingernail, so to me it wasn't worth the extra filament to include a handle. Not having a handle also makes it simple to print. For best results use Ninja SemiFlex filament, it provides just the right amount of "give." Even using this relatively expensive material, the cost works out to only $0.07 of filament per cover. I run a batch of 25 at a time as needed.

Category: Computer