Scroll thru this sub for some recommendations, but DO NOT get a D3.0 modem! ISPs are phasing them out, and Xfinity probably won’t even let you add it to your account.

Check out the Arris SB8200 or the S33.

And check with your ISP (they have a supported modem list on their website) before you buy anything…

Nobody actually uses Cat8, not even datacenters (we just use fiber or DAC). The wiki article says it was designed for it, but it’s less reliable, has more overhead, and is more power hungry, so it never caught on.

I’ve never used keystones on the camera end, just terminated into a male RJ45, and right into the camera.

I’ve done it both ways on the NVR side. If the NVR will be wall mounted, I usually go male RJ45 and right into the NVR. If the NVR is going in a rack and some cable management panels are available, I’ll usually use keystones on a patch panel, and patch into the NVR, but not always.

As others have said, there’s no SOP for this.

In general though, it’s “best” to use keystones on solid core cable and male RJ45 ends on stranded, but I’ve done it the other way thousands of times and never had any issues. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

I voted DIY - No regrets. Myself (and a lot of others here) run used/surplus enterprise hardware that’s cheap/free. You’re kind of missing an option for that.

My primary NAS is a PowerEdge T620 with 13x 8TB HDDs (8 in the built in drive cages, 5 more in a caddy that fits in the 3x 5.25" bays). The server and the drives were free/surplus, but I bought an upgraded pair of CPUs (E5-2695 v2’s) , 128GB of RAM, and the drive caddy, for probably $200 total. It’s getting a little long in the tooth and I’ll be keeping my eye out for something newer (and less power hungry) during the next round of decommissioning.

This scratches my ‘play with enterprise hardware’ itch and is easier on the wallet upfront, but the power cost is probably more in the long run.

Also, you’ll likely get very different answers in the polls here vs in r/synology or similar. You’re asking homelabbers here, so you’re going to get homelab answers. But that’s okay, because it sounds like you fit in just fine here!