Question Slimline Cat6A cables, shielded vs unshielded. Is there a difference in performance?

[Hans Gruber]

I just picked up a bunch of slimline ethernet cables from monoprice. It's a shielded Cat6A that means it's grounded. IT's thicker and not as flexible as the old Cat6A slimline monoprice cables. I have 5ft and 10ft Cat6a slimlines and wanted to try out this new Cat6A cable. Do you guys use shielded cables or have a preference. They say shielded (grounded) ethernet cables eliminate any interference.

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[ch33zw1z]

I just picked up a bunch of slimline ethernet cables from monoprice. It's a shielded Cat6A that means it's grounded. IT's thicker and not as flexible as the old Cat6A slimline monoprice cables. I have 5ft and 10ft Cat6a slimlines and wanted to try out this new Cat6A cable. Do you guys use shielded cables or have a preference. They say shielded (grounded) ethernet cables eliminate any interference.

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I can provide my own anecdote and XP. First tho, you're correct, the shielded cables are "grounded" and should be used with grounded jacks afaik. Is it required? No, but that's my understanding.

Ok, so I acquired a pile of FTP (foil shielded twisted pair) Cat5e patch cables over the years, and I used them on a regular basis without problems. Very high quality used in DC environments with lots of HV cables.

I like to test speeds between desktops / devices / etc using iperf (version 3 currently).

I also had purchased a few cat6 (and I think cat6a) cables from monoprice. I will try and find they're ratings on the jacket, but here's what I found.

iperf3 testing over the cat6 cables yielded about 30% less speeds than the FTP cables.

Now, there's variables in play that I have to make known. In particular, NIC drivers (I had a laptop with realtek nic that speeds changed quite a bit with newer drivers).

And if there's HV power near the cables, the shielded cables should fare better...and of course the quality of cable matters

I would make some connections and use iperf to test with each cable and see what you get.

 

[Hans Gruber]

I can provide my own anecdote and XP. First tho, you're correct, the shielded cables are "grounded" and should be used with grounded jacks afaik. Is it required? No, but that's my understanding.

Ok, so I acquired a pile of FTP (foil shielded twisted pair) Cat5e patch cables over the years, and I used them on a regular basis without problems. Very high quality used in DC environments with lots of HV cables.

I like to test speeds between desktops / devices / etc using iperf (version 3 currently).

I also had purchased a few cat6 (and I think cat6a) cables from monoprice. I will try and find they're ratings on the jacket, but here's what I found.

iperf3 testing over the cat6 cables yielded about 30% less speeds than the FTP cables.

Now, there's variables in play that I have to make known. In particular, NIC drivers (I had a laptop with realtek nic that speeds changed quite a bit with newer drivers).

And if there's HV power near the cables, the shielded cables should fare better...and of course the quality of cable matters

I would make some connections and use iperf to test with each cable and see what you get.

I have not seen a difference in speed between the two cables. The difference is the metal jacket at the end of the RJ45 plug and the cable is thicker on the shielded cable because of the grounding inside. These basically replace the monoprice slimline Cat6A cables that you see in those 5packs they sell of slimlines.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I have not seen a difference in speed between the two cables. The difference is the metal jacket at the end of the RJ45 plug and the cable is thicker on the shielded cable because of the grounding inside. These basically replace the monoprice slimline Cat6A cables that you see in those 5packs they sell of slimlines.

Pretty nice gigabit speeds you got there!

 

[DaaQ]

I just picked up a bunch of slimline ethernet cables from monoprice. It's a shielded Cat6A that means it's grounded. IT's thicker and not as flexible as the old Cat6A slimline monoprice cables. I have 5ft and 10ft Cat6a slimlines and wanted to try out this new Cat6A cable. Do you guys use shielded cables or have a preference. They say shielded (grounded) ethernet cables eliminate any interference.

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I do not believe the metal on the rj45 connector end means its "grounded" but shielding cable or cable with foil in it will help with reducing noise ingress. You can also buy "flooded" ethernet cable for direct burial.

Difference between cat5e and cat6 in the twists per inch of the twisted pairs. Which also means putting on your own rj45 connector ends becomes more difficult, as to keep the tight twist as far into the connector as possible.
The tighter pair twisting, reduces crosstalk, interference and increases throughput on the cable.

 

[Hans Gruber]

It's just my opinion. The Cat6a cabling method sucks. That is why I would only buy Cat6a cables and not attempt to make a Cat6a cable. I think you are right. Whenever you see Cat6 with the metal jacket, that means it's shielded. I tested a Cat6 thick cable with the metal jacket that I have and it wasn't grounded but was shielded. I tested a Cat7 real thick cable with metal jacket and it was grounded. The slimlines are for convenience and to avoid cable clutter. They are not designed for POE. They work well.