Shielded vs Unshielded Ethernet Cable: When and Where to Use
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- Опубликовано: 1 авг 2024
- Many people who install bulk Ethernet data cable wonder if standard unshielded cable (UTP) is good enough, or if higher-end shielded cable (FTP) is necessary. This video should clear up any confusion you have surrounding this subject!
Sit back and let our Technical Manager, Don Schultz, walk you through why you should use shielded or unshielded Ethernet cable, the situations you’d use each in, and some installation best practices!
For more information on this subject, check out our blog: www.truecable.com/blogs/cable...
If you found this video interesting let us know in the comments and subscribe for more!
Video Time Codes:
[0:00-0:33] - Intro & Overview
[0:34-1:52] - Characteristics of Unshielded Ethernet Cable
[1:53-3:20] - Characteristics of Shielded Ethernet Cable
[3:21-4:30] - What Does the Cable Shield Do?
[4:31-5:00] - Closing Thoughts & Outro
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Flush Cutter: www.truecable.com/products/fl...
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Great video thank you! Watching your RUclips videos made me more comfortable purchasing the Ethernet cable 🤙🏼
Love to hear it!
Great content Don, it was nice meeting you on the plane from Detroit to Kansas last week.
Thanks! I enjoyed speaking with you as well. Hopefully we will run into each other again and wax on enthusiastically about Ethernet cable while drinking coffee!
Dude I feel so vindicated right now. I was on a jobsite with a coworker and we were discussing possibly running our cable through conduit alongside a higher voltage cable the electricians had run. Nothing crazy high voltage, just power for some device we were running alongside. And I was like "Yea it should be fine running next to it since its shielded" and he comes back saying "That's not how that works, the purpose of shielded cable is just to provide extra physical protection to the wire, it doesn't reduce interference from other cables" or something like that.
I had a feeling he was wrong, but he was a senior technician so i didn't want to challenge him on it. Thanks for the video and the knowledge 👍
Hello Curtis! I am glad you found the video useful. If the Ethernet drop was being run through metallic conduit then you would not have needed shielded cable. Both ends of the metallic conduit need to be bonded to ground. The metallic conduit would serve as the cable shield. Please note that this does not apply to PVC conduit and we are talking about 240V or less electrical. If, on the other hand, you were running Ethernet in parallel to electrical without conduit and could not maintain your distance from it then that is when you would use shielded cable. Your coworker's explanation about how Ethernet cable shields work is completely incorrect. He might have been thinking about ARMORED cable perhaps.
@@trueCABLE Thanks for the response. I have another question: So my understanding is you aren't supposed to run data next to fire alarm cable. Is shielded data exempt from this? Thanks.
@@curtisyue182 Hello Curtis! Fire alarm cable is low voltage. You don't need to keep Ethernet separate from it, so shielded would be unnecessary.
@@hhatz Hello and thanks for your comment. That would be absolutely correct. It is actually a violation of the NEC/NFPA 70 to run communications cable inside the same conduit as an AC electrical circuit.
Great Explanation. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
You have great videos on your channel! Nice and easy explanation
Thank you! We're always happy to help!
Good video Don, as always very well explained !
Thanks, Jason! We're glad it helps.
Great informative video!
I need to lay cat5e/cat6 cables for IP camera. The cables would be running near a distribution transformer of 1100 kva(cable to transformer distance approx 1 metre). Do I need a shielded cable or an unshielded one ?
Hello! I strongly suggest using shielded Ethernet cable if you can maintain only 1 meter away. With shielded Ethernet 32" is the minimum separation distance from that transformer. If you opt for unshielded Ethernet, keep the separation to 48" minimum.
Also, the best noise rejection is achieved if the cable shield is grounded on one end only.
Hello Tom! Agreed, depending upon your AC ground system. If everything is at equal potential, then it won't make a difference if you bond to more than one place on the same AC ground system, but if there are any issues, you will achieve the best results by bonding to a single end of the same AC ground system. The biggest thing you don't want to do is bond to two totally disparate ground systems that are not equalized!
@@trueCABLE This might be a topic for another video, but even on a decent residential AC ground system our FTP shield is a path of lower resistance for high frequencies then the ground wire connected between the same two points (while points might be measured as "equal" potential in DC or even in 50-60 Hz domain).
@@_majortom_ Hello again Major! Agreed, and we will be doing some detailed content with a bit error rate analyzer (BERT tester) in various high EMI environments to help people determine when and where FTP cable will be of benefit. Stay tuned! We are building out a test lab for just this thing.
I have a long 20m un-shielded cheapo Ethernet cable from amazon running from downstairs to upstairs in my room to my gaming PC. For 5 years now, I felt that my mouse input felt floaty and weird, Never knew whats the cause. Until recently I found a post in blurbusters with the same problem, all they did is change to a shielded cable instead.
I managed to fix my problem without doing that. My Ethernet cable was wrapped in a circle, on the floor, over a plug extension. I tried moving the Ethernet away from the extension brick thing. The problem did not immediately fix. It took a day until the floaty feeling went away. This is crazy.
Hello and thanks for sharing that. That sounds pretty unusual, but I am glad you figured it out! I suspect the issue had more to do with the circle loops the cable was in then simply being in proximity to your electrical strip. For example, BICSI recommends that any cable that is stored as service slack in a telecommunications room be turned into a figure "8" pattern in order to avoid picking up EMI/RFI. As it turns out, circles are rather apt to pickup interference. The other strange thing about your situation is most simple extension cords should not pose that much of a risk to Ethernet when it comes to EMI/RFI (we are talking about 120V) as long as they are correctly made. I am wondering if the extension cord itself might have had something to do with this too. Either way, your lesson is a valuable one: Keep Ethernet and AC electrical cable separate!
@@trueCABLE oh interesting. I will try wrapping my ethernet cable in that pattern aswell. Thanks! Also I live in the UK btw, I think electricity is higher here. I'm not an expert so, excuse my wording 😅
@@SupertigerDev You are welcome. Also, you are right! In the UK the voltage is 230V. That might be the difference!
Can we use flat cables for outdoors, and passing them trhoughout inner electrical pipes into the buildings (roof, and walls) ?
What are the considerations to have ?
Thanks
Hello Ducky. The USA based NEC/NFPA 70 is pretty explicit about fire safety and the use of outdoor cabling in commercial structures. Outdoor cabling (referred to as OSP or Outside Plant) may only run from outside to inside a building up to 50 feet before it must be terminated and transitioned to indoor rated cable. Whether the cable is flat or not is not relevant. There are some exceptions for single and duplex style residential dwellings in regards to use of outdoor rated cable indoors, but that is another discussion. As to using electrical conduit for pathways: don't do that. Ethernet pathways should avoid AC electrical circuits and definitely not run in the same conduit.
My foreman just asked me what the shield and drain wire accomplishes in front of a new guy. I told him that the shields main purpose is to avoid cross talk. I also noted that the drain wire can be used with grounding kits depending on what type of patch panels you're using (my experience with Panduit).
My foreman said that it's main function is that if you don't terminate it properly it turns the shield in to a big antenna like the old TV antennas. Is this correct?
Hello Joseph! Yes, this is correct, but only in extreme circumstances. Typically, the cable shield and drain wire are used in conjunction with each other (they make contact inside the cable anyway...or should). The drain wire is more useful for draining off ESD and the shield helps overcome ANEXT (alien, or outside the cable cross talk from coming in). But, essentially, our foreman is absolutely right and the cable shield/drain wire must be properly terminated AND it must also be bonded to the AC system ground somehow. Failing to do so would result in a non functioning cable shield (at best) and the cable acting as an antenna (worst case, extreme RFI environments).
Hi, just came across your channel as I am looking to Ethernet our home. We live next to sub-station from the energy grid; would this be a reason to go for a shield cable rather than unshield?
Hello George. Good question. I would say no. That said, if you intend on putting any Ethernet outdoors you might want to use shielded there.
Great Video, can you tell me if you would recommend using shielded cable in this scenario: I am wanting to run 2 separate cat5 cables to my shop 250 feet from my cable box in my house I plan to bury the cables side by side what would you recommend
Without a nearby source of EMI, the underground cable should not require shielding. The two data cables do not require shielding from each other. However, even though the cable is to be buried, you should still investigate lightning protection. We have a blog about it on our Web site: www.truecable.com/blogs/cable-academy/when-lightning-strikes-ethernet-data-cable-and-lightning-protection
You're missing the F/FTP cable, where each twisted pair of wires is foiled, and then the whole cable is foiled too.
Aluminum foils are the best cheap compromise to shielding even though regular Cat 6A FTP is probably good for any home and for the next decade or more.
Hello! You are correct, there is also S/FTP and F/FTP shielded Ethernet. We don't carry either of those (yet) but when creating the video we were referring to our products. The same general concepts of shielded vs. unshielded apply, however, regardless of the shielding level.
Hello and glad I came across this video. So I did hear that you said performance won’t be any different with the shielded vs non shielded. So I’m re doing all my cat5 to cat6a and see at least 120.00 dollar price difference. I run all my stuff in the floor boards and have about an 8 foot run where it touches all my 14/2 wires from the house panel. Would this be a reason to get shielded or would it be ok to run all my wire unshielded.
Hello Campos Family! We are glad you came across our video too. It is correct that shielding in of itself does not increase performance. Making the decision between shielded and unshielded Ethernet cable is an installation environment concern. In your case, I would still hesitate to recommend all shielded Cat6A as installing shielded Ethernet dramatically increases costs and complexity of the installation. In the small trouble spot you referred to, I would use some sort of metallic divider for that short 8 feet. A 10 foot piece of ENT (electrical metallic conduit) is an ideal solution. For five Cat6A Ethernet cables (7.0mm diameter each cable) use 1" conduit. If you need to fit up to thirteen cables, use 1.5" conduit. Install the conduit and then run your Ethernet through it to protect it from EMI. It is strongly suggested to bond one end of the conduit by using a split grounding bushing. You can pick up the conduit and grounding bushing at Home Depot or Lowes. The grounding bushing will slip over the rough end of the conduit and have a plastic insert to protect your Ethernet cable jackets from getting abraded. The bushing will have a provision for attaching a bond wire. Use 12AWG stranded green THHN and attach it to the ground bushing and then bond the wire to ground at the nearest electrical box (if inside your main breaker box, have an electrician do that!) The other end of the conduit should have a simple slip-on plastic protector bushing to protect your Ethernet cable from damage. The plastic protectors come in four or five packs and you can buy the ground bushings individually. Make sure you buy the right sizes for your metallic conduit. Materials should cost less than $30. I hope this helps!
@@trueCABLE yes awesome. And thank you for the thorough explanation and step by step for this situation. Now for the tough part, doing the install at home.
@@camposfamily5091 You are welcome! Yeah, it is fun thinking and planning out an install. It is also fun buying stuff for an install. THEN, you have to actually do the install. :>)
Hi! Can you ground the shielded cable directly to the earth(in the backyard), through extension wire and a copper rod?
Hello! Yes, but be sure that you don't accidentally create a ground loop. Essentially, you want to be sure the only path to ground is via that ground rod, so your Ethernet switches should NOT also be a path to ground (and they are if they have a 3-prong power cord instead of an AC/DC adapter). Please check that and carefully consider what paths to ground the cable shield may take before embarking on this method.
Hello! Great content! I was wondering if it matters using FTP cable in my case. I want to connect two houses. There are no magnetic interferences in my area that could affect the cable so much i guess. Would it be ok to use UTP even though I use it outside? Thanks!
Hello! Thanks for the kudos and we are glad you find the content useful. As to the choice between shielded and unshielded Ethernet: Don't use shielded Ethernet cable unless you have a specific reason to do so and are looking to avoid a problem area you know about. Using shielded has benefits in some scenarios, but not yours. Incorrectly installed shielded Ethernet cable will cause far more trouble than resolve any non-existent issue.
@@trueCABLE thank you very much! 😊
What environment calls for shielding?
Hello! Well, that depends on a large number of factors. First up, how are you installing your cable? Is it in metallic conduit? If yes, then you don't need shielded since the metallic conduit should be bonded to ground (in a commercial situation), and that serves as the shielding. If you are running cable right next to strong EMI/RFI sources then it might need shielded cable AND metallic conduit (480V and above if you cannot maintain your distance). Each installation is its own animal. For most residential situations, shielding is not required (but that is a general statement if there ever was one). Any sort of outdoor aerial installation demands shielded cable due to the need to drain off ESD discharge (due to air movement) to ground. So, the rules are not hard and fast, and it is up to the technician installing and a proper survey of the site in addition to what installation methods are being employed. There are some generalized guidelines in a blog I wrote, so you might want to take a look at www.truecable.com/blogs/cable-academy/running-ethernet-and-power-cable.
Do you guys have a variety pack? I just need a pack of different links from 1 foot 3 foot 6’10 foot and 15 foot tables. I can’t find anything like that on Amazon.
Hello Joe! Unfortunately, no. Interesting idea, though!
I’ve been using true cable cat six unshielded for about a year now. And some of my cables are ran right by a home theater subwoofer with a large magnet. I could never find the answer to this, but will a magnet affect my cat 6 cable?
Hello, Yeezy! No, it probably won't harm anything. The home theater subwoofer should already have shielding built in to prevent it from messing around with anything else.
I simply want to run a 100 foot ethernet cable from my downstairs modem to my attic home studio where I can connect my computer or perhaps a Google mesh type device. It will probably run parallel to someone 120 votes Romax in the walls but I don’t understand if I would need shielded or not when connecting two devices like this.
Hello Gregory. You probably won't need shielded if you follow some basic precautions. Maintain your distance from the 120V Romex by being sure the Ethernet is on the opposite side of the wall cavity, or simply switch to a different wall cavity. Electrical is typically attached to a stud, so if you must run it in the same cavity, use a stud finder with AC detection and find out which side of the wall cavity the Romex is attached to. Then, run the cable so it is on the opposite side.
I do not want to undermine the correct advice given here.
I just want to share my general approach when running ethernet cables in my family and current one.
Due to different limitations I will always have to run them alongside AC (240V here in Europe). Hence I just buy the shield ones, along with shielded connectors and sockets.
Making sure it is always grounded at least on one end (send where the sockets are I'm not always able to have proper low resistance ground)
@@BobbyBike Hello Robert! You are not totally incorrect in your approach. Per the NEC/NFPA 70 the actual minimum when separating shielded Ethernet from 240V or lower AC is no separation on parallel (just not bundled with it) when only a single circuit is involved. We suggest 2" separation on parallel in your particular situation to keep people out of trouble in edge case scenarios where multiple AC circuits are bundled together or to help prevent damage to one or the other when pulling cabling. Hope this helps!
In a shielded cable, are the pairs made of the same conductor compared to an unshielded cable? I wonder if the shield affects the impedances of the wires and Ethernet standard.
Hello MJ. It depends on the cable, quite frankly. Generally speaking, the conductor gauge and insulation around the conductors is the same. Internal construction of various shielded cables might be different. Some shielded cables have pairs that are individually foil shielded along with a wire braid shield overall. In the case of F/UTP, there is a foil overall shield but the pairs themselves are unshielded. A cable that has individually shielded pairs will typically skip the spline as it is no longer needed. Impedance of the cable may be affected, but per the standard it must be withing +/- 15 ohms of the nominal 100 ohm impedance requirements.
Stupid question - if the ethernet port is next to an outlet - would that be considered eletrical interference if the TV is connected to the outlet? Thanks!
Hello Aleksandr! If the Ethernet outlet is located next to a power outlet you may pick up EMI from the AC circuit. That is not to say it will, as it really depends on how the Ethernet and AC circuits are running inside the wall. Many times the AC circuit or the Ethernet circuit are separated in the wall by conduit, so if you are curious you can remove the wall plate and find out! Hope this helps!
Good video!
I'm doing some experiments with EFT/B which defined by IEC61000-4-4.
The experimental results surprised me that when I am doing 4kV of EFT/B test, the shielded cable failed the test, the network not working during test.
After I changed the cable to un-shielded, the same level of EFT/B passed with criteria A.
How the different may occur with shield and un-shield cable?
Hello SK! That is pretty interesting! The only thing that pops into my mind as a possible reason would be the shielded cable was not bonded to ground correctly. If the cable shield has nowhere to drain off to, EMI/RFI can start causing more issues than if you had not used shielded cable at all (which you discovered). This just underscores the necessity of properly bonding your termination hardware to your Ethernet cable and then making certain there is a low impedance path to ground (equal to or less than 100 milliohms). Of course, this is just my best guess of why you saw this phenomenon and something else could be amiss too.
I did the test again.
I found the interface signal come back from the Bob Smith termination resistor.
@@BMM66666 Hello SK! Indeed. I am glad you figured it out.
I am trying to make my satellite dish cable longer. Both ends are special, poe.... No other place has them. So I I have to reuse those. So, when connecting those separate splits on both ends, how do the drain wires connect back? Do I connect both again to provide a complete circuit? Or leave the end close to the dish off and ground the other end to the house ground? Or??
Hello J.L. You can use a shielded Cat6 splice block. They are available to buy online. This will provide a high-quality and stable connection between the two segments and will allow your Ethernet cable shield/drain wire continuity as well. Just be aware that these splice blocks are not weatherproof so you will need to weather-seal the block. 3M Mastic tape or a weatherproof enclosure of some kind will work. Hope this helps!
@trueCABLE ok, so here's my situation...ruclips.net/video/Qx9EAE3AFso/видео.html....do I connect the one splice drain wire back as normal and leave the other splice drain wire off?
I plan to run multiple cat6 cabling outdoor underground in a countryside camping place. No interference of heavy powerline or EMI. Besides outdoors underground there is no other reason as such.
Do I run unshielded cat6 cable In conduits or SFTP cat6?
Please advise.
Hello! Taking your stated environment into account, your best bet is to use our Cat6 Unshielded Gel-Filled Direct Burial cable. It will provide maximum water resistance and is pretty easy to work with compared to shielded cable. Technically, you don't even need conduit as you can direct bury it--as long as you bury at least 24" deep. If using conduit, then bury the conduit at least 10" deep, but be sure to use a synthetic wax-based lubricant when pulling the cable through it to avoid cable damage. We sell everything you need. If you are in the USA or Puerto Rico, you can order directly from www.truecable.com, or if you are in Canada, you can order from Amazon CA. We don't currently ship internationally.
@@trueCABLE in based in Africa
@@shaibannatha795 Hello! trueCABLE sells in North America and Puerto Rico only at this time. In the future, we may start offering products internationally.
I bought a cat 8 Ethernet cable. And when I got back home. The part connected to the router melted right where the gold plated part is. What could have caused this?
Hello Sliq! That would be a very unusual situation! The only thing I can think of would be a short circuit of some type where the other end of your cable came into contact with high voltage. I would discontinue the use of any suspected equipment as it sounds like there could be a fire hazard somewhere in your installation. We hope this helps! Let us know if you have further questions.
@@trueCABLE ok thanks
Can you explain why medical equipment that a patient would be touching requires Unshielded ethernet cables when connecting to the network? Presumably to avoid shock risk to the patient.
Hello Allan! I have never heard that one! Per ANSI/TIA-1179 shielded cable is highly recommended due to the high amount of potential alien cross-talk and EMI that can be created by equipment regularly found in hospitals and healthcare facilities. There is no more or less risk of electrical shock (ESD) from shielded vs unshielded patch cords. In fact, I would say they are equal since the patient would not be able to touch the cable shield and would be touching the plastic (PVC) in either case. Hope this helps!
@@trueCABLE Yes that helps. Thanks!
@@apmiller77 No problem, Allan. Glad to help.
Question
are Sheilded Cables reliable to protect against EMP
Hello! Well, yes, cable shielding can protect against EMP assuming the cable and termination hardware are properly bonded to ground. Also, the strength and distance of the EMP source will play a crucial role. It is really something you won't know for sure unless you test it. Testing would require powerful (and dangerous) equipment along with a laboratory environment.
How to ground a shielded cable in a connection PC - Access Point/Switch? I would presume that by default these devices ground their RJ45 sockets when they are connected to the power outlet with a grounding pin
Hello! In this case, the Ethernet cable shield will bond to ground at both the switch and PC. Hope this helps!
@@trueCABLE Hi, thank you for your replay. I heard that shielded Ethernet cable should be grounded only from one side, does this mean that in this case I should only terminate one end with shielded casing and 2nd one only with plastic, so it will only be able to be grounded from one side?
@@Gotcha-san Hello Gotcha! I fully understand the confusion. It is true that you should not have more than a single AC ground. That said, you should have as many bonds as possible to the same AC ground. Bonding and grounding are related, but not exactly the same. Suffice it to say that when you are dealing with a common AC ground (single residence, for example) you can and should bond to as many points on that ground as possible. The risk of ground loops comes in when you have more than one point of ground (like two different structures with two different electrical services, for example). We hope this helps! Please let us know if you have further questions.
@@trueCABLE Thank you so much. You guys are the best!
@@Gotcha-san No problem, this is what we are here for!
Tell me about difference between ethernet and twisted pair cable plz
Hello! Ethernet is a network protocol that can run across fiber, copper twisted pair, and coaxial cable. "Ethernet cable" is a term commonly used to describe copper twisted pair Category cable, but that is not technically accurate. Therefore someone who says "Ethernet cable" is likely referring to copper twisted pair Category cable. I hope that clears up any confusion!
@@trueCABLE which of the data communication is more appropriate to design Local area network.why and explain it
@@mahesh3507 Hello again! Your question is not possible to answer in a vacuum. Each LAN is different. Some LANs need only copper twisted pair. Some LANs require fiber backhauls due to speed and/or length in addition to copper twisted pair. Some LANs are 100% fiber optic. In addition, some LANs require WiFi backhauls mixed with fiber and copper. What you are seeking to do with your LAN (and the physical layout), define the technologies you should deploy.
how do you Bond the shielded cable to a ground?
Hello! You bond shielded Ethernet cable to ground, typically, via shielded connection hardware at a shielded patch panel that is bonded to your AC system ground. The bond to ground takes place at the patch panel. The idea is to provide a low resistance path for EMI/ESD to drain off before it can cause equipment damage or packet interference. Most residential environments don't have a handy dedicated copper bonding bus bar to connect to next to your network equipment, so we developed a bond-to-ground extension adapter that makes it easy. See www.truecable.com/blogs/cable-academy/how-to-truecable-bonding-grounding-extension-adapter for some information about that adapter and what this type of installation looks like. Hope this helps!
Was about to search up videos on how to do this, good thing I scrolled all the way down in the comments section. This was the last comment, getting as much info as I can.
@@itpugil Understood! We are glad you are on a learning binge! Take note all of these videos are companions to written blogs found in our Cable Academy at www.truecable.com. In the written blogs you will find detailed information that we could not present in a blog, such as close-up pictures and other nuances. We have more than 200 written blogs so far.
@@trueCABLE I read up on 2 blogs from you guys yesterday already, I am on track! :)
@@itpugil Sounds great! I am glad you are getting use of them and learning.