Shielded vs Unshielded Ethernet Cable: When and Where to Use

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!

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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[curtisyue]

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 👍

[GregoryGuay]

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.

[masohan]

Great content Don, it was nice meeting you on the plane from Detroit to Kansas last week.

[SupertigerDev]

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.

[audi_kid]

Great video thank you! Watching your YouTube videos made me more comfortable purchasing the Ethernet cable 🤙🏼

[Chimel]

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.

[paulf]

You have great videos on your channel! Nice and easy explanation

[JasonsLabVideos]

Good video Don, as always very well explained !

[vibhawan.]

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 ?

[jaredLP-]

Question: got a scenario in an educational facility where we are running (2) Cat6A Shielded cables between TV location and work station (desk) for HDBASE-T. Shielded is recommended for AV transmittor. We would terminate with shielded jacks and also can use shielded patch cables, but does the HDBASE-T transmitter and receiver normally provide the bond to ground within the electronics? We are not in a rack, so we cannot bond to the rack via metal patch panel. I am unsure if the electronics naturally provides the bond to ground when the shielded patch cable plugs into the device on each side?

[Dwartay]

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?

[joeglennaz]

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.

[camposfamily]

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.

[MrAmfme]

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

[katesummers]

Hi! Can you ground the shielded cable directly to the earth(in the backyard), through extension wire and a copper rod?

[jaddenJack]

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?

[AlexAnnonymouss]

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!

[shaibannatha]

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.

[apmiller]

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.

[BMM]

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?