SF/FTP: A shielded cable with both a braided shield and foil shield around the cable, with foil shielding around the individual twisted pairs. This is the highest level of Ethernet shielding available, with strong external EMI protections, warding against crosstalk, and a durable braided shield to help prevent future damage to the shielding. The cost problem is compounded by requiring additional shielded hardware at the ends of the cables to fully protect against EMI, and some networks will require additional grounding wires to provide full protection. For everything else, unshielded should be perfectly fine. Just be sure that even if you’re buying unshielded cables, you buy ones that are built to a high standard. That is cables with a solid copper core, not copper-clad aluminum, and if you want some additional rigidity in the cable (and some protection against crosstalk) get one with a spline too.

Our kenable Cat6 FTP outdoor cable is designed with FULL COPPER 23AWG twisted pairs and is Foil Shielded to ensure any interference is kept under control it also has a drain wire so can be earthed! Our cat 6 FTP cables also have a divider to separate the twisted pairs reducing cross talk. In addition, shielded cable, while not excessively heavy, can become weighty if you are running a lot of cables in one area. Heavy cabling run above a ceiling or behind a wall has been known to cause structural damage. The main advantage of Cat 6 cable over previous generations is its capability to support Gigabit Ethernet (up to 1000 Mbps) and higher network speeds. It has more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise compared to Cat 5e cable, which allows for better performance and less signal degradation over longer distances. Applications

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This should make the shielded vs. unshielded cables debate an easy one to solve. If you need EMI protections, you’re going to need shielded cables. However, if you can get away with it, you’ll save money, and installation headaches by going with unshielded cables instead. Shielded twisted pair cables (STP) are Ethernet cables that feature additional protection against electromagnetic interference. That can be anything from heaps of unshielded wires bunched together, to the air conditioning unit running next to your cabling, to the leaky microwave in the office kitchen near your network. That presents a problem when it comes to transmitting important data, as EMI has the potential to disrupt it.

It might seem that shielded cables are probably the best way to go, especially if data integrity is incredibly important to your network. And to some extent, that’s true, but there are some other factors worth considering that could make your choice of shielded vs. unshielded cables a little harder to make.Unshielded cables are a lot more straightforward than their shielded counterparts. Often called UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) these cables offer the same bandwidth, cable lengths, and outputs as shielded cables, but don’t feature the EMI protections of their shielded cousins. Unshielded cables, on the other hand, don’t have any of that. They’re more affordable, are easier to install, and are much lighter to work with. That makes them easier to carry around, and in extreme bulk, makes them cheaper to ship between locations, too. But which type of Cat6 do you require? Essentially, the choice of whether to use unshielded twisted pairs (UTP) or shielded (or screened) twisted pairs (STP or ScTP) largely depends on where you're installing the cable.