Best CAT cable to block RFI and EMI?

[randomName]

I have been using some Cat6 550Mhz UTP Ethernet cables I bought from Mono price about 5-10 years ago. Never occurred to me that I might be better off with some type of shielding on my cables. All of my cables are UTP. What's the best type of shielding to block out RFI and EMI? My wifi duties are dedicated to an old N66U so there's no beam forming, just radio signal blasting everywhere.


Thanks for your time

 

[McKey]

Hi rN!
Sorry, its maybe just my bad éngli$h, but i dont get your problem. I have a ~2ft long Cat7 cable that i stole from work in '19 (ok, it was on the e-waste pallet and i was the one who estimated the prices for internal reuse, so i estimated it for zero bucks for myself...) The only thing is special about it that the four twisted pairs have separated shieldings, and the pairs are inside of a big, fifth shielding. It is a really stiff cable, you could fight off drunk peoples with it, but not convenient to use it in wiring, especially crimping it. Oh yeah, almost forgot, it has a fully shielded RJ45 too.
I think what are you afraid of, is that your wifi signals will interfere with your ethernet cable signals. Your wifi is working around 2,4GHz and around 5GHz, while your ethernet is working under 500MHz, so there will be no interference. Its like asking that if bright light could cause your hearing to malfunction. Btw, if you are still concerned about shielding, you can get in-wall cables or outdoor cables with "shielded" stamps. But you have to crimp them -with shielded RJ45 connectors. It... is... not a fun! (at least when you have to bring em to 2x48 port switches...)
Hali,
M

 

[degrub]

Your wifi signals (2.5GHz and 5 or 6 GHz) are just insignificant noise. Electronic devices right next to your cable might, might overlay some RF voltage on the signal pairs, but the twisting phase cancels most of that out. Those are most vulnerable at the termination. A large motor starting (washer, dryer, etc) might cause a brief spike since it emits on all frequencies.

Are you seeing dropped packets ?
Are you seeing reduced bandwidth that you can attribute to a specific cable in a specific location ?

Otherwise, you are likely trying to solve an insignificant issue or none at all.

 

[McKey]

Yeah, UTP = Unshielded Twisted Pair. Its meant to be unshielded and still cancel out noise.

 

[randomName]

Is there any noob diagnostic way to test for issues? Just dropped packets? Any simple way?


Other question is what type of shielding offers the best protection regardless of my situation?


Thanks all for the help

 

[tgl]

Is there any noob diagnostic way to test for issues? Just dropped packets? Any simple way?

Run a long ping series between two machines on opposite ends of the cable.

If you do see drops, you then have to move on to identifying what's dropping them; it still might not be the cable's fault. (A lot of gear treats ping packets as low-priority traffic.)

 

[degrub]

UTP cat6 550 MHz works just fine for your planned service.