To shield or not to shield

Pataman

Just about to buy some cat 5e cable, unshielded for installing a network in my new house. Should I go for shielded? Is it really necessary for a home network?

Capt'n Midnight

No.
New houses usually have foil lined plasterboard anyway.

Just keep it away from electicity cables and even further from alarm cables, and if you have to cross them do it at right angles.

www.connectix.ie - ring them for prices

oscarBravo

Go unshielded. Shielded stuff is a friggin nightmare to work with. The only place I've seen a really useful application for it was on a radio mast - as in, the actual transmitter mast for a licensed radio station. Even there, it was more of a grounding than a shielding issue.

Cat5 is, by its nature, very immune to interference even without shielding.

Rew

Whats the cost differance over all (cable + shielded wall sockets/patch panel)? Are you doing the work? The shielded stuff is more dificult to work with but its just more time consuming then anything else and there are a few easy ways avoid the pit falls. It does more then just shielding the screen provides a common earth between all the equipment. I would consider the screened stuff more future proof then the unscreened. The spectrum is getting more cluttered by the day, they are already demoing wireless connections between every component of home entertainment from DVD players to amps to TV's and projectors. Its dificult to say if you will ever see a benifit from it but if its not that much extra then why not.

oscarBravo

Rew wrote:

It does more then just shielding the screen provides a common earth between all the equipment.

That's not necessarily a good thing. If you're talking about a domestic environment, all the equipment should have a common earth anyway. If they don't, connecting them through shielded cable will create a ground loop.

Rew wrote:

I would consider the screened stuff more future proof then the unscreened. The spectrum is getting more cluttered by the day, they are already demoing wireless connections between every component of home entertainment from DVD players to amps to TV's and projectors.

The first structured cabling job I was involved in, back around 1996, used kilometres of unshielded Cat5 (not 5e) in close proximity to heavy machinery and 380v 3-phase power without any problems. I don't think a domestic environment will present any major challenges.

Rew wrote:

Its dificult to say if you will ever see a benifit from it but if its not that much extra then why not.

It wouldn't be a cost issue for me. Harder to work with == more likely to have problematic connections. Having worked with both recently, I'd need a solid justification for using shielded.

Pataman

Thanks for the info lads, the sparks will be running the wires as part of the new house, but I will do the final commissioning.

oscarBravo

One other word of advice: make sure the sparks knows how to handle Cat5. It's quite robust, but it doesn't take kindly to being yanked hard.

Ask me how I know...

Rew

oscarBravo wrote:

That's not necessarily a good thing. If you're talking about a domestic environment, all the equipment should have a common earth anyway. If they don't, connecting them through shielded cable will create a ground loop. The first structured cabling job I was involved in, back around 1996, used kilometres of unshielded Cat5 (not 5e) in close proximity to heavy machinery and 380v 3-phase power without any problems. I don't think a domestic environment will present any major challenges. It wouldn't be a cost issue for me. Harder to work with == more likely to have problematic connections. Having worked with both recently, I'd need a solid justification for using shielded.

Alot of gear uses 2 pin figure of 8 power leads and isnt grounded. I know alot of places just use 5e or 6, but iv been wondering if the shielded stuff is going to be alot more important in the future. It is more dificult to terminate properly but like I said that just means it takes longer. Iv been making up shielded cables for some gear that requires it specfically and it took me about 30 mins or an hour longer, whats that in comparison to an install thats going to be there for 10 years or more.

I dont know any specfic reasons to use it at the moment (other then the fairly uniuqe equipmet I need it for) and I don't know if will be of benifit in the future but If it dosn't cost that much more why not do it and have have the benifit of knowing its there if the neeed arises.

Capt'n Midnight

Don't forget to buy TWO boxes so all runs have two cables (even if you only terminate one for now)
better still if you can get ducting laid and string so you can pull through replacement cable later on, in case you need to go fibre or 10Gb someday

kasintahan

Stick some ducting in (even pvc piping). It will make future upgrades very easy.