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Cat 6a unshielded vs cat 6 shielded or other for Future 10G network

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I have had cat 6, unshielded cables installed in our old home about a year ago. All lines have full gigabit speed up and down. But lately I got enough gears to allow me to start taking a little advantage of 10G network.

The furthest distant cable has one way 10G but other way only over 1G speed ie not giving full 10G. This cable is probably a little over the limit 55m distance.

I just got 4 more lines added but all lines even short distance one not reaching 10G and the furthest one is merely 10Mbps. It’s probably also 55m distance range but less than previously installed line so not even hitting 1Gbps is not right.

I tried to re-terminate the lines/jacks on my own couple times as I’ve done that many times and all in success. But it did not improve. So I feel possible defective cable. As I try to have installer exchange these lines, I am curious what cable I should be really using.

On rack side, I usually have keystone type termination with cat 6 cable plugged into rack mounted triplite Cat 6 unshielded passthrough patch panel.

In order to get full 10G, I feel going with 6a is probably most reasonable. But reality is I am ok if I don’t get 10G at the other end of house as long as I get middle of house which should be definitely less than 55m. So with that I wonder shielded cat 6 will ensure no interference. A few questions.

1.Is cat 6A unshielded termination identical to cat 6 as long as I buy cat 6a rated keystone or RJ45 terminal? I have all tools for cat 6 and feel comfortable terminating either keystone or make end cable.

2.Shielded cat cable has grounding but my patch panel isn’t. So if I have ungrounded end, will I just get cat 6 quality or it actually result in degraded quality and result even inferior to regular cat 6 quality?

Basically, I’d want to have an setup if I could so even at furthest end I have potential to get 10G but not necessary to be right away as I am ok to leave it in cat 6 range coverage until the time comes at which point I can change my patch panel to cat 6a or shielded patch panel.

Thank you for the advice.
 
Last edited:
I have had cat 6, unshielded cables installed in our old home about a year ago. All lines have full gigabit speed up and down. But lately I got enough gears to allow me to start taking a little advantage of 10G network.

The furthest distant cable has one way 10G but other way only over 1G speed ie not giving full 10G. This cable is probably a little over the limit 55m distance.

I just got 4 more lines added but all lines even short distance one not reaching 10G and the furthest one is merely 10Mbps. It’s probably also 55m distance range but less than previously installed line so not even hitting 1Gbps is not right.

I tried to re-terminate the lines/jacks on my own couple times as I’ve done that many times and all in success. But it did not improve. So I feel possible defective cable. As I try to have installer exchange these lines, I am curious what cable I should be really using.

On rack side, I usually have keystone type termination with cat 6 cable plugged into rack mounted triplite Cat 6 unshielded passthrough patch panel.

In order to get full 10G, I feel going with 6a is probably most reasonable. But reality is I am ok if I don’t get 10G at the other end of house as long as I get middle of house which should be definitely less than 55m. So with that I wonder shielded cat 6 will ensure no interference. A few questions.

1.Is cat 6A unshielded termination identical to cat 6 as long as I buy cat 6a rated keystone or RJ45 terminal? I have all tools for cat 6 and feel comfortable terminating either keystone or make end cable.

2.Shielded cat cable has grounding but my patch panel isn’t. So if I have ungrounded end, will I just get cat 6 quality or it actually result in degraded quality and result even inferior to regular cat 6 quality?

Basically, I’d want to have an setup if I could so even at furthest end I have potential to get 10G but not necessary to be right away as I am ok to leave it in cat 6 range coverage until the time comes at which point I can change my patch panel to cat 6a or shielded patch panel.

Thank you for the advice.
10gb: In theory, CAT.6 works for 50m. But it doesn't work properly over 30m in the real world.
You need CAT.6a or CAT.7. If you still want to use CAT.6 you need a 10gb switch like 20m - 10gb switch - 25m.
 
To me there is a lot of bad cable out there. Maybe they are hoping we will run it at home with short distances and not notice that it will not stand up to the full spec.
 

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