Virgin Media Community

[Ashtonjay]

im always looking to update my cables where i can and was wondering would sheilded be better than utp?

my current ones are cat 5

also is cat 7 my best bet now too?

cheers

[chenks]

you should be using at least cat5e.
i'd be surprised if you were actually using cat5.

you have no need to have cat7, cat6 at the very most is more than sufficient.

[Roger_Gooner]

Shielded cabling is more expensive, has a larger diameter and is stiffer (making it less flexible) than unshielded cabling. Most homes do not have  electromagnetic interference (EMI) which requires STP, if this applies to your go for UTP cat 6.

Whichever cable you buy, get decent quality from reputable suppliers as it's false economy to buy cheap and nasty which could cause problems.

[chenks]

i tend to buy my cables from broadbandbuyer, good quality at good prices.
and they are an approved ubiquiti dealer too.

[Tudor]

Old good quality Cat5 cables, I’ve checked out some AT&T ones, can easily meet the Cat5e specs. It’s just that the specs were not out when the cables were manufactured, therefore they are labelled Cat5. It more the quality of the cables than the printed writing on them.

[Andruser]

I'd agree with other posters that Cat 7 is probably overkill, but since for most domestic applications the cost difference is not material, why use a less well shielded product?   A ten metre pre-made Cat 6 round cable costs about eight quid on Amazon, a similar length of Cat 7 flat cable costs a tenner.

Roger_Gooner makes a good point about the fact that better shielded cables can be thicker, but if that's an issue consider what you're using it for, and whether flat profile makes sense - that might add about 10% to the cost of a made up cable, so maybe £11 for 10m.

For home use I wouldn't buy anything other Cat 7, but its your money, and your choice.  And if you're not having any problems with your current setup, why spend the money at all?  I'm not replacing my old Cat 5e/6 ethernet cables unless they're damaged or causing problems.

[chenks]

i was always avoid the "flat" cables.
for home use you absolutely don't need cat7, but as you say it's your money.

[Andruser]

Fair comment chenks, but most of us don't really need the 100, 200, 350, 500 connections we have from VM, and unlike the one off purchase of a few metres of cable, the costs of having a fatter pipe than we need are recurring month after month after month.

I'm on 200, and I can't think of anything I do other than rare multi-thread file downloads that uses the full bandwidth (and even then capped by the server).  The most common use of my (and most customers) maximum bandwidth is speedtests.

[chenks]

but cat5e is more than enough for up to 1Gbps anyway.

[Andruser · Accepted solution]

I don't dispute that, but I can remember the days when the internet connection was limited to the 14,400 bits per second of a modem over a voice line, and at the time some people thought that was adequate...

Back to 2019, if the cost differential of the cables is less than the cost of a cup of high street coffee, why choose a less well shielded product?