Cat 6 Ethernet Cable in the R3 Box

[UK_Wildcats_Fans]

The R3 website state states that the cable in the box is Cat 6 ethernet cable.  Typically, cat 6 cables are unshielded.   Is the cable truly Cat 6 or possibly Cat 6a?  I am just curious.  In the past, I had a weird interference issue and replaced all my ethernet cables with brand-new Cat 6a or Cat 7 cables.   This significantly reduced the interference and network problems  For this reason, I throw away any cables that come pre-packaged with hardware if they aren't Cat 6a or 7.

[Netduma Fraser]

I'm pretty sure it's just a standard Cat 6 cable - it does have details on the cable itself

[UK_Wildcats_Fans]

That was the first place that I looked; however, the markings were badly smeared on my cable.

[Netduma Fraser]

I'm not using mine and can't find it but I'm 99.9% sure it's not shielded

[UK_Wildcats_Fans]

No worries.  I threw it away.  I have a lot of Cat 6a and 7 cables.

[TG3NOC1D3]

1 hour ago, UK_Wildcats_Fans said:

The R3 website state states that the cable in the box is Cat 6 ethernet cable.  Typically, cat 6 cables are unshielded.   Is the cable truly Cat 6 or possibly Cat 6a?  I am just curious.  In the past, I had a weird interference issue and replaced all my ethernet cables with brand-new Cat 6a or Cat 7 cables.   This significantly reduced the interference and network problems  For this reason, I throw away any cables that come pre-packaged with hardware if they aren't Cat 6a or 7.

Just a heads up, unless you are running the cable through the home where power may cross your cabling, shielding is super unnecessary. 

[l2eactionz]

Personally don't touch flat ethernet cables as the twisted pair inside is one of the things that help shield interference I believe from a very small Google search back in the day. I ran a longer flat ethernet cable and got terrible interference so went back to twisted and never had an issue

[UK_Wildcats_Fans]

Yes, in theory, I should not need shielded cables; however, you can get interference from a variety of ways (EMI, crosstalk, etc.)  That is why I switched to shielded cables (Cat 6a and 7) exclusively and threw away all other cables.  An engineering friend brought over an oscilloscope and we monitored the signals and could see the interference happening.  We identified some of the sources and fixed what we could.  There were a few others that I could not easily fix, but the new cables helped significantly.