Whereas the shielded one is a twisted pair cable confined in foil or mesh shield that guards the cable against electromagnetic interference emi so it is ideal for high speed networks such.
Which cat6 cable to use.
Nevertheless it is apparent that both cat5 and cat6 cables use the same end piece known as rj 45 which is capable of connecting to ethernet jack on a computer router etc.
As of writing you will be able to find cat5 cat5e cat6 cat6a and cat7 cables when you look for ethernet cables online or in your local shops.
As for cable price of cat6 vs cat7 cat7 cable is more expensive than cat6 cable if they are compared under the same conditions.
Although the spline is not required in cat 5 cable some manufactures include it anyway.
Many cat 6 cables also include a nylon spline which helps eliminate crosstalk.
However it provides you with much more functionality.
The cable standard specifies performance of up to 250 mhz compared to 100 mhz for cat 5 and cat 5e.
A cat6 cable has a bandwidth capacity of 250 mhz for example and it offers you speeds of up to 10 gbps.
Where to use unshielded and shielded cat6 cables.
Category 6 cable cat 6 is a standardized twisted pair cable for ethernet and other network physical layers that is backward compatible with the category 5 5e and category 3 cable standards.
The unshielded cat6 cable is a cable with wires that are twisted together to reduce noise and crosstalk.
In the picture above the cat 5e cable is the only one with a spline.
The maximum cabling length of cat6 network cable is 100m with 1 gbps while cat7 of 100 m with 10 gbps.
Cat6a is capable of supporting data transfer rates of up to 10gbps at a maximum bandwidth of 500mhz.
Therefore cat6 cable works on cat5 network.
Cat6a category 6a cable is one of the latest iteration of gigabit ethernet cabling which is designed as an upgraded version of cat6 cable.
However cat5 cable can t be used on cat6 network since cat6 network has more.
And it also has additional and tighter twists with additional insulation to reduce cross talk.
In cat 6 cable the spline is not required either as long as the cable tests according to the standard.
The category 6 augmented cable standard or cat 6a was created to further improve the performance of cat 6 ethernet cables using cat 6a enables 10 gigabit ethernet data rates over a single cable run up to 328 feet.
There are many different varieties of ethernet cables.
Cat 6 supports 10 gigabit ethernet only up to 164 feet of cable length.
Cat 6 has to meet more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise than cat 5 and cat 5e.