this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2026
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you know the computer thing is it plugged in?
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Sure, a long as those cables are shielded. Crosstalk was a real thing "back in my day".
Exactly the first thought I had, fellow old-timer.
It still happens, the modern standards just handle these impairments better with line coding, active equalization, and more sensitive modem electronics. And obviously now we have shielding requirements in the PHY for 2.5G and above. But basically as DSP got cheaper and more compact, they were able to throw more compute at the problem which made a huge difference.
I don't think I've seen a single data cable that didn't have some kinda shielding since the early nineties.
Most ethernet cable is UTP, literally "unshielded twisted pair." Shielded cable is much more expensive and less physically flexible due to the metal jackets, so people dont tend to buy it by default.
You can argue the jacket is shielding, but mostly ethernet cable is not shielded. The braiding will cause problems, but likely very minor ones based on the length of the the run that CRC will compensate for.
Would the twisted pairs prevent cross talk between two separate cables like it does individual wires?
Yes, in theory. But in practice it depends on the frequencies.
Even if interference is insignificant, looping the wires around a metal core (which braiding does) creates a different impedance and can degrade the signal.
Get out! From the inductance? How long it a length of wire does it take for that to become an issue?
It's the wrapping of it around a ferrite core that does it. Surprisingly little can make a difference at certain clock rates. If you take a cat5 cable running 1G and loop it a dozen times in a 6" circle and put a metal screwdriver perpendicular to the loop in its center, you will see a spike in bit errors. Weaving one wire with another isn't going to be as strong of an effect, and it's fiendishly complicated in terms of an e/m problem, but it could easily be significant.
Granted I'm no network engineer. But I have made many of my own cat5's through the years and I have not seen one since I was unable to legally drive.
The IEEE specs up to 2.5GBaseT do not specify any shielding for cabling.
That's fair. This is just my limited experience I'm speaking from, and I'm not the one buying the spools.