Are my CAT5 and router my weak link?

I do this everyday it's part of my job. Not to worry unless your connections are sub par(defective) you will not have a problem.

I work with this every day. Shielded cat 5/6 cables test with LOWER bandwith than the unshielded types. I have installed and tested thousands of miles of this cable and the only time I have used shielded in in severely compramized locations like radio stations with broadcast antennas on site. The shield compramises the magnetic field genenrated by the twist of cat 5/6 by phycally restricting it within the shield. Each pair of wired(4Prs.) is twisted at different ratios per inch to generate specific magnetic fields to control cross talk and give excellent speed. The shield is always a compramise in the data world. I have even had to replace shielded with unshielded. The whole idea of the twist is to negate the need for a shield.