Cat5e + Gigabit Connection Rant!

[2StepSteve]

Does cat5e need to be wrapped in cotton wool for it to sustain gigabit speeds or something?!

At the weekend I ran some cat5e out my window and down to the basement, messy and not permanent but I have some large files that I need to transfer. The gigabit speed lasted a couple of days before someone closed the window too hard and broke some of the wires in the cat cable.. connection reverted back to 100mbit. Not too surprising that was going to happen.

Today I ran 20m of cat5e yet again out the window which worked fine and my switch indicated a gigabit link. I then noticed that outside the cable was slightly tangled so I gently threw the cable down from from my bedroom window, untangled it and pulled it back up on the first existing wire.

Now guess what? After doing this I can now only get a 100mbit connection through the cable! The switch also takes a good 10 seconds to see any link instead of being instant.

This stuff is ridiculous! I don't think I am being that heavy handed with it.

 

[2StepSteve]

Maybe you are right I will get some cat6 and give that a try

 

[2StepSteve]

My switch seems fine it has been connected to my server for 4 days on a short run to my server using cat5e, the switch shows a solid gigabit connection is present and testing that same cable in all 8 ports on the switch shows the same result.

I think I have just been very unlucky with cable and that theme has been continuing tonight because I acquired some used cat6 cable which on inspection looked a little beaten up. You guessed it this is even worse than the last I cannot get any link with this cable at all, not even 100mb. None of which has been terminated by myself, all pre-made but second hand.

I will call it a day