Flat Cat 6 cable only running at 100 speed

tigerstyle

tigerstyle

tigerstyle

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As in not Gigabit :(
I really should have checked it worked before setting it all up under the furniture!

Brand new Flat type 10M Cat6 cable only shows up as 100Mbit between RT-56U and laptop, same hardware with a random old CAT5e 2 metre cable from the cupboard and it's instantly gigabit with no options being changed.

I've disabled 'Green Networking' on the Asus as well as the power saving options for the Marvel Yukon card in my laptop as well as trying to set it to Gigabit only it just refuses to connect then.

I'm guessing the cables (ebay wonders) are just not fit for purpose?
 
Is this a cable you terminated, or was it just a long patch cable.
Either way, sound like not all the connections are sound.

If you terminated, check the plug and try again. If you didn't you've probably got a duff cable.
 
Don't like the sound of flat cat6 cable. The twisting of cores is critical for suppression of crosstalk and noise. Having 6 cores running alongside each other is just going to soak up loads of interference and compromise the signalling. Either that or you've fluffed the connections as 100Mbit only requires 2 pairs while 1Gbit needs all 4 pair.
 
CAT6 specifically has a little bit of X-shaped plastic running down the middle of it, separating the four twisted pairs.
I don't see how flat CAT6 would work, without having plastic spacers between each one.

Anyway, what's probably happening is that the termination is bad, gigabit requires all four pairs talking at once. 100Mbit only uses two pairs.
Get a new cable.
 
Shop bought cable, I've read the cable is twisted it's not flat individual strands, but obviously not enough twisting to be any good!

A real let down as it's not passing through congested areas, or even working at CAT5e specs, so two grades lower than advertised.

I'll pull it out later and check it running 'in the open'
 
Clear, Cable is stamped CAT6, Cable is moulded 'CAT6' where it enters the plug, can barely see the wiring colours though, it looks to be about half the cable (copper) size compared to regular UTP cabling.

This should be the item number, 230763742481

Running it in the open didn't help either, perfectly straight 10 metre run still 100base (100mbit is the term?)
 
I have had a similar experience with flat CAT 6 and came to the opinion it's only good for CAT 5. I couln't be botherd to run another so I went with homeplugs instead. OK not gigabit but 200mbs was ample for an Xbox.
 
Well this is disappointing, I've just bought some flat Cat 5e cable. If it runs at 100Mbit/s I'll be annoyed. Though that is still better than the ~10Mbit/s that the homeplugs or WiFi can manage!
 
I got some flat gigabit cable from ebay fortunately it works fine even to this day at gigabit speeds. Sounds like you just got unlucky with a dodgy cable.
 
sithlord said:
I got some flat gigabit cable from ebay fortunately it works fine even to this day at gigabit speeds. Sounds like you just got unlucky with a dodgy cable.
Click to expand...

Well it also depends on cable length, if it's run near any sources of interference etc... if you use a cable without twisted pairs, or fewer twists than the specification states then you may still be able to get gigabit Ethernet, but just not at the full 100m length, shorter cables of low quality (such as flat cables that are not twisted pairs) may still work if they are short enough.
 
It's much more likely that the cable is bad than interference being an issue. It takes quite a lot of noise / inductance to upset modern network adapters, although a lot of the noise rejection is lost with flat cables.
 
It's 15m of Cat 5e that I've bought. I'll test it without routing it where I want it first. I may need to cut a plug off and reterminate it anyway (needs to slip through a small gap).

I'll update once it's arrived.
 
Currently connected via a coiled up 15m flat cat5e cable at 1 gigabit.

Cable now routed round the house, and still at a gigabit
 
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