Which Cable ...

hlxbravo

hlxbravo

hlxbravo

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Rowley Regis, West Midlands
tldr: what cable do I need to use ??

Hiya folks, I have over the last week had shiny fibre installed (at long last...been waiting years) ...anyhoo, my 21 yr old lads bedroom is on the first floor and he has always insisted that he has latency issues when gaming on wireless, understandable I suppose, so I installed him an ethernet cable I had off a chap at work.

At the time my conection speed was about 11 mbps...and he received about 7 mbps, which he has been happy with for the last few years. Now I have 78 mbps, he only receives 10 mbps through his ethernet, so I presume his cable is of the incorrect spec (not that clued up on cable tbh).

So I am about to purchase some fresh new cable and would obviously like to buy the correct one. Have just perused the bay to see cat 5, cat 5e, cat 6 and cat 7 and a quick goole suggests that any should work the same, bar maybe the cat 5, as it does not, officially, support 1 gbps speeds, the only other difference I see is in the mhz speeds. There is also a suggestion that CCA (copper coated aluminium) is a poor version too but...any truth to this ?

Is this likely to be the issue, wrong cable, I am beginning to doubt it very much. The only other thing that maybe could be an issue I suppose, is his cable got sheared a while back and I hard wired the strands back together, insulating them sufficiently.

For info, he connected wirelessly and received 76 mbps.

Thanks for your time :)
 
cat 5e is fine for gigabit. Have you checked that his network card is trying to sync at 100 / 1000 and its not stuck on 10? What router do you have / what is the pc connected too?
 
Firstly, cat5e will give you 1gbps all day long up to around 120 meters, and beyond that would offer you 100mbps which will still far out-weigh your fibre speed anyway.

If you've re-joined a damaged/split cable, just replace the damn thing, it's not like cat5 or cat6 is even that expensive these days, hell, if it's less than 20m let me know and i'll send you some if money is tight, i'll even throw some ends in so you can crimp them yourself.

There is really no need to go to cat6 for end user devices, maybe if you're terminating the cable to sockets/patch panels then yes.
 
Yeah, cutting it and reconnecting will have unbalanced the pairs etc.

It has probably negotiated it's way down to 10mbit ethernet, 10base-t.

Cat5e is fine, supposedly for 5gbit ethernet too.

You won't lose any speed over an ethernet cable (that hasn't been butchered!!!)
 
Thanks for the replies folks, the router I have had supplied is the Plusnet 2704n, which connects into the Openreach modem (another story but a sorepoint tbh)....thanks for the offer of the cable Jimlad but i'ts fine, just wanted to make sure I wasn't wasting my money on overpriced stuff ;).

Have you checked that his network card is trying to sync at 100 / 1000 and its not stuck on 10?
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How would I go about this Danny please ?

Thanks.
 
hlxbravo said:
How would I go about this Danny please ?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I asume on windows? Right click on the network monitor thing on the task bar. Or go to control panel and open network sharing centre.



It should say connections (Ethernet) click on ethernet

It should say what speed its going at here alone with duration ext. If its on 10 you can try forcing it to go to 100 worst thing that will happen is that it wont work and you will have to turn it back to auto.

Click on properties at the bottom then click on configure go to advanced then look for something simmilar to "Speed & Duplex" try changing it to 100 full duplex. If you lose connection and nothing works then change it back to auto. And you will need a new cable to get the better speed.

BTW a good place for cables that are good quality but decent prices is netstoredirect ive bought quite a few off them myself.
 
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Is a cable with "UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair)" in it's description of poorer quality and best avoided, or is it irrelevant for home use ?
 
bledd. said:
Are you buying a reel of cable and making ends or just buying a pre-made cable?
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Not that fussed tbh, the one in place was just cable and I crimped the ends on myself but I found some with pre moulded plugs, 26awg pure copper - 15m - for about a tenner, I know I can get cheaper cable but most I see is the CCA variant.
 
Why not just go buy a pre-made 15/20/25/30m cable off the shelf, snip the ends off, run the cable through your house and re-crimp some ends on if you're unsure what cable to buy?
 
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