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Networks Wired my house, awful Ethernet speeds...

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Cleggmeister, 11 Mar 2014.

  1. Cleggmeister

    Cleggmeister Of reasonable knowledge...

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    This is an addendum to an earlier thread, which I can't find, re wiring my house with cat5.

    So, I have a c45m run from a switch to my PC, with the cat5e cable going up the soil pipe boxout, across my loft, and down to the study where my PC is located. File transfer rates are 1 to 1.1 MB per sec, all connected via Netgear GS switches. I used to get around 90MBps when I ran c2m of cable.

    So, to the cable. It's cat5e and I terminated it myself, quite a few times before the switch recognised it was even connected at all. The switch is showing the 10MBps led rather than the 1GBps LEDs that I'd hoped for :(

    I could shorten then cable to about 25m, but am worried that this won't help as cat5e is rated to 100m.

    Have I mucked up the terminations, or do I have a faulty cable? Its not running particularly closely to an mains cables and is terminated as follows...

    White/orange. Orange. White/blue. Blue. White/green. Green. White/brown. Brown.

    Help appreciated as this has taken me literally all day!

    Many thanks.

    Cleggy..
     
  2. Guinevere

    Guinevere Mega Mom

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    Some ideas.

    Have you checked every wire for continuity?

    45m seems like a real long run for cat5e (Yeah I know it 'should' be okay). Are you able to test with a smaller length of the same cable and the same self terminated ends?

    Have you tested with a shorter 'shop bought' cable?

    Is it good cable? Did you have to kink / pull it tight or tug it to get it routed? IE did it break during installation?

    If using them: How tight are the cable clips? Did you test it first without any clips in place?

    Did you test it with the 45m run before you routed the cable around the house?
     
  3. narwen

    narwen narwen

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    i always term 1 orange/white 2 orange 3 green/white 4 blue 5 blue/white 6 green 7 brown/white 8 brown
     
  4. dynamis_dk

    dynamis_dk Grr... Grumpy!!

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    So do I and have never got a problem, however as long as the pairs match at both ends it shouldn't make any difference as its still wired as a straight cable.

    I'd check the settings on your PC and see what its negotiating at. I sold my netgear stuff as I had issues with it setting things to 10mb/half and all types of crazy stuff with new 3m cat6 and cat5e cables I'd wired myself. Soon as I changed the netgear switch out for a HP Procurve EVERYTHING just worked at the right speeds straight away without changing any cabling and has worked perfect since.

    It worth noting this too was after I had the netgear working fine just hours before and when I moved all my gear around and added a few more cable runs, that's when it went a little nutty.

    I would say if your able to take it down to 25m do it as I see no benefit in having the extra 20m there just for fun - you can use the 20m for something else maybe like making a few other cables.

    You can get a cheap £5 cable tester to help with continuity check.

    Can you take your PC up to the switch for a quick test with a short cable just to double check a 2m / or different cable works ok?
    Have you tried a difference port on the switch?
     
  5. play_boy_2000

    play_boy_2000 ^It was funny when I was 12

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    Termination is wrong

    White/green, green, white/orange, blue, white/blue, orange, white/brown, brown
    OR
    white/orange, orange, white/green, blue, white/blue, green, white/brown, brown

    It shouldn't but if you go down that road, you invariably end up with split pairs (as the OP has) and dismal performance. Each pair also has a slightly different twist per inch rate, although I doubt that's a factor other than possibly cat6a running 10GbE.
     
    Last edited: 12 Mar 2014
  6. dancingbear84

    dancingbear84 error 404

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    A few things from my experience:
    1. I always run cables WO, O, WG, Bl, WBl, G, WBr, Br. Make sure that the terminators are the same way round at both ends. (ie on end a was the clip pointing up, on end b was the the clip pointing down.) I've done that before.
    2. 45m is nothing for cat 5e. I've done much longer runs both at home and in my last job.
    3. You mentioned netgear switches, how many switches do you have?
    4. Can you try the cable with different piece of hardware, laptop, etc and see what happens.
    5. Get hold of a cat 5 cable tester, eBay should have them for next to nothing. Basically plug each end in. One ends sends power the other end is an LED that lights up, what you should see is both ends counting 1-8 at the same time.

    I would guess the most likely issue is either the ends being on the wrong way, so 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 at router end and 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 at the pc end though.
    Simplest way to check that is to pick the end up and try to look at them, then pop to the other end and check again.

    Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
     
  7. Fruitloaf

    Fruitloaf Tinkerer

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    I would say it's one of two things - interference from a strong source such as a long run parallel to mains cabling or most likely you've terminated the cabling wrong. Given that your switch is only recognising 100M rather than 1GBps I would say its a termination problem. Make sure you are using one of the two recognised patterns and try again.

    There is an outside chance one of your switches is knackered but I assume you've tried other ports and are able to get a solid 1Gbps connection using another cable?

    EDIT: as said 45m is no problem so long as it isn't kinked or run alongside mains power
     
  8. Cleggmeister

    Cleggmeister Of reasonable knowledge...

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    Thanks folks. There are two switches involved, a GS108 and a GS105. The terminations all look consistent though I note others' configurations. The cables do, in some cases, run parallel to the skirting boards, behind which I guess are main cables, though there are a good few inches between and we're only parallel for a couple of metres at most. When pulling the cables I was careful to avoid snags and I never needed to exert much force. Today I will shorten the runs and check for snags, reterminate carefully and post my findings.

    The network was previously over power lines so regrettably I can't compare before and after, though all patch cables are fine (and terminated per my convention as an aside). I do have a cable tester and will get a battery for it while I'm out later.

    Fingers crossed ...

    :)
     
  9. Cleggmeister

    Cleggmeister Of reasonable knowledge...

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    PS to the above:

    My PC shows connected at 1.0Gbps, which I guess means simply that it sees the switch running at 1GBps over it's short patch cable. That switch in turn is then wired over the 45m into the switch downstairs, off which are connected my router, hifi, tv streamer, laptop, raspberry pi, etc... It is when I copy a file from the laptop to my PC, over the 45m cable, that I get poor speeds.

    Note both switches show the 45m run connection showing at 10MBps rather than 100 or 1000.

    Will test the cables, optimise the routing, reterminate and post back :)
     
  10. ashchap

    ashchap Minimodder

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    ^this

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable

    It's an easy mistake to make, I've done the same thing before with exactly the same symptoms. three of the twisted pairs in cat5e/6 cable go to adjacent pins, but for some reason the fourth pair does not. If you connect all the pairs to adjacent pins like the OP has then you will have one of the tx wires twisted with one of the rx wires. This will make the cable extremely vulnerable to interference, and signals on the tx line will be picked up on the rx line (and vice versa) which will cause significant corruption.

    Solution: re-terminate correctly (see TIA/EIA-568) and I am sure you will see full speeds restored.:thumb:
     
  11. Fruitloaf

    Fruitloaf Tinkerer

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    I don't think you need to shorten the runs at all. First take your two switches, put them in the same room and connect up your laptop and PC to one each just to confirm that you can get good speeds then put them back where they were still with everything disconnected and confirm you are getting your slow speeds. Then re-terminate according to the proper scheme http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable (or just skip straight to this step tbh but the previous steps will at least confirm that everything else is working as expected).
     
  12. dancingbear84

    dancingbear84 error 404

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    I would then test in the following way:

    1. Is everything cabled? Is the laptop and the pi connected by cable to the downstairs switch. If so are those cables both good, working, undamaged and terminated correctly?
    2. Disconnect the upstairs switch and run the 45m cable direct to the PC, see if there is any improvement.
    3. Cable test / continuity test EVERY cable in your home network, shouldn't take too much and it may be that the weak link isn't the 45m cable, remember anything will only be as good as the weakest link. (that applies to everything, not just networks!)
    4. If all of the above yield nothing, then bypass the downstairs switch too and run laptop cable to router directly and 45m cable between router and PC and test again.
    5. Also worth checking all drivers are up to date on all machines, and that all of the networking configurations are correct too.
    6. Also worth mentioning that it came up in a different thread, are there still powerline adaptors involved at all anywhere in the house, or wireless bridging or anything other than cat5 cabling that could be causing an issue?

    In short you need to identify the weak point then investigate further.
     
  13. RichCreedy

    RichCreedy Hey What Who

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    i don't like putting plugs on long runs, I prefer to use sockets on the wall, that way there is less likely to be a wear and tear break from moving the cable every time the machine gets pulled out
     
  14. Fruitloaf

    Fruitloaf Tinkerer

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    Me neither but sockets still can be wired to the A or B standard and the termination can be wrong. I suspect though that the op is terminating with plugs.
     
  15. Cleggmeister

    Cleggmeister Of reasonable knowledge...

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    Cool, just reterminated them all in situ (properly to B standard, thanks all!) and now getting nothing. Time for the cable tester! I'm less grump tonight, which I think will help :)
     
  16. dancingbear84

    dancingbear84 error 404

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    Definitely, time to get testing.

    Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
     
  17. Cleggmeister

    Cleggmeister Of reasonable knowledge...

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    Awwww man, shortened the cables and reterminated several times. Every time my tester is cool with lights 1,2 and 3, but never flashes on 4. That's over 2 lengths of cable, each having been terminated a couple of times, by different people, at each end. The tester shows all 4 lights when testing a patch cable so it's working fine.

    Big note: the terminators I'm using have a small inner 'grip' into which I insert the paired cable, this then neatly slides into the rj45 and is crimped. The bag in which these came is labelled for shielded cable, though my cable is just standard cat5e. I do have a small bag of standard one piece rj45's but am loathe to reterminate again since it could be a dicky cable?

    Help!
     
  18. keir

    keir S p i t F i r e

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    sounds like you just need a bit more practice making cables tbh.
    Just keep trying, just chop off the end, strip and give it another go.
     
  19. dancingbear84

    dancingbear84 error 404

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    That or the crimping tool you are using is a bit borked on pin 4. I have had that before too. If you have a spare bit of cat5 try crimping a short cable and see what happens. If you are really careful and it is fine then try the 45m again. If it is no better I think it is safe to assume a break in the cable. If you happen to have a continuity tester you could try that. Or alternatively, thinking outside the box, cut a cable that tested ok in half, then cut the ends off the 45m cable and use chocolate block terminator stuff to in line connect the 45m to the good half cable at each end. If it fails on pin 4 again, you know it is a dicky cable.

    Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
     
  20. Cleggmeister

    Cleggmeister Of reasonable knowledge...

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    Good advice, thanks DB, and of course its possible and likely that I'm the weak link here, though I have taken every effort and care, and the finished article looks awesome if I do say so myself!

    I am leaning towards a faulty line of cable. I had it manufactured specially in a particular colour, though I do have a ton of spare stuff in grey - I just don't fancy pulling it all again.

    Will make up a v short run tomorrow, terminate it and test it. Should it fail on led 4 (wires 7&8) I'll bin it and pull anew. After I've checked my crimper of course...

    This is one project I'm looking forward to finishing!
     

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