What cable to buy now?

[Stefan Laza]

Hello. My old ethernet cable was CAT5e, but I think it had a broken wire, as its maximum speed was about 95Mbps download (my subscription to my internet provider is 500Mbps). I bought another CAT5e one like a month ago, and with that one I got 500Mbps download. Once, I had 95Mbps, but I moved the cable to another LAN port on the router and it worked again at full speed. Yesterday, I had 500Mbps, but restarded the modem today in the morning and, after that, it went down to 95Mbps again. I changed the Speed&Duplex to 1Gbps, tried to unplug and re-plug the optic fiber cable in the Receiver, but the speed is the same. Tried the cable in a laptop, the speed is the same. I will try a friend's cable and, if the internet will work at maximum speed, what cable should I buy so my internet won't drop again?

This is how the new cable looks like:

I forgot to mention that my modem is like 8 meters far from the PC, so the cable has to be about 10 meters long

Would a flat CAT6 RJ45 10 meter with an internal copper conductor be good? It's like 10 USD (the one that I bought a month ago was like 3 USD)

[Falcon1986]

@Stefan Laza

 

Try to avoid unplugging and re-plugging fiber optic cable from your ISP. Make sure these cables are not tied up or making sharp bends as they can degrade your internet speed.

 

You shouldn't have to force a wired link speed because the NIC should be able to auto-detect it. You can try changing the cable again to something new. It shouldn't matter if it's Cat5e or Cat6a.

 

Keep in mind that some fiber gateway devices (especially the 'triple play' ones that allow for internet + phone + IPTV) might have different speeds for each ethernet port. I know this is the case for the Huawei fiber gateway that I use from my ISP, so I plug my own bridged router/AP into the 1000Mbps port.

[Stefan Laza]

I forgot to mention one more thing: When I had 500Mbps speed, the led from the ethernet port on the Mobo was orange, and now it's green. It was green when I was using the old cable, too

Before vs. Now

     

[Falcon1986]

@Stefan Laza

 

That's odd. Amber/red LED lights on ethernet ports usually means a sub-gigabit link, whereas green means that there's a gigabit link.

 

I also noticed that your computer is reporting a 100Mbps link for that network adapter.

 

Can you try wiring another device using the same cables to see if they get a gigabit link... Or you're at least able to achieve your 500Mbps download speed?

[Jarsky]

It's not the cable standard causing you issues....on an optimal network, a cat5e is capable of full gigabit speed (125MB/s).

For longer runs a cat6a can be good because of its extra shielding and cross divider that reduces interpolation of the pairs, but no real world benefit in most homes. 

 

The orange link light typically means 10/100 (less than 1000) connect speed, which kinda lines up with your screenshot of your 100Mbps link in Windows. 

Perhaps your cable is faulty (has a badly terminated pair).....I'd test the cable (if you can get your hands on a cable tester) or get a new one. 

[Stefan Laza]

17 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

@Stefan Laza

 

That's odd. Amber/red LED lights on ethernet ports usually means a sub-gigabit link, whereas green means that there's a gigabit link.

 

I also noticed that your computer is reporting a 100Mbps link for that network adapter.

 

Can you try wiring another device using the same cables to see if they get a gigabit link... Or you're at least able to achieve your 500Mbps download speed?

I tried the same cable with my laptop and the speed is the same

[Stefan Laza]

15 hours ago, Jarsky said:

It's not the cable standard causing you issues....on an optimal network, a cat5e is capable of full gigabit speed (125MB/s).

For longer runs a cat6a can be good because of its extra shielding and cross divider that reduces interpolation of the pairs, but no real world benefit in most homes. 

 

The orange link light typically means 10/100 (less than 1000) connect speed, which kinda lines up with your screenshot of your 100Mbps link in Windows. 

Perhaps your cable is faulty (has a badly terminated pair).....I'd test the cable (if you can get your hands on a cable tester) or get a new one. 

Is a cat6 cable good? Or it has to be cat6a? I saw this cable online and I don't know if it is good.,

[fredrichnietze]

cat 6 is good, flat cables like that generally are not as the insulation sucks. round cat6 has a divider inside of it that insulates the wires and is made out of thicker material then 5e. 

[Falcon1986]

2 hours ago, Stefan Laza said:

I tried the same cable with my laptop and the speed is the same

So you likely have a faulty cable.

 

2 hours ago, Stefan Laza said:

Is a cat6 cable good? Or it has to be cat6a? I saw this cable online and I don't know if it is good.,

Cat6a can support up to 10Gbps at 100m whereas regular Cat6 can only provide that up to 37m. However, in order to take advantage of that speed, you'd need NICs on both end that support more than 1Gbps speed.

 

Cat6a might come at a price premium over Cat5e depending on which part of the world you live. Since your internet speed maxes out at 500Mbps download, I would invest in a good-quality Cat5e cable (ensure it's shielded Cat5e) or Cat6 if the price difference isn't by much.

[Stefan Laza]

9 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

So you likely have a faulty cable.

 

Cat6a can support up to 10Gbps at 100m whereas regular Cat6 can only provide that up to 37m. However, in order to take advantage of that speed, you'd need NICs on both end that support more than 1Gbps speed.

 

Cat6a might come at a price premium over Cat5e depending on which part of the world you live. Since your internet speed maxes out at 500Mbps download, I would invest in a good-quality Cat5e cable (ensure it's shielded Cat5e) or Cat6 if the price difference isn't by much.

My internet won't be 10Gbps even if I upgrade it, as my provider offers at most 1Gbps internet and I don't think any internet provider from my country can offer that speed. Anyway, I think I'm gonna buy a cat6 one with like 2 years warranty, so I know it will last. Thanks for the advice

[Stefan Laza]

28 minutes ago, fredrichnietze said:

cat 6 is good, flat cables like that generally are not as the insulation sucks. round cat6 has a divider inside of it that insulates the wires and is made out of thicker material then 5e. 

Ok, I'll buy a round one then, thank you

[Stefan Laza]

Update: I restarted the modem this morning and it's working again in 500Mbps (what?)

I restarted the modem like 10 times before this morning and the speed was under 100Mbps every time, so I don't know what happened

And the led on the mobo is orange again

[Falcon1986]

1 hour ago, Stefan Laza said:

Update: I restarted the modem this morning and it's working again in 500Mbps (what?)

 

I restarted the modem like 10 times before this morning and the speed was under 100Mbps every time, so I don't know what happened

 

And the led on the mobo is orange again

There might be a hardware issue with the ports on the modem or your NIC.

 

Then again, I've seen modems act strangely after ISPs push updates to customers' devices. And the problem only goes away after a modem reboot.

 

Hope it stays that way. If it doesn't, you might need to talk to your ISP about replacing the modem.

[Stefan Laza]

33 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

There might be a hardware issue with the ports on the modem or your NIC.

 

Then again, I've seen modems act strangely after ISPs push updates to customers' devices. And the problem only goes away after a modem reboot.

 

Hope it stays that way. If it doesn't, you might need to talk to your ISP about replacing the modem.

But can I buy a router and use only that, without the modem? If so, what ~40$ router would you recommend? (I am on a limited budget cuz I am only 15 and I don't really have much money to spend on a router, as I plan on buying a new mobo and CPU on black friday)

[mariushm]

Cut it out, the network cable is most likely fine.

 

Cat5e is good for 2.5 gbps, if the network card and the device at the other end can communicate to each other using that "language" (the protocol, 802.3bz).  With regular standard (same standard that's 10-20 years old) the two devices (your network card and the modem) will talk at 1 gbps speed (125 MB/s or 1000 mbps)

 

Cat6 and Cat6a cables are good for up to 10 gbps, but the actual speed between devices (your network card and your modem) will be limited to what both devices know - if your network card knows maximum 1 gbps, that's the speed you're gonna get. Same for the modem end.

 

Picture shows your network card connects to your modem at 1 gbps, so it will get UP TO 1 gbps of transfer between the modem and your computer. 

BUT, the modem connects to a fiber and gets data from internet at various speeds, depending where you download data from you may get less than 100 mbps, or you may get near 1 gbps.

Your ISP plan may limit you to 500 mbps or some other speed .... the ISP restricts the speed of incoming data according to your plan ...  the data may come into the modem at 100 mbps, and as soon as there's a chunk of data, the modem will send it towards your computer at 1 gbps speed.

 

[Falcon1986]

2 hours ago, Stefan Laza said:

But can I buy a router and use only that, without the modem? If so, what ~40$ router would you recommend? (I am on a limited budget cuz I am only 15 and I don't really have much money to spend on a router, as I plan on buying a new mobo and CPU on black friday)

ONTs are usually internet gateways. So they're a combination modem, router, switch and maybe a wireless access point. Because of how they must be configured, ISP fiber gear is not something you can replace with your own, like a cable modem.

 

You can get a separate router, but you'll still have to connect it via ethernet to the ONT and covert one or the other to "bridge mode" so you don't get NAT issues. If the problem is with the ONT ports, adding a separate router is not going to fix the problem.

[Stefan Laza]

17 hours ago, mariushm said:

Cut it out, the network cable is most likely fine.

 

Cat5e is good for 2.5 gbps, if the network card and the device at the other end can communicate to each other using that "language" (the protocol, 802.3bz).  With regular standard (same standard that's 10-20 years old) the two devices (your network card and the modem) will talk at 1 gbps speed (125 MB/s or 1000 mbps)

 

Cat6 and Cat6a cables are good for up to 10 gbps, but the actual speed between devices (your network card and your modem) will be limited to what both devices know - if your network card knows maximum 1 gbps, that's the speed you're gonna get. Same for the modem end.

 

Picture shows your network card connects to your modem at 1 gbps, so it will get UP TO 1 gbps of transfer between the modem and your computer. 

BUT, the modem connects to a fiber and gets data from internet at various speeds, depending where you download data from you may get less than 100 mbps, or you may get near 1 gbps.

Your ISP plan may limit you to 500 mbps or some other speed .... the ISP restricts the speed of incoming data according to your plan ...  the data may come into the modem at 100 mbps, and as soon as there's a chunk of data, the modem will send it towards your computer at 1 gbps speed.

 

Umm I haven't restarted the modem or something and my internet is again 100Mbps, probably it's because of the mobo then?

By the way I'm Romanian too, but I don't know if we're allowed to speak in another language than English on this site

[Stefan Laza]

14 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

ONTs are usually internet gateways. So they're a combination modem, router, switch and maybe a wireless access point. Because of how they must be configured, ISP fiber gear is not something you can replace with your own, like a cable modem.

 

You can get a separate router, but you'll still have to connect it via ethernet to the ONT and covert one or the other to "bridge mode" so you don't get NAT issues. If the problem is with the ONT ports, adding a separate router is not going to fix the problem.

Oh Ok, anyway I think it's because of the mobo, I will reboot my PC and I'll see if the speed will be different (now it's again 100Mbps)

[mariushm]

If there's a fault in the cable (a wire is looser in one of the connectors and breaks contact from time to time for example) which causes data packets to be corrupted (the network card asks for the data to be resent so you don't get any errors) then the network card may choose to go down to 100 mbps in the hope that there's less data transfer errors.

You get less speed, but less transfer errors means more consistent throughput which is important for some applications.

 

In rare cases, it's possible (and I've seen it) that the plastic housing of the connectors warm up from the warm air coming out of the PC (or the network switch, for connectors plugged into a switch) and those pins inside the plastic connectors can get a bit of a play, and that's when you may get some intermittent connection, which results in data errors, which make the network card go down to 100 mbps.

 

The solution is simple, just buy a good quality cat6 or cat6a patch cable - cable with connectors pre-crimped by factory... they're cheap, 2-3$ in retail stores in Romania (5-10 RON). If you want, you can buy a crimping tool and connectors and crimp the connectors yourself but usually you don't get same crimping quality as a factory and it would be a good idea to recrimp every couple of years or even more often.

 

I would also consider cleaning the network jacks, both on the network card and on the modem/ont , and visually inspect the contacts inside the jack to make sure they're springy, elastic, and make good contact with the network plugs you insert. 

Get some cotton tips, wet them with sanitary alcohol , acetone (nail polish removal) or ideally isopropyl alcohol  and gently wipe the surface of the wire contacts inside ethernet jacks, rub the oxides and gunk off.  Best to do it with the computer unplugged, though it shouldn't matter as the jack is electrically isolated from the pc so shorting those contacts temporarily won't cause issues. 

Also, visually inspect the jacks and make sure the wires inside don't touch - each elastic wire sits in a "channel" so they shouldn't touch, but sometimes one jumps over and touches another wire and that makes the network card unable to run at 1gbps (depending on which wires touch)

 

 

Talking about the metal wires / spring contacts inside ^^ 

You can see a plastic bump between each metal bit, keeping them separated... make sure two of those wires don't touch.

 

// Yeah, figured you're Romanian, but keep it in English here, so that others may learn from solutions if they have same issue as you, at  some point in the future. 

 

 

[Stefan Laza]

1 hour ago, mariushm said:

If there's a fault in the cable (a wire is looser in one of the connectors and breaks contact from time to time for example) which causes data packets to be corrupted (the network card asks for the data to be resent so you don't get any errors) then the network card may choose to go down to 100 mbps in the hope that there's less data transfer errors.

You get less speed, but less transfer errors means more consistent throughput which is important for some applications.

 

In rare cases, it's possible (and I've seen it) that the plastic housing of the connectors warm up from the warm air coming out of the PC (or the network switch, for connectors plugged into a switch) and those pins inside the plastic connectors can get a bit of a play, and that's when you may get some intermittent connection, which results in data errors, which make the network card go down to 100 mbps.

 

The solution is simple, just buy a good quality cat6 or cat6a patch cable - cable with connectors pre-crimped by factory... they're cheap, 2-3$ in retail stores in Romania (5-10 RON). If you want, you can buy a crimping tool and connectors and crimp the connectors yourself but usually you don't get same crimping quality as a factory and it would be a good idea to recrimp every couple of years or even more often.

 

I would also consider cleaning the network jacks, both on the network card and on the modem/ont , and visually inspect the contacts inside the jack to make sure they're springy, elastic, and make good contact with the network plugs you insert. 

Get some cotton tips, wet them with sanitary alcohol , acetone (nail polish removal) or ideally isopropyl alcohol  and gently wipe the surface of the wire contacts inside ethernet jacks, rub the oxides and gunk off.  Best to do it with the computer unplugged, though it shouldn't matter as the jack is electrically isolated from the pc so shorting those contacts temporarily won't cause issues. 

Also, visually inspect the jacks and make sure the wires inside don't touch - each elastic wire sits in a "channel" so they shouldn't touch, but sometimes one jumps over and touches another wire and that makes the network card unable to run at 1gbps (depending on which wires touch)

 

 

Talking about the metal wires / spring contacts inside ^^ 

You can see a plastic bump between each metal bit, keeping them separated... make sure two of those wires don't touch.

 

// Yeah, figured you're Romanian, but keep it in English here, so that others may learn from solutions if they have same issue as you, at  some point in the future. 

 

 

I took the cable out of the PC to take a photo of its ends to post it here, and when I re-plugged it in, the led on the mobo turned orange again (it was green before) and now I am getting 500Mbps again, so I think the port is causing the problem

 

[fredrichnietze]

i would suspect the wire before the port. i do this kinda of thing for a living, and we find bad cables all the time, and bad ports a lot less often. cables get moved around a lot and suffer more abuse then the ports, and your cable is barely able to do 1gbs at short lengths. upgrade it to a new cat6 and if it continues to be a problem then suspect the ports. 

[Stefan Laza]

On 6/26/2020 at 5:41 PM, fredrichnietze said:

i would suspect the wire before the port. i do this kinda of thing for a living, and we find bad cables all the time, and bad ports a lot less often. cables get moved around a lot and suffer more abuse then the ports, and your cable is barely able to do 1gbs at short lengths. upgrade it to a new cat6 and if it continues to be a problem then suspect the ports. 

Ok, thanks