Network cable bandwidth problem

[suedseefrucht]

Hi guys,

 

I moved into an appartment with my girlfriend last year and we've got a stable 300 MBit/s internet connection in the basement.

In the basement, the fiber optic connection is transformed into an ethernet connection by a box of our ISP.

I took our router, a laptop and 2x CAT 7 network cables into the basement to check this.

 

In the basement there is a network wall socket and there is a network wall socket in the appartment (1st floor).

A CAT 6 cable connects these two wall sockets.

In the appartment we get an unstable 50 Mbit/s to 150 Mbit/s internet connection with the same router, the same laptop and the same CAT 7 cable from the router to the laptop.

So the problem has to be the CAT 6 cable from basement to appartment.

It's weird, because the connection is not gone completely, but it's very unstable.

 

So to get a stable 300 Mbit connection, we took a long (25 m) CAT 7 cable through the stairwell from the ISP box to the router and it works perfectly fine.

But this is not the way, the house owner likes it. So he sent an electronics technician. We call him cable clutter joe.

 

Cable clutter joe measured, if all 8 pins are connected from basement to appartment and he says, they are.

We showed him, we dont get all the bandwidth and his "solution" is this:
A square box with a round cover, a usual network cable without sockets and a socket to socket adapter. LOL.

Spoiler

Being an electrical engineer, I couldn't stop laughing for a day.

It looks ugly, but it works.

 

Unfortunately, I dont have much experience with networking, so...

 

What do you guys think?

Can sockets be a problem for a high bandwidth?

Was the cable broken somehow?

CAT 6 should support 300 MBit/s, right?

 

His boss will send him over today to fix this mess.

Strictly speaking, it's cable clutter joe's job, but after seeing his solution, I would like to help the poor guy.

[191x7]

Non-standard cable pinout or improper connection. I've seen that a lot, electricians connecting the sockets so badly, een leaving some wires not connected because 100Mbps is just fine...

[Biohazard777]

36 minutes ago, suedseefrucht said:

CAT 6 should support 300 MBit/s, right?

It supports 1 Gb/s for under 100m runs, same as CAT5e.
 

37 minutes ago, suedseefrucht said:

Can sockets be a problem for a high bandwidth?

Generally speaking, don't add extra jack points on an individual run unless you need to. That being said no, they shouldn't be a problem.

Also you shouldn't run ethernet cables next to your power cables.
 

38 minutes ago, suedseefrucht said:

Was the cable broken somehow?

It happens (cable breaking), but what happens more often is poor crimping / bad connectors.
 

[suedseefrucht]

59 minutes ago, suedseefrucht said:

Cable clutter joe measured, if all 8 pins are connected from basement to appartment and he says, they are.

49 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

improper connection

2 minutes ago, Biohazard777 said:

what happens more often is poor crimping

Okay, so even if all the pins are connected, they were probably a little loose, which could have caused the issue.

I will keep an eye on the socket to make sure, the socket is occupied correctly and nothing is loose.

 

Thanks guys!

 

[191x7]

4 minutes ago, suedseefrucht said:

Okay, so even if all the pins are connected, they were probably a little loose, which could have caused the issue.

I will keep an eye on the socket to make sure, the socket is occupied correctly and nothing is loose.

 

Thanks guys!

 

Just to mention, it's not a case of "the color order is the same on both sides", there are standards for the color order. Most electricians do not know that, they connect them like they were regular power cables.

A simple network cable tester can help with diagnosing such issues.

[suedseefrucht]

8 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

there are standards for the color order

Ah, there is TIA-568A and TIA-568B, so A or B. There should be the same standard for both sockets, right?

If one socket is connected in way A and the other socket is connected in way B, could this lead to an unstable connection with less bandwidth?

[191x7]

If the different sides were connected with different standards it wouldn't work or it would have severe issues.

[suedseefrucht]

2 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

it would have severe issues.

Okay. The difference between TIA-568A and TIA-568B seems to be a swap of the orange and the green twisted pair.

So when mixing standards, half the twisted pairs are connected correctly and I would expect half the bandwidth.

That could be the problem too.

[191x7]

As an electrical engineer you're more than qualified to get some cheap network RJ45 cable crimping tools, a cheap cable tester and some cables, connectors etc and do some cabling just for fun.

You can get all that for less than 20$, if you'd want higher quality maybe 50$. You already know a lot more than the electrician.

[Falcon1986]

16 minutes ago, suedseefrucht said:

If one socket is connected in way A and the other socket is connected in way B, could this lead to an unstable connection with less bandwidth?

Doing it this way results in a crossover cable, which is not what is needed here. Simply stick to one standard at both ends. The 'B' standard is now most frequently used.

 

37 minutes ago, suedseefrucht said:

Okay, so even if all the pins are connected, they were probably a little loose, which could have caused the issue.

I will keep an eye on the socket to make sure, the socket is occupied correctly and nothing is loose.

I would just replace that cable with a new Cat6/6A ethernet cable with proper terminations at both ends. It's probably in need of an upgrade anyway, which will save on future problems.

 

Pull the new cable through using the old cable as a guide wire.

[suedseefrucht]

7 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

do some cabling just for fun.

1 minute ago, Falcon1986 said:

I would just replace that cable with a new Cat6/6A ethernet cable

Since I'm paying rent, it's the house owners job to buy the cable and before I am not sure, if the cable is broken, I dont want to touch anything, so no one can say I destroyed the cable.

I will see how the electrician does today and if it doesn't work as expected, I will do it myself, because I'm just annoyed by this.

 

In the US, B seems to be popular. In europe, A seems to be polular.

 

[suedseefrucht]

@191x7

@Biohazard777

@Falcon1986

Guys, you will not believe this. 

Cable clutter joe was here and all he did was replacing the round cover for a square one. 

Spoiler

 

 

My girlfriend goes GRRR

 

I asked him, why he doesn't use a wall socket and he said: "I tried but it didn't work.". 

 

I guess, I will do it myself. 

iv widget

[Biohazard777]

33 minutes ago, suedseefrucht said:

 

1 hour ago, suedseefrucht said:

Guys, you will not believe this. 

Unfortunately, I believe it... I've had my fair share of shoddy plumbing, flooring, wall painting, etc. in the last 5 or so years. It is freaking hard finding people to do at least a decent job, even when paying a fair price (and above) for said work.
And no I am not nitpicking, a floor tile shouldn't be sticking out so much that there is a chance of tripping on it.

 

1 hour ago, suedseefrucht said:

I guess, I will do it myself. 

Yep.
Don't get me wrong, I value time, but if I am gonna waste time supervising or worse fixing screw ups or finding different people for the same job... fk it I'll just do it myself.

Speaking of which, instead of mounting an RJ45 wall socket there you may want to consider putting a cheap unmanaged 1 Gb/s switch, gives you additional ports for like 15-20$