Not optimal network cable?

folvik · December 15, 2014

Hello everyone!

I recently switched out a cat5 cable i've been using for years, for a another cat5 cable.

I knew the cable i was switching to was old and had been sitting in a box for a long time, but i tested the new one with speedtest.net and some software from Realtek i found on their website thats designed to identify problems with networking etc.

When i do a test on speedtest.net i get the same maximum speed as i did with my old cable however with the new cable download speeds seem like they fluctuate more (?)

Do you guys think it's worth replacing? What are your experiences on the subject?

bobhays · December 15, 2014

most of the time the cable is not an issue, it's a problem somewhere else in the chain.

EmeraldFlame · December 15, 2014

If you have a stable connection then I doubt it's the cable. Typically with ethernet you either have signal, the signal goes in and out, or you don't have signal. I don't think I have ever encountered a situation where a bad cable gave a stable but slow connection.

That being said cat5 is good for 100Mb/s and in some cases (short runs mainly) can go faster. If you need faster sustained speeds than that, you should upgrade to cat5e which is good for 1000Mb/s (or 1Gb/s).

Also you should note that speedtest.net is not an accurate measure of your internal network performance. Speedtest.net tests your internet connection speed, which is throttled by your internet service provider. The only way to change the speeds that speedtest.net will display to you is to call up you ISP and pay more for internet. Your internal network can most likely handle far more than what you pay to access to the internet.