Cat 5 Cabling and Speed Issue

Hi,

I've got a bit of an issue with some home cabling I did last weekend.

I routed some Cat 5e cables from my home office on the 1st floor of the
house into the loft, into the chimney breast (which isn't used!) and down to
the lounge downstairs. Downstairs I crimped normal RJ-45 ends onto them - in
my office I've got a Cat 5 patch panel and terminated the new cables on
that.

Unfortunately both the new cables only work if the switch upstairs is
hard-coded to 10 M/bit and then they work fine. If I set them to 100 M/bit
then I don't get a link light! Set the switch to 100 M/bit - no link light,
set the switch to 10 M/bit - link light - without moving any cables. Same
behaviour with my Tivo (with network card) and the Xbox plugged in so I've
eliminated the device at that end.

One of the devices plugged in downstairs is a Netgear wireless access point.
It used to be plugged into the same switch with a cable running down the
stairs - so I know it works. Then the switch was set to autosense and it
autosensed to 100 M/bit full duplex.

I'm confused. I don't see how 10 or 100 M/bits would make a difference -
it's using the same conductors in the cable, isn't it?

Any ideas?

Chas




Charles Gregory

yes it is.
however, could ome of your devices not be capable of running at 100, so it
says sorry-no can do.

i can't quite get a grip on you circuit layout.

mike

"Charles Gregory" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:ePH2d.174$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> I've got a bit of an issue with some home cabling I did last weekend.
>
> I routed some Cat 5e cables from my home office on the 1st floor of the
> house into the loft, into the chimney breast (which isn't used!) and down
to
> the lounge downstairs. Downstairs I crimped normal RJ-45 ends onto them -
in
> my office I've got a Cat 5 patch panel and terminated the new cables on
> that.
>
> Unfortunately both the new cables only work if the switch upstairs is
> hard-coded to 10 M/bit and then they work fine. If I set them to 100 M/bit
> then I don't get a link light! Set the switch to 100 M/bit - no link
light,
> set the switch to 10 M/bit - link light - without moving any cables. Same
> behaviour with my Tivo (with network card) and the Xbox plugged in so I've
> eliminated the device at that end.
>
> One of the devices plugged in downstairs is a Netgear wireless access
point.
> It used to be plugged into the same switch with a cable running down the
> stairs - so I know it works. Then the switch was set to autosense and it
> autosensed to 100 M/bit full duplex.
>
> I'm confused. I don't see how 10 or 100 M/bits would make a difference -
> it's using the same conductors in the cable, isn't it?
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Chas
>
>


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In article <ePH2d.174$(E-Mail Removed)>, "Charles Gregory"
(E-Mail Removed) says...
> I've got a bit of an issue with some home cabling I did last weekend.
>
> I routed some Cat 5e cables from my home office on the 1st floor of the
> house into the loft, into the chimney breast (which isn't used!) and down to
> the lounge downstairs. Downstairs I crimped normal RJ-45 ends onto them - in
> my office I've got a Cat 5 patch panel and terminated the new cables on
> that.
>
> Unfortunately both the new cables only work if the switch upstairs is
> hard-coded to 10 M/bit and then they work fine. If I set them to 100 M/bit
> then I don't get a link light! Set the switch to 100 M/bit - no link light,
> set the switch to 10 M/bit - link light - without moving any cables. Same
> behaviour with my Tivo (with network card) and the Xbox plugged in so I've
> eliminated the device at that end.
>
> One of the devices plugged in downstairs is a Netgear wireless access point.
> It used to be plugged into the same switch with a cable running down the
> stairs - so I know it works. Then the switch was set to autosense and it
> autosensed to 100 M/bit full duplex.
>
> I'm confused. I don't see how 10 or 100 M/bits would make a difference -
> it's using the same conductors in the cable, isn't it?

Yes.
>
> Any ideas?
>
Did you make sure that the cables aren't kinked anywhere or bent around
sharp corners, that you haven't untwisted more than the absolute minimum
when you've terminated them, and that they don't run near power cables
or fluorescent lights? Are they are correctly connected to the plugs?
(actual colours don't really matter although it's good to keep it
standard, but pairing is crucial)

On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 00:46:41 +0100, Rob Morley <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

> ... but pairing is crucial)

That would be my first thought, too.

Derek
--
Daffy DUck: Ah! Pronoun trouble. It's not "he doesn't have to shoot you
now", it's "he doesn't have to shoot me now" ... but I demand that he shoot
me now so shoot me now!!
Elma Fudd (with shotgun): BLAM!!

"Rob Morley" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) t...
> In article <ePH2d.174$(E-Mail Removed)>, "Charles Gregory"
> (E-Mail Removed) says...
> > I've got a bit of an issue with some home cabling I did last weekend.
> >
> > I routed some Cat 5e cables from my home office on the 1st floor of the
> > house into the loft, into the chimney breast (which isn't used!) and
down to
> > the lounge downstairs. Downstairs I crimped normal RJ-45 ends onto
them - in
> > my office I've got a Cat 5 patch panel and terminated the new cables on
> > that.
> >
> > Unfortunately both the new cables only work if the switch upstairs is
> > hard-coded to 10 M/bit and then they work fine. If I set them to 100
M/bit
> > then I don't get a link light! Set the switch to 100 M/bit - no link
light,
> > set the switch to 10 M/bit - link light - without moving any cables.
Same
> > behaviour with my Tivo (with network card) and the Xbox plugged in so
I've
> > eliminated the device at that end.
> >
> > One of the devices plugged in downstairs is a Netgear wireless access
point.
> > It used to be plugged into the same switch with a cable running down the
> > stairs - so I know it works. Then the switch was set to autosense and it
> > autosensed to 100 M/bit full duplex.
> >
> > I'm confused. I don't see how 10 or 100 M/bits would make a difference -
> > it's using the same conductors in the cable, isn't it?
>
> Yes.
> >
> > Any ideas?
> >
> Did you make sure that the cables aren't kinked anywhere or bent around
> sharp corners, that you haven't untwisted more than the absolute minimum
> when you've terminated them, and that they don't run near power cables
> or fluorescent lights? Are they are correctly connected to the plugs?
> (actual colours don't really matter although it's good to keep it
> standard, but pairing is crucial)

I'd check your pairing over first and if you're going to do more, I would
buy one of those little cable checkers you can get off eBay for about a
tenner - save me loads of time when I wired the house up.

Cheers, Mike

fred bloggs wrote:
>>Did you make sure that the cables aren't kinked anywhere or bent around
>>sharp corners, that you haven't untwisted more than the absolute minimum
>>when you've terminated them, and that they don't run near power cables
>>or fluorescent lights? Are they are correctly connected to the plugs?
>>(actual colours don't really matter although it's good to keep it
>>standard, but pairing is crucial)
>
>
> I'd check your pairing over first and if you're going to do more, I would
> buy one of those little cable checkers you can get off eBay for about a
> tenner - save me loads of time when I wired the house up.

The cable checkers you'd get on Ebay for £10 wouldn't check pairings.

They'd just show that one pin at one end was connected to the right pin
on the other.

But they wouldn't indicate if they were paired correctly.

"Derek" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 00:46:41 +0100, Rob Morley <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>> ... but pairing is crucial)
>
> That would be my first thought, too.
>
Also mine.
And since noone else has told you i will.
1&2
3&6
4&5
7&8

The first 2 are the important ones, as they are the 2 that carry data.
If I could remember the colours, I'd tell you. but it might be on the
backs of the patch panel, and most sockets for the "other end" i've seen
are coded with both A and B colours.

G

NoSpam wrote:
> fred bloggs wrote:
>
>>> Did you make sure that the cables aren't kinked anywhere or bent around
>>> sharp corners, that you haven't untwisted more than the absolute minimum
>>> when you've terminated them, and that they don't run near power cables
>>> or fluorescent lights? Are they are correctly connected to the plugs?
>>> (actual colours don't really matter although it's good to keep it
>>> standard, but pairing is crucial)
>>
>>
>>
>> I'd check your pairing over first and if you're going to do more, I would
>> buy one of those little cable checkers you can get off eBay for about a
>> tenner - save me loads of time when I wired the house up.
>
>
> The cable checkers you'd get on Ebay for £10 wouldn't check pairings.
>
> They'd just show that one pin at one end was connected to the right pin
> on the other.
>
> But they wouldn't indicate if they were paired correctly.

The colours for the standard I use ( and our engineers use) are
orange/white, orange, green/white, blue, blu/white, green, brown/white,
brown. In that order. For straight through cables this needs to be the
same at each end. Most outlets and patch panels are colour coded for ease.

Cat5e cable (unlike cat6) is fairly robust when it comes to be pulled
and kinked (and unkinked) and I have rarely seen cat5e cabling that
constricts network traffic to 10Mbps and nothing above, assuming all the
equpiment is capable of running 100Mpbs. All my house is cat5e cabled,
with lengths varying from 3 to 20 metres and there is no real speed
differential.

Speaking from experience, if you have network.internet connectivity is
is very unlikey to be the wiring itself, it's fairly on or off.
All copper cabling suffers fom cross talk and degredation of signal over
a distance. The magic, perhaps of cat5e is that you don't have to
adhere to the standards of bend radii and twisting. I have an older
patch panel in the loft which means, for ease of termination, I have
removed all the twists back to the plastic sheath and all works fine.
Clearly when I upgrade to cat6 I can't do this.

I would suggest, as others have that you check for the 'weakest link'
and determine the equpment causing this. Mine is hindered by the 10Mbps
switch although everything else is 10/100Mbps.

The ever useful Google will have a plethora of information regarding
cat5e network speeds.
It's no new advice I admit but it's good to type a lot every so often I
find.

Off to weigh the kitten again now.
P