Question Cat 5E speeds limited to 100mb/s

[dempy19]

Hello all,

I apologize as this might be a bit of a read. To preface the situation, I have 1.5gb up/down with my service provider. My computer is connected via CAT6 directly into the back of the router and is getting speeds above 1gb so nothing strange there.
We have a CAT6 cable that connects from the router to the wall jack and leads to the downstairs living room (the router is on the second level). This connection was installed by the ISP handyman.

Now, it gets tricky here as he initially had to split the cable to assist with a second phone line so we always only got up to 100 mbps from the wall jack in the living room.
I have unhooked the second phone line and patched the cable so that it should be fully functional now and giving up to 1000 mbps. After the patch, I am still only getting 100mbps.

Assuming the patch was done correctly, I looked a the wall jacks and have taken pictures of how they have been connected with the thought that something here may be wrong. I apologize to admins if I've linked these incorrectly.

Here is the wall jack upstairs by the router:
Upstairs jack

Here is the wall jack in the living room:
Downstairs jack

Now, if anyone here can see anything wrong with how these are wired, please let me know as I do have a network repair kit and can make changes.
However, if it all looks fine then what I may do is get a gigabit LAN switch and create two ends where I did the patch in case that is the issue. My last resort is to test the cable coming from upstairs and potentially swap out the cable leading to the downstairs wall jack.

Thank you all for taking the time to read this, I look forward to your answers and ideas!

 

[bill001g]

So many issues here.

First you missed 1 pair on the upstairs end it is still connected to the bottom port.
Next you are using the wrong color pattern. You need to have both ends follow the 568a or 568b pattern. You can use either but both end must be the same.

Last that does not look like actual ethernet cable. Mostly the twists in the pairs do not appear to be tight enough.

Since you can't do much if the cable in the walls is the wrong kind just get the pattern correct and maybe you get lucky and it will work

 

[dempy19]

So many issues here.

First you missed 1 pair on the upstairs end it is still connected to the bottom port.
Next you are using the wrong color pattern. You need to have both ends follow the 568a or 568b pattern. You can use either but both end must be the same.

Last that does not look like actual ethernet cable. Mostly the twists in the pairs do not appear to be tight enough.

Since you can't do much if the cable in the walls is the wrong kind just get the pattern correct and maybe you get lucky and it will work

Thank you so much for your quick reply!

I had a feeling that the upstairs one is completely wrong since the 2 wires on the bottom shouldnt be there. I will make sure to pull both ends out (upstairs and downstairs) and have them re-punched using the same code.
The cable is definitely an ethernet cable, just the wires at the end were untangled quite a bit.
All of this was done by the ISP worker so I'll have to go in and correct it.
I'll post my findings to see if it helped with the speed at all!

 

[bill001g]

If you have enough slack cut the wires back and only expose maybe a inch or two at the most. The less you can untwist the better.

This is purely a example of a patch panel that shows wires connected to it. This is what your goal should be for how little wire you untwist.

https://www.amazon.com/Iwillink-Patch-Keystone-Network-Rackmount/dp/B09NM8GGTR/?th=1

 

[kanewolf]

If you have enough slack cut the wires back and only expose maybe a inch or two at the most. The less you can untwist the better.

This is purely a example of a patch panel that shows wires connected to it. This is what your goal should be for how little wire you untwist.

https://www.amazon.com/Iwillink-Patch-Keystone-Network-Rackmount/dp/B09NM8GGTR/?th=1

Replace those wall plates. The PX100414 (Belden) shows a 5e rating, but I can't find any evidence of gigabit rating.
Get a standard keystone jack for each end. Keep the untwisted wire to a minimum. Follow the 568B color code at each end. I would also recommend a basic tester
Keystone -- https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-Cat6-Punch-Keystone-105384/dp/B003L11H48/
Tester -- https://www.amazon.com/Klein-VDV526-052-Scout-Junior-Tester/dp/B004CI9NRM

 

[dempy19]

Replace those wall plates. The PX100414 (Belden) shows a 5e rating, but I can't find any evidence of gigabit rating.
Get a standard keystone jack for each end. Keep the untwisted wire to a minimum. Follow the 568B color code at each end. I would also recommend a basic tester
Keystone -- https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-Cat6-Punch-Keystone-105384/dp/B003L11H48/
Tester -- https://www.amazon.com/Klein-VDV526-052-Scout-Junior-Tester/dp/B004CI9NRM

Thank you Kanewolf and bill001g for your resposnes.

I did further testing and tried to sort it out on my own last night and was able to at least get my cable tester to show that there was a short as the #1 light wouldn't light up. Long story short, I got rid of the patch in the cable that I had and connected RJ45 connectors to both ends to see where the problem was. Kane I believe you're right and the issue may be with the wall plates and jack, as when I connected the cable to my laptop, the computer couldn't get internet service and showed a speed of 10/10. Once everything was connected I was able to determine that the wall plate downstairs wasn't producing a signal.

So today I will go out and get the keystones you recommended and re-wire it with 568b to see if that helps.

I will post an update when done.

 

[dempy19]

After doing all the work I said I would in the previous post, in the end I'm getting the same speeds as before I started this little venture.

I swapped out the wall plates both upstairs and downstairs with Cat6 keystones and wired everything properly with the 568b standard.
In conclusion there must be something with the wire in the wall that is causing a 100 mbps cap. The cable in the wall is Cat5e which is capable of speeds up to 1000mbps.
So unless I can pull a Cat6 wire directly form the router somehow to my living room wall jack, I'm stuck with 100 mbps. Oh well!

Thank you all for the help and advice!

 

[bill001g]

If you are going to run anything other than cat5e new I would run cat6a. There used to be huge cost difference but as the cost of copper metal increased all the cable just got more expensive so the cheaper stuff caught up to the cat6a.
Cat6a is rated to full 10gbit.

Key to any ethernet cable is it must be pure copper with wire size 22-24. Make sure you see that information very clearly when you buy cable if not buy from someplace else. I would bet 90% of the cable you find on amazon is fake cable that does not meet the standards.

I would check the markings on your current cable and see what it says. It should actually say cat5e with things like TIA/EIA markings. Most times it will have the AWG of the wire and some times you might see the letters CU which indicates it is copper wire....you don't want to see CCA.

The wire itself seldom goes bad but I did notice you talked about splicing the cable in the middle. Could be there is something wrong with the splice could you try a switch or maybe just test each part separately to see if either connection runs at 1gbit.

Unfortantly the testers us normal people can afford do not test much other than simple connectivity. They can't tell you id there is for example too much resistance in the run or test for interference between the pairs. For you general home user it is just cheaper to blindly replace cables rather than buy expensive meters that are seldom used.

 

[kanewolf]

After doing all the work I said I would in the previous post, in the end I'm getting the same speeds as before I started this little venture.

I swapped out the wall plates both upstairs and downstairs with Cat6 keystones and wired everything properly with the 568b standard.
In conclusion there must be something with the wire in the wall that is causing a 100 mbps cap. The cable in the wall is Cat5e which is capable of speeds up to 1000mbps.
So unless I can pull a Cat6 wire directly form the router somehow to my living room wall jack, I'm stuck with 100 mbps. Oh well!

Thank you all for the help and advice!

I assume, after reterimating both ends to 568B standards you were able to verify 8 wires straight through with your LED type tester ?