[SOLVED] House Modem > Ethernet Cable > Guest House = 175ft Away

[skerren123]

Hi Guys. I'm in a bit of a jam. I have highspeed internet inside the main house. I built a guest house in the back lot, 175 ft. away (54 meters). I bought 2 waterproof ethernet cables. 150 ft. & 100 ft. (Turns out I need only 175 ft.) I clicked the 150 ft. cable into the house modem & ran it back to the guest house. Too short. That's when I bought a coupler & the second 100 ft. cable. I clicked the two together with the coupler. Then I clicked the eth. cable into the laptop in the guest house. I was on the internet for 5 minutes and got kicked off. The next day, I couldn't stay on longer than 30 seconds. So then, I took off the 100 ft. cable and clicked the laptop into the first (150 ft) cable. (Picture me sitting inside the bushes -- haha.) Suddenly, I got on the internet but it was a slow connection. Do you think I should:
1) Scrap both cables and just get just one long 175 footer?
2) Should I keep the 150 ft. cable and get a 25 ft. to shorten the distance?
3) Or get a stronger couple or stronger cables?Spectrum, my ISP, said I need the Cat6 waterproof.
4) My other question is -- OK, so it gives me a really slow internet. But once I click on Netflix, will movies run at normal speed because they have their own "streaming thingy" ??
Thanks for your replies, and sorry for the long post. ">)

 

[Scottray]

Cat5 and Cat6 ethernet cables should be good up to 300m. So 175 feet should not be an issue. However, this is the spec for a single cable. I suspect that the connector/coupler could be an issue. I'd suggest one continuous cable of the correct length.

 

[berenod]

300ft (about 100 meters), not 300 meters!!!

But yes, good quality CAT 6 outdoor cable should give no speed loss whatsoever, but do get one 175 ft cable, them couplers are crap, especially on gigabit connections, as well (if the connection is outdoors) a source for humidity to get in, completely messing up your link.

 

[bill001g]

Check you cable that it is actually pure copper cable and not CCA cable. One of the many reasons CCA cable is not certified cable is it can not go the same distance as copper cable.

With a quality cable connector that you somehow seal to be waterproof it should work with 250ft. This is hard to say since it really depend on how much resistence the couple adds. The couple itself even though it might be a inch or so long is the same as adding a few feet of cable.

Ethernet cable only runs at 1 speed it does not vary based on the length. It will either run at 10,100 or 1000. There is no in between speeds of say 75mbits. Almost any cat5e or better cable you find will run at 1000 at the 100 meter maximum distance. Now you can sometime get lot of data errors but that is really a different problem.

 

[berenod]

Check you cable that it is actually pure copper cable and not CCA cable. One of the many reasons CCA cable is not certified cable is it can not go the same distance as copper cable.

With a quality cable connector that you somehow seal to be waterproof it should work with 250ft. This is hard to say since it really depend on how much resistence the couple adds. The couple itself even though it might be a inch or so long is the same as adding a few feet of cable.

Ethernet cable only runs at 1 speed it does not vary based on the length. It will either run at 10,100 or 1000. There is no in between speeds of say 75mbits. Almost any cat5e or better cable you find will run at 1000 at the 100 meter maximum distance. Now you can sometime get lot of data errors but that is really a different problem.

There might be no in between actual connection speed, but there sure are in between achieved speeds.

As you say, longer cables might create more errors and thus will slow your overall speed, as packets will have to be sent several times until properly received on the other side.

We have a Fluke DSX-5000 at work, with which we test cabling, and I can assure you that no 100 meter piece of Cat 5 cable will allow for 1 Gbps data transfer.

Yes, it might connect at 1 Gbps, real life transfer you'd be lucky to get much more then 200 Mbps!

If you'd like to test that sort of thing yourself, look for iPerf, e free software tool for testing real life data speed on a network. A rather good alternative to the more then 10,000 US$ Fluke tester!

 

[bill001g]

Check you cable that it is actually pure copper cable and not CCA cable. One of the many reasons CCA cable is not certified cable is it can not go the same distance as copper cable.

With a quality cable connector that you somehow seal to be waterproof it should work with 250ft. This is hard to say since it really depend on how much resistence the couple adds. The couple itself even though it might be a inch or so long is the same as adding a few feet of cable.

Ethernet cable only runs at 1 speed it does not vary based on the length. It will either run at 10,100 or 1000. There is no in between speeds of say 75mbits. Almost any cat5e or better cable you find will run at 1000 at the 100 meter maximum distance. Now you can sometime get lot of data errors but that is really a different problem.

There might be no in between actual connection speed, but there sure are in between achieved speeds.

As you say, longer cables might create more errors and thus will slow your overall speed, as packets will have to be sent several times until properly received on the other side.

We have a Fluke DSX-5000 at work, with which we test cabling, and I can assure you that no 100 meter piece of Cat 5 cable will allow for 1 Gbps data transfer.

Yes, it might connect at 1 Gbps, real life transfer you'd be lucky to get much more then 200 Mbps!

If you'd like to test that sort of thing yourself, look for iPerf, e free software tool for testing real life data speed on a network. A rather good alternative to the more then 10,000 US$ Fluke tester!

Then you return the cable to the vendor. That is what certified cable means. It means you take a fluke meter and it will pass all tests at 100 meters if it does not it is not certified cable. This is why especially in commercial installs you buy only quality cable so you do not have to rip it out when it fails to certify.

All this fake cable on the market is causing massive problems.