[SOLVED] Maintaining signal integrity throughout the run?

[Irvingoh999]

Hi all, I have a question regarding how an ethernet signal is transmitted throughout a run. I am running my signal throughout my house and am unable to attain full gigabit speeds even though when connected directly into the modem. The setup I have might come as unorthodox but here goes my explanation. I am running a cable from the modem which sits in the middle of the house to a router, following that I route a cable from said router of approximately 5m to an outlet which is in a room on the 2nd floor, I then connect it to a gigabit switch and further route it downstairs into the storeroom(unsure of the length of this run but I would assume its at most 20m). In the storeroom I connect yet another gigabit switch and with one final route, connect it to another room upstairs.(I would assume the run is another 20m). During the first run a while back, I managed to attain 500mbit at the end of the route which I would assume is "good enough" so I went ahead and did nothing about it. After awhile, I realised that the speed had changed to 100mbit. So I went ahead and reset all the switches around the house and I had "gigabit" speeds again (by gigabit I mean above 100 but no where close to 1000). And now, I have no clue to which route to take to ensure gigabit throughout the entire run.

Main problems:

• Unsure length and rating of wires that run internally throughout the house(those are using the telephone lines)
• Unable to maintain gigabit speeds throughout the run

Possible solutions:

• Ethernet extenders? (Unsure of how those work too)
• More switches? (I've read online that switches help maintain and improve signal integrity)

Sidenote: on every portion where I can physically connect the wire myself, I have chosen a mix of Cat 7/6a/6/5e. Does it matter which Category I use? Does it need to be standardized throughout?

Thanks for reading! Any questions and answers would be helpful!

 

[13thmonkey]

I suspect that your first bullet point is the source of your problem.

Check point to point in turn, and isolate the bad section. Consider re-crimping, I'd made some cables, worked for a while, then I had to recrimp 1 point, been fine since, so some minor cable issue could be the cause.

 

[bill001g]

This almost always is some kind a cable termination issue. Cat5e can go 100 meters at 1gbit. Mixing different specs of cable does not really matter since all exceed 1gbit. Now you may have CCA (copper clad aluminum) in the mix and that is not a certified cable. It tends to work at shorter distances but is more susceptible to the ends getting loose.

Many switches show if the connection is 100mbit or 1gbit by the light colors. You will have to look up your manual for your switch to know if yours has this feature.

What I am confused about in your post is you say you can get above 100mbit but not gigabit. This generally means all your cable are running at 1gbit. Ethenet cables only run at 100mbit or 1gbit exactly. If you were getting 200mbps that means the cable runs at say 1gbit for 2 seconds and then runs at 0gbit for 8 seconds for a average rates of 200mbps over 10 seconds.

Do you have something other than ethernet cables and simple switches between modem/router and end devices.

 

[Irvingoh999]

I suspect that your first bullet point is the source of your problem.

Check point to point in turn, and isolate the bad section. Consider re-crimping, I'd made some cables, worked for a while, then I had to recrimp 1 point, been fine since, so some minor cable issue could be the cause.

How do I check point to point correctly? And recrimping? Does it have to do with the socket? Or the cables themselves?

 

[Irvingoh999]

This almost always is some kind a cable termination issue. Cat5e can go 100 meters at 1gbit. Mixing different specs of cable does not really matter since all exceed 1gbit. Now you may have CCA (copper clad aluminum) in the mix and that is not a certified cable. It tends to work at shorter distances but is more susceptible to the ends getting loose.

Many switches show if the connection is 100mbit or 1gbit by the light colors. You will have to look up your manual for your switch to know if yours has this feature.

What I am confused about in your post is you say you can get above 100mbit but not gigabit. This generally means all your cable are running at 1gbit. Ethenet cables only run at 100mbit or 1gbit exactly. If you were getting 200mbps that means the cable runs at say 1gbit for 2 seconds and then runs at 0gbit for 8 seconds for a average rates of 200mbps over 10 seconds.

Do you have something other than ethernet cables and simple switches between modem/router and end devices.

No, I just have the modem>router and then some switches. I use speedtest.net to determine the connection speed. Is there a more definitive way to resolve the issue?

 

[bill001g]

What I would do is test directly connected to the modem. This will be the fastest speed you see.

Next I would connect the router to the modem with a short cable in the same room and then test with another short cable to your router. This will ensure your router is not the problem. You could I guess also test the switches directly connected but switches seldom have issues. If you see issues with your router in this configuration try a factory reset and only configure the wifi and admin passwords. Some of the other features can bottleneck the cpu when you have a fast internet connection.

At this point you should be pretty sure it is not your equipment causing the issue and it must be a cable problem.

Slowly plug things back in in their original configuration until the problem occurs.

You will likely need a punch down tools and/or a rj45 crimp too depending on what wall cable or wall jack you think it is. Patch cable tend to be easier to just buy new ones than messing with recrimping them but that is not a option if the cables go though the walls.