Testing cat6 with aida32 network benchmark

[Technoprobe]

Hello there.
I don't know what I'm doing but I want to test the quality of a 10 metre cat6 terminated cable I just bought for my home network before I buy a load more.
I'm surprised it's not a more common pursuit but I gather from googling you really need an expensive tester.

I thought I could at least compare the transfer speed over my LAN against some cat5e and came across the free aida32 network benchmark plugin.

Anyway my results (PC to PC via router, the other PC is via cat5e):
*All approx figures. Note the cat6 is longer and I did stretch it out.

5m Cat5e: Very stable around 115000 KB/s occasionally dipping to 111000

10m Cat6: Not at all stable but usually around 115000 frequently dropping to 110000 and very occasionally up to 117000

I know nothing about data transfer but the fact that the Cat6 appears unstable compared to the cat5e has me concerned. Is the extra 5 metres causing the fluctuation. Is it a bad thing??

The cable is thicker than cat5e and seems well made to me. It is supposed to be UTP pure copper and it does look like copper from the end of the plug whereas the cat5e has a silvery shimmer of alluminium.

Would crosstalk cause this?

If someone could confirm I'm wasting my time or help any I would be very grateful

 

[bill001g]

You likely will never get accurate test results using a pc to try to test cable. There are way to many variables that can affect the test when you are transferring at those speeds and trying to infer some quality measure for relatively small variations you are seeing. Even something simple like another program being swapped into memory may delay the cpu enough to cause variations like that.

What you need to do is make sure the cable is marked eia/tia which means it is certified cable. This means the cable manufacture has proven to the certification group that the cable they make meets the standards. That does not mean the ends are put on correctly but when that is the problem you get massive data loss.

As a end consumer without access to test equipment you pretty much must trust the company you buy them from. Lately there are reports of cable with fraudulent markings being directly sent from companies in china.

If you buy from a company that is fairly well known and has a number of customer reviews you should be good. Generally someone who is having cable issues will eventually get a meter and test cables. If a company is selling fakes it does not take real long before this posted in the reviews of the company.

 

[Technoprobe]

You likely will never get accurate test results using a pc to try to test cable. There are way to many variables that can affect the test when you are transferring at those speeds and trying to infer some quality measure for relatively small variations you are seeing. Even something simple like another program being swapped into memory may delay the cpu enough to cause variations like that.

What you need to do is make sure the cable is marked eia/tia which means it is certified cable. This means the cable manufacture has proven to the certification group that the cable they make meets the standards. That does not mean the ends are put on correctly but when that is the problem you get massive data loss.

As a end consumer without access to test equipment you pretty much must trust the company you buy them from. Lately there are reports of cable with fraudulent markings being directly sent from companies in china.

If you buy from a company that is fairly well known and has a number of customer reviews you should be good. Generally someone who is having cable issues will eventually get a meter and test cables. If a company is selling fakes it does not take real long before this posted in the reviews of the company.

Thanks for your reply. I thought it was probably the case.
I will hunt some eia/tia cable down.