[SOLVED] what type of ethernet cable do i need

[luckydriver]

how i sit with my laptop wont change. the ethernet comes straight out the side mid way right side and the cable runs right into my sofa arm. the existing cable has the sheathing pulled back and wiring exposed at the connector due to the strain for over a year and when you wiggle it, it disconnects. i reversed it and plugged the other end into the laptop so i should get another year out of it hopefully. i know i can get a 90 degree that comes out of the laptop and angles to the back but wondering if thats best in this situation or theres another angle i should consider. i use ethernet when doing large backups because its faster than wifi

 

[bill001g]

I never saw ethernet things that change the direction.

You need nothing real fancy. Any cat5e cable will do. Make sure it is not fake cable. It must be pure copper (no cca) with wire size 22-24 ( no flat or thin cable). Now there is a exception that says you can use 26 awg stranded wire for short patch cords. Stranded wire is a lot more flexible than solid copper. This is a little harder to find and it takes careful reading with all the fake cable being sold on amazon and ebay.

You at times can find cat6 for cheaper but it will give you no advantage over cat5e.

If there is some adapter that goes 90 degrees that would likely help you not damage the new cable. Then again if the cable is short they tend to be pretty cheap.

 

[SamirD]

Something like this would help:
http://www.l-com.com/ethernet-categ...MIgKCAweHm5gIVi4bACh11TQ4GEAQYBSABEgJUY_D_BwE

Just be sure you don't order anything like this from ebay, amazon or any other 'marketplace' site, or it's going to be some 99 cent fake crap that won't work right.

 

[hackster]

If the problem is a weak wifi signal then it might be simpler to plug in a wifi access point to give a stronger signal. Then your wifi connection may be fast enough that you don't need to bother with the extra cable when you make a backup. This should also make other general use less frustrating too.

 

[SamirD]

If the problem is a weak wifi signal then it might be simpler to plug in a wifi access point to give a stronger signal. Then your wifi connection may be fast enough that you don't need to bother with the extra cable when you make a backup. This should also make other general use less frustrating too.

I was thinking that too at first, except when doing file copies like the OP is doing, wired is still going to be significantly faster.

 

[hackster]

I agree, but it depends. If there's a hard disk involved, either in the laptop or a NAS, then a decent wifi signal may be faster than it's capable of transferring data anyway, or at least it may be close to its real-world speed after allowing for seek delays etc, so there'd be little or no benefit in switching to wired.

If it's an SSD at both ends, or a RAID array in a NAS, then it's very likely that wired would still be faster.

In my case, my "NAS" is actually a USB stick plugged into the back of the router, so it's definitely the limiting factor regardless of the connection.

I've seen 60Mb real world speeds just over 2.4GHz using Speedtest on my android phone, while 2 rooms away from the wifi router, wireless isn't the load of rubbish it once was. Take the claimed speed figures with a huge pinch of salt, but I'm sure it's cabable of much more than this if there's an AP right next to you.