100 Mb/s speed using cat6 cabling

[goofball]

Oh .. and also get this to test all the cable runs ... http://www.dealextreme.com/p/rj45-rj...le-tester-1261

Probably the best US$6.41 you've ever spent

Agreed, that's the one I have and use frequently to check my cables. That's the only way I knew pin 8 was bad on the jack.

[enigma54]

I found some time to do some troubleshooting today and this will be kind of hard to explain, but some of the connections seem very "temperamental". What I mean is, for example, I had one keystone jack location which I had never attempted to use before and I tried it today....no problems, I got a gigabit connection. I unplug the cat6 cable from the keystone jack and went on to do some other things....I came back, plug the cat6 cable in and now there was NO connection. I tried swapping cat6 cables, but no luck. I go and work on another jack, come back to the original one, plug in a cat6 cable, and it's working again, although at first, it connected at 10 Mb/s, then later at 100 Mb/s before it somehow settled at 1Gb/s. That's only the beginning of the weird stuff.

In another location, I have 2 runs of cat6, although just 1 run was terminated with a cat5e keystone jack (the 2nd run was not terminated). I had always gotten gigabit speed with this location. This afternoon, I terminate the 2nd one and I get gigabit speed. So I figure everything is good, I push both runs back into the gang box and mount the wall plate. Then I find that the one that had previously operated at gigabit speed is now only connecting at megabit speed! So I cut off the keystone jack thinking a wired is loose/damaged and re-terminate with a new keystone jack - still megabit speed. As well, I find out that the one I terminated this afternoon is now also downgraded to megabit speed too! What the #@>%!!!!! How can something be working fine and at gigabit speed is now running at megabit?!?!

Suffice to say, I tried swapping various cables, moving this and moving that, but both connections are only connecting at megabit speed now. All my patch cat6 cables were purchased from monoprice so I'm assuming it's not the patch cords? I will order that RJ45 cable tester to find out more, but it was so frustrating spending hours thinking I got my gigabit, only to find out in the next instance that somehow the connection go downgraded to megabit speeds....how is this possible? Are some wires loose? I have to order some more keystone jacks before I can re-terminate.

I did not look at the back of the patch panel because it's a jumble of cables that I didn't have time to get to. From the way one of the previously working keystone jacks was wired, it followed the T568A wiring scheme, so that's what I used for the keystone jacks I installed today.

Let me know what you guys think....thanks in advance!

[ozymandias]

Just curious, is there a similar tool to test raw throughput/speed? I have a CAT6 wiring throughout the house, all properly terminated and fully tested with such a tool (and working). All terminations are with CAT6 patch panels, CAT6 RJ45 and gigabit router (DLINK-655).

However, I haven't tested throughput - only have notebook with gigabit port and a PS3 that supports gigabit. I can stream 1080p movies just fine with hardwire connection but guessing that requires nowhere close to gigabit speed.

So the question is how does one test actual speeds of each CAT6 connection? Is there a standalone tool or program for this? Don't want to buy another notebook/PC with gigabit port just to test.

Agreed, that's the one I have and use frequently to check my cables. That's the only way I knew pin 8 was bad on the jack.

[cwb27]

Just curious, is there a similar tool to test raw throughput/speed? I have a CAT6 wiring throughout the house, all properly terminated and fully tested with such a tool (and working). All terminations are with CAT6 patch panels, CAT6 RJ45 and gigabit router (DLINK-655).

However, I haven't tested throughput - only have notebook with gigabit port and a PS3 that supports gigabit. I can stream 1080p movies just fine with hardwire connection but guessing that requires nowhere close to gigabit speed.

So the question is how does one test actual speeds of each CAT6 connection? Is there a standalone tool or program for this? Don't want to buy another notebook/PC with gigabit port just to test.

You don't need to perform a speed test of a point to point connection, all you really need to do is looks for CRC errors. As long as the link negotiates 1Gbit and you have no CRC errors than you're fine.

[ozymandias]

Pardon my ignorance, but where would I see this link speed/CRC errors?

Found this good old article on gigabit speed testing. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...th,2321-7.html

As expected, the actual limitation of gigabit network is the hard drive. Even more interesting, little electrical interference, different cable, lengths, CAT5E or CAT6, didn't really make much difference at all to the physical speed (once the hard drive limitation was removed). Cool.

You don't need to perform a speed test of a point to point connection, all you really need to do is looks for CRC errors. As long as
the link negotiates 1Gbit and you have no CRC errors than you're fine.

[enigma54]

I found some time to do some troubleshooting today and this will be kind of hard to explain, but some of the connections seem very "temperamental". What I mean is, for example, I had one keystone jack location which I had never attempted to use before and I tried it today....no problems, I got a gigabit connection. I unplug the cat6 cable from the keystone jack and went on to do some other things....I came back, plug the cat6 cable in and now there was NO connection. I tried swapping cat6 cables, but no luck. I go and work on another jack, come back to the original one, plug in a cat6 cable, and it's working again, although at first, it connected at 10 Mb/s, then later at 100 Mb/s before it somehow settled at 1Gb/s. That's only the beginning of the weird stuff.

In another location, I have 2 runs of cat6, although just 1 run was terminated with a cat5e keystone jack (the 2nd run was not terminated). I had always gotten gigabit speed with this location. This afternoon, I terminate the 2nd one and I get gigabit speed. So I figure everything is good, I push both runs back into the gang box and mount the wall plate. Then I find that the one that had previously operated at gigabit speed is now only connecting at megabit speed! So I cut off the keystone jack thinking a wired is loose/damaged and re-terminate with a new keystone jack - still megabit speed. As well, I find out that the one I terminated this afternoon is now also downgraded to megabit speed too! What the #@>%!!!!! How can something be working fine and at gigabit speed is now running at megabit?!?!

Suffice to say, I tried swapping various cables, moving this and moving that, but both connections are only connecting at megabit speed now. All my patch cat6 cables were purchased from monoprice so I'm assuming it's not the patch cords? I will order that RJ45 cable tester to find out more, but it was so frustrating spending hours thinking I got my gigabit, only to find out in the next instance that somehow the connection go downgraded to megabit speeds....how is this possible? Are some wires loose? I have to order some more keystone jacks before I can re-terminate.

I did not look at the back of the patch panel because it's a jumble of cables that I didn't have time to get to. From the way one of the previously working keystone jacks was wired, it followed the T568A wiring scheme, so that's what I used for the keystone jacks I installed today.

Let me know what you guys think....thanks in advance!

Anyone have further suggestions on what might be wrong with my home network as described above?

[cwb27]

Anyone have further suggestions on what might be wrong with my home network as described above?

You need a cable tester to verify all your terminations are made correctly. I still feel there is a high likelihood bad punch downs are the reason for your issues.

[LeeBear]

Anyone have further suggestions on what might be wrong with my home network as described above?

Your speed dropping from Gigabit to Megabit speeds is definitely due to a connection issue. Gigabit connection requires all 4 pairs of wires to be connected properly, if any one pair is bad you'll drop down to Megabit speeds. The hard part is determining where the connection is bad, whether its a break somewhere along the cable, or the connectors at the end.

Can you give more information about your cable runs? What length are these runs? Are they going through the walls/floors? Are you using any sort of clips to secure the cables, etc. Another question that was never asked is what type of cables are you using is it solid core or stranded? It may sound stupid but I hope you're not trying to use a punch down keystone jack with stranded cables. If you are using solid core cables check to make sure all your punch downs at the keystone are good. Alot of cheaper punch tools do not make clean punches, resulting in the cable not being punched all the way down and the keystone connector not piercing all the way through the outer plastic insulation of the wire.

-LeeBear

[r1lee]

Your speed dropping from Gigabit to Megabit speeds is definitely due to a connection issue. Gigabit connection requires all 4 pairs of wires to be connected properly, if any one pair is bad you'll drop down to Megabit speeds. The hard part is determining where the connection is bad, whether its a break somewhere along the cable, or the connectors at the end.

Can you give more information about your cable runs? What length are these runs? Are they going through the walls/floors? Are you using any sort of clips to secure the cables, etc. Another question that was never asked is what type of cables are you using is it solid core or stranded? It may sound stupid but I hope you're not trying to use a punch down keystone jack with stranded cables. If you are using solid core cables check to make sure all your punch downs at the keystone are good. Alot of cheaper punch tools do not make clean punches, resulting in the cable not being punched all the way down and the keystone connector not piercing all the way through the outer plastic insulation of the wire.

-LeeBear

Punch down keystone jacks were made for solid cable, but it has been proven that stranded cable work just as well. Also, Cat6 cable has a thicker jacket which helps.

Enigma,
i hope you kept the runs a little long just incase you have to re-terminate. I recommend you get someone to re-terminate with regular RJ45 heads and use something like this as a keystone.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

[ozymandias]

Very likely loose connection. Do yourself a favor, and get the RJ45 tester tool (just go to TigerDirect - don't wait from monoprice). That saved me hours from troubleshooting. I had to re-punch about 20% of my CAT6 connections again after testing with this (even though some of these CAT6 connections were working, likely at Mbps speeds).

And if the RJ45 test passes all the time (need to try multiple times, especially when speed drops to Mbps as connection may get loose) - at least then you can eliminate the terminations as the cause. I think another thing you can eliminate as cause is the cable length, and CAT5E or CAT6 connectors. I highly doubt it is the cable as well - even if it is decent quality CAT5E, not true CAT6, that should still support gigabit.

Although like you, I am also using couple of patch panels to terminate most of my CAT6, in hindsight, I would have simply terminated everything using RJ45 plugs and then buy a RJ45 keytone connector that can be plugged into a blank panel (you can buy all the tools, including crimping tool, blank panels, RJ45 keystone connectors, etc. from monoprice). All of my errors / loose connections were with punchdown at panel. The second method (RJ45 plugs that plugs into a connector) was much easier to test, reliable and provide maximum flexibility to move things around.

Anyone have further suggestions on what might be wrong with my home network as described above?

[enigma54]

Ok I bought a LAN cable tester and tried it on some of the megabit connections. In one instance, all the lights lit up on the main tester and on the remote tester in the same sequence except LED #8 which did not light up on either tester. In another instance, only LED #4, 5, 7 lit up but in synch with the main tester and remote tester. In another instance, I only got #5 and #7.

So what does this mean? I was expecting to find that on one end of the connection, a light would be out of sequence or not light up so that at least I know to try re-terminating just that end. But my situation seems to be that both ends light up in synch, just that some of the 8 lights don't light up at all. So do I try re-terminating both ends? Or does this imply one end is wired as 568A and the other end is wired 568B?

Thanks again in advance for your help!

[enigma54]

Ok I bought a LAN cable tester and tried it on some of the megabit connections. In one instance, all the lights lit up on the main tester and on the remote tester in the same sequence except LED #8 which did not light up on either tester. In another instance, only LED #4, 5, 7 lit up but in synch with the main tester and remote tester. In another instance, I only got #5 and #7.

So what does this mean? I was expecting to find that on one end of the connection, a light would be out of sequence or not light up so that at least I know to try re-terminating just that end. But my situation seems to be that both ends light up in synch, just that some of the 8 lights don't light up at all. So do I try re-terminating both ends? Or does this imply one end is wired as 568A and the other end is wired 568B?

Thanks again in advance for your help!

Bump. Any suggestions for the above?? Thanks!

[willy]

You will not get the right sequence as both ends are in different standard. However, all 8 LEDs have to lit up at least once during each cycle. You definitely need to redo those with missing LED(s). And try to use the same standard throughout.