Cat5 connection getting poor performance?

[Ichinisan]

I spoke to someone on the phone today with two home offices in the same household (his wife's and his own). The home was pre-wired with networking lines back in 2000/2001, fed from an OnQ panel (white, metal box) in the garage.

From his home office, the wired connection can do 30mbps download speed (the speed of the Internet service).

From the wife's home office, the wired connection gets 6.x mbps download (much lower than it should be).

He took his wife's computer to a local shop and they tested over 80mbps. He replaced the network cord that comes from the wall with a pricey Cat6 cable. and it had no effect. Finally, he took his computer from his office (where it gets full speed) and tested in her office, where it was only able to get 6.x mbps download.

It seems he has done everything reasonable to troubleshoot this. The line in the wall or one of the terminations must be bad.

In my experience, a bad network line usually fails to sense link. In this case, the line works and just has a major performance problem. Has anyone else ever encountered a situation like this?

I suggested re-terminating or replacing the line feeding that room.

I had a Cat5 tester that would only test conductivity for each pair sequentially. It was very useful to me because I'm partially colorblind and the shades vary greatly from one twisted-pair cord to the next. Are there testers that can show any other problems on a network line?

 

[imagoon]

Check the terminations first then replace the cable. If it was my the Fluke would get tossed on the line but odds are most people don't have those so... Verify the connection is solid at the patch panel, verify the terminations, replace the terminations, replace the cable.

I have seen this a lot with ethernet that is untwisted to far or solid core patched in to RJ45 connectors.

 

[azazel1024]

6 some Mbps means BIG error rates, not simply improper negotiation.

Also, do you mean Mbps, or MB/sec? Because 6Mbps means some very, very serious issues, like massive packet loss, even assuming just a 30Mbps internet connection.

I'd think improper/failing termination either in the OnQ box or at the wall jack. If not that, than failing wire in the wall.

 

[inachu]

Also make sure the wires are totally wrapped to the RJ-45

IS bad.

IS good.

 

[Ichinisan]

6 some Mbps means BIG error rates, not simply improper negotiation.

Also, do you mean Mbps, or MB/sec? Because 6Mbps means some very, very serious issues, like massive packet loss, even assuming just a 30Mbps internet connection.

I'd think improper/failing termination either in the OnQ box or at the wall jack. If not that, than failing wire in the wall.

He used speedtest.net, which should provide measurements in Mbps. Inet connection is also 30 Mbps.

 

[Ichinisan]

Also make sure the wires are totally wrapped to the RJ-45

IS bad.

IS good.

He's got someone coming out there to check it. They'll probably find something like that or a bad conection.

 

[Zargon]

Did you check what the adapter is linking at?

10? 100? auto? FD/HD?

all of those being would help indicate a cabling issue in wall

 

[Ichinisan]

Did you check what the adapter is linking at?

10? 100? auto? FD/HD?

all of those being would help indicate a cabling issue in wall

I asked about the link mode. He wasn't actually home at that point to check it.

I'll find out if the issue was corrected...

 

[Ichinisan]

It was later determined that one of the ports on his router was bad. Strange, because he said he had already ruled that out.