Can't achieve Gigabit LAN speeds through a wall

harrypt · Oct 19, 2013

I have wired LAN throughout my house with a home-built computer that gets Gigabit speed at the end of a 75 ft run of cat5e. In a second location I've got a HTPC and a Macbook Pro as a music server both of which can only achieve 10Mbps speeds.

Those two computers are wired as follows: Cat5e patches from the router to Cooper Cat6 keystone jacks -->through a wall about 10 feet (the two runs are two different types of CAT5e!!)-->then through the other side of the wall via another pair of Cooper Cat6 keystone jacks --> a couple more patch cables to the computers.

I've used the Macbook to check all patch cables directly out of the router and get Gigabit from them so I've narrowed it to the in-wall wiring, the Cooper jacks or bad connections.

I'm prepared to re-wire the wall, but I'd sure like to determine what I've done wrong so I don't make the same mistake twice.

Can anyone give me some advice?

bill001g · Oct 19, 2013

Strange you get only 10m and not at least 100m.

The cat5e wire should easily run 1g. In addition for gig you need all 8 wires many older houses were cabled with only 4.

Still you should get 100m with 4 wires.

The most common cause of infrastructure wire issues is not using the correct color pairing. Although the signal can't see the color of the wires you must keep the pairs correctly matched. verify that all the keystones are wired either to 568a or 568b color pattern.

navysealbrian · Oct 19, 2013

Did you use solid cables instead of stranded for the in wall installation? Also, when running the wires into the keystones, you want to keep the pairs twisted as long as possible, keeping them twisted just up until the point they have to be separated to get into each individual slot.

harrypt · Oct 19, 2013

Thanks for the replies. My mistake, I am getting 100Mbps, not 10. Still quite a bit slower when moving video and music across the local network. Plus I'm scheduled to get Google gigabit fiber service within a couple weeks.

I did the wiring myself and there are 4 pairs everywhere. Twists are loosened within 1/2" of each termination. One of the in-wall wires is solid core, the other I can't remember, but neither work.

And I'm pretty sure the wiring is correct as they do work, just not at speed. Would they work at all if I had the wiring crossed?

Could this be due to Cat5e cables with Cat6 keystone jacks?

navysealbrian · Oct 19, 2013

No, using Cat5e cables with Cat6 keystones shouldn't matter. It could be possible to have wired incorrectly and still get 100Mbps as only 2 pairs are required for 100Mbps. Makes sure you are using the same exact standard/pinout on both keystones.

harrypt · Oct 20, 2013

navysealbrian :

Ok thank you. Maybe I wired them all slightly wrong but the same so they work at 100. I've got to leave town on business but I'll check the wiring again when I return and come back here if I can't solve the problem. I wasted the whole afternoon chasing this down yesterday and didn't get anywhere.

harrypt · Oct 20, 2013

navysealbrian :

Ok thank you. Maybe I wired them all slightly wrong but the same so they work at 100. I've got to leave town on business but I'll check the wiring again when I return and come back here if I can't solve the problem. I wasted the whole afternoon chasing this down yesterday and didn't get anywhere.

harrypt · Oct 28, 2013

OK... so I checked the wiring and all seems good.

I unhooked the computer and took it into another room that gets gigabit, and the computer immediately recognized the gigabit speed. So I've narrowed to either the wiring, keystones or a bad connection.

They run through a wall that is cement over steel lathe on both sides. Any chance that the steel lathe could be interfering? If so, would Cat6 fix that problem?

I went and bought everything needed to re-wire in Cat6, but that's a bit of a job fishing cable through walls. Would like to try everything else before tackling that.

bill001g · Oct 28, 2013

The steel lathe would shield it in some ways since it would absorb magnetic fields before they got to the wire. Unless you did something silly like wrap it around a light ballast it is highly unlikely you are getting any form of interference. Still the symptom would be it negotiates 1g but gets lots of errors on the line.

I am going to suspect the keystones not being terminated to the wires correctly. I would take the new wire and run it down the hall and attach it to the keystones before you go to all the trouble to pull it though the walls. At least you would be 100% sure it would work rather than run the wire and find out you had a bad jack or something.

I guess it could be something as simple as someone drove a nail into the cable and broke one wire in one of the pairs.

allennnn · Oct 28, 2013

I would re make 1 keystone test and then the other test repeat 3x before pulling a new wire! it's possible to snap a core so check that as well.
If you do put a new wire twist the copper and tape the ends together and have someone gently pull while someone else feeds it in.

Have you seen a photo or video so you know how it should look. youtubes got some great vids.

harrypt · Nov 1, 2013

OK well I finally spent some time on this last weekend. I did not have to pull no cables.

I had purchased a bunch of Cooper Cat6 self terminating keystone jacks. I purchased a punchdown tool and used that and suddenly all works.

Apparently the Coopers self terminate, but not well.

Thanks to all who took time to help me think this through and saved me the time of pulling new cables.

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