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New RJ11 cable

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  • Routers
  • Cable
Last response: in General UK & Ireland Discussions
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July 12, 2010 8:40:39 PM

So before i got this new cable (CAT5 cable with RJ11 connectors crimped on at both ends made by a friend of mine whose an electrician) my router was under the stairs and the only way it could reach my main phone socket (i only have 1) was through an extension cable (that just happened to be 30metres long... go figure). So now i've gotten rid of that as well as the 3metre RJ11 cable that was going from my router into it as it was giving me shockingly bad download speeds, however I havent noticed any huge improvements as of yet (only installed like 15mins ago).

Can anybody tell me how long it will be before (that is, if) i notice any significant speed improvements?

thanks in advance

More about : rj11 cable

July 14, 2010 9:18:01 AM

Why do you think it would make it faster? If the cable and connection is fine then loosing 30ft of cable is going to make diddly squat difference in a connection that is likely to be several hundred km from end to end.

If you don't see a change straight away then it's not made a difference.
July 14, 2010 9:35:56 AM

There will probably be a significant lag time however before he understands your message.
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July 14, 2010 12:26:08 PM

thanks for the input audiovoodoo, but when i tested it straight after i was getting 1mb download. then 2 hours later- 6mb.
July 14, 2010 2:45:07 PM

Later on in the evening by any chance? The more people in your area on the net at the time the greater the impact on your speeds. Have a look at 'contention rates' to get a bit of an idea as to how it works.
July 14, 2010 6:31:05 PM

Don't know if this is relevant to your system or not...
Some of the early ADSL 2 modems were adaptive, they "fine tuned" the filter settings over time (hours) to get the best speed; as the technology has improved newer ones no longer need to.
July 15, 2010 6:20:02 AM

MrLinux said:
Don't know if this is relevant to your system or not...
Some of the early ADSL 2 modems were adaptive, they "fine tuned" the filter settings over time (hours) to get the best speed; as the technology has improved newer ones no longer need to.


[#0005ff]It's also been known in the UK for ISPs - or maybe it's just BT - to assess your usage from the outset and traffic shape you accordingly. To avoid this practice, use the connection to the maximum from minute one onwards - stream some video from the BBC website then go away and leave it for a few hours.[/#000ff]
July 15, 2010 1:10:23 PM

That's not the normal take on traffic shaping which is something that tends to be done dynamically in response to network load. I've not heard of BT doing that particular naughty personally but given their past record who knows what they are injecting into your traffic.
July 16, 2010 9:44:59 AM

The only time the cable between the wall socket and the router affects download speeds is when the dog chews through the cable, or the cat shreds it. Then your download speed drops quite dramatically to nothing. Otherwise, the cable will not noticeably affect download speeds.

Changing out the cable for one with higher-quality connectors and a better grade of copper will have an effect, on the order of about 0.001% if you are lucky.

I have been having this argument for months with people who take their audio seriously - having perfect pitch and being one of the 5% who has incredibly sensitive hearing makes a person learn about factors affecting audio quality in very short order, and years of experimenting proves that the cable doesn't have that much of an effect. Since audio signals and communication signals operate according to very similar principles (the old dial-up modems were also referred to as 'acoustic couplers' sometimes) the same logic would apply. Since ADSL still uses the legacy PSTN/POTS cabling with an additional carrier frequency to handle the data traffic, playing around with the cabling will have no appreciable effect, except possibly to make it worse. In fact, the actual router itself will have a larger impact than the cabling.

You might get better results by changing your DNS server settings and/or going to a more expensive contract with your service provider. Or a different provider.
July 16, 2010 11:38:47 AM

was the cable running beside something with a high voltage or current maybe? an old CRT perhaps? Generally an Ethernet cable can be up to 100Meters without any real signal degredation, provided that there is nothing with a high current running in parallel.
July 16, 2010 1:02:46 PM

By 'high current' you mean on the order of >350VA, anything less will not develop a strong enough EM field to be able to noticeably affect Ethernet, ADSL, or most others.

This scenario only applies in an environment where heavy machinery can be found.

CRT is a special case, since the fields developed by the focusing coils can be quite intense, but seriously - who the hell runs cables OVER their monitor?
July 16, 2010 1:43:36 PM

More likely to cause issues by kinking the cable or compressing it under carpets or door frames etc.
July 16, 2010 2:43:21 PM

There is error correction on either end of an ethernet line, right? But but a lot of cables are only twisted pairs and even a mains cable can cause interference in a twisted pair, correct?
July 17, 2010 7:25:10 AM

The twisting of the wire pairs inside the cable is for error-correction. If mains cables caused noticeable interference in a LAN cable, then the placement of the RJ45 port behind the computer within 30cm of the PSU...

No. Mains cables won't cause interference severe enough to be an issue. Check the router, check the ISP.
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