How much does 50' of CAT6 affect my bandwidth?

[kingdredd]

I searched the threads and didn't find any specific answers. I know CAT6 is low noise and the speed shouldn't be affected too much under 150' or so. That said, speed at my modem (PC) is 19Mbps (down, UL is high too) but speed at my Xbox360 downstairs (50' of CAT6 away, through a hub) seems markedly slower. I can play online fine, but can't seem to host any games (tried many multiplayer games like GRAW2, GoW, etc.) without crazy lag. Any input?

Reason I'm asking is I was considering drilling into the wall so I could use twenty or so feet of cable rather than fifty. Then reading into I'm not sure it'd be worth the trouble.

 

[Harlinder]

you can run cat6 up to 310 feet (100 meters) roughly before the voltage on the cable degrades. (IE Signal).
Many things can affect the speed. things to check
1. make sure your data cable is not near florescent lights, microwaves things like that. if you can't help but go by a light route it so that the least amount of cable goes near the light.
2. Make sure no kinks in the wires, IE knots and sharp bends. Also ,make sure the terminations are twisted fairly tight and no more than 1/2 inch of wires showing with sheath removed. (my preference).
Hope that helps.

 

[jj14]

A simple way to check whether the cable is causing the problem would be to connect the PC (that you used to measure the 19MBps speed at the modem) using this 50' CAT6 cable and run the speedtest again. If you get 19MBps, then, the cable is good - if there is a significant drop, the cable has some issues.

 

[kingdredd]

Thanks. Both replies were pretty helpful. Definitely enough information to save me the trouble of tearing into the wall anyway. I hadn't connected a PC downstairs yet because I don't have a laptop and, though not conceptually difficult, taking this one downstairs would be a pain in the arse (big CRT monitor and all). I'll see if I can't borrow a laptop to test and/or cut the cable a bit shorter and put on a new terminal.

Again, I appreciate the quick responses. That's the best experience I've had on a forum like this.

 

[kingdredd]

p.s. Very important I get this taken care of before 00:00 Tuesday as that's Halo3-o'clock.

 

[riser]

Gah. Harlinder made a typo in his response.

Cat5 can run 100 meters roughly... 285' is the longest I've ever seen someone able to get a working connection.. which is roughly 100 meters, not 310'.

Cat6 will run up to around 700 feet due to more twists per inch.


If you run your cat5 cable by electrical outlets; this will have an impact on your connection.
Anything electrical you run the cable by will interfere. 50' is a short distance for the cable and the true attenuation shouldn't even be noticeable without using advanced equipment.