Two routers

[yol]

Hi all !!

here goes my first one.

I have two routers -
the first is a modem router by Netgear model VVG2000 which the main one. it gives me internet access, 4 cable ports and N wifi.
the second is D-Link Xtream N Gigabit router model DIR-655. it has 4 cable ports and wifi too.
my house has a ground floor and a basement. thing is there is no wifi reception down so i thought using the D-link router down in the basement.
i made a CAT-5 cable which is about 6 meters long from the netgear router down to the basement.
i made the 6m lan cable connectors (RJ-45) 1:1 on both sides and connected the routers one to another.
i also connected one pc to the dlink router and made some configurations on both routers - bottom line is that i have internet on all computers connected to both routers plus the home network works ok.
so far so good.
the only issue i have is that if i try transferring files from computers in the basement to computers in the upper floor, i get a 1MB/Sec top of transfer rate. while if i transfer between computers in the same floor i get around 10MB/sec...

is it possible that i need a crossed cable between the two routers ?

what am i missing here ?

Thanks for any help !!

 

[RealBeast]

Nope, not a cable crossover issue, although the CAT 5 is limited to 100mbps when used on long runs. Did you use a 568A or B pattern for the RJ45 connectors on the cable? If you used some other pattern, that could also cause slow transfers. Also be sure not to untwist too much wire when attaching the connectors.

The VVG2000 only has 10/100 mbps LAN ports, while the DLink has gigabit ports, so your network transfers downstairs will be faster. I would expect the downstairs transfers to be a lot faster than 10MB/s if all the machines have gigabit Ethernet ports to match the router and all the cables are good quality. My results from LAN Speed Test on my gigabit wired network from SSD to SSD gives consistent reads of 830Mbps (103.7MB/s). Of course HDDs can also be the slow point in transfer speeds, but I use the SSDs since they have rates well above what the network components will do.

 

[yol]

Hi Realbeast!!

Thanks for your kind and quick respond.

I made it according to 568A (i think, the pins are 1:1 meaning each wire is connected in same pin on both connectors - i took a ready cable and actually cloned its pinout) i did my best to make both ends as short as possible inside the connectors.
I can cut these plugs and put new one in any way i want so if you think i should use a better way - which would you recommend ?

you are right about the router downstairs, however i have there only one client connected with cable (and it has 10/100 adapter) and another wireless one.it is not important for me to have gigabit between the users downstairs, however it is important for me to have fast transfer rate between downstairs and upstairs (10/100 is enough ).

in my previous setup, i had a pc (the one which is now downstairs) hooked up with another pc to the dlink. the dlink was also connected to external modem for internet. in this small home network i was able to transfer data between these two clients in approx. 10MB/Sec. in the current setup, having the dlink downstairs and the Netgear upstairs, these same two clients dont reach 1MB/sec which is too slow for me.

thanks again!

 

[RealBeast]

I should ask if any of the machines are running Linux, as some Realtek adapters only run at 10mbps because the Linux drivers fail to autonegotiate properly.

I always test my cables with a cable tester, but you probably don't make as many as I do and like normal people you probably don't have one to test it. Occasionally I do get one bad connection for one wire that looks properly connected and crimped, that can bring down the cable to one working pair and drop it to 10mbps, which is what you are getting. If you have an extra length of cable you could make another cable to test that possibility, or you could just try reattaching the connectors and re-crimping (I assume that you have a cable crimping tool). Either that or buy a 20 foot pre-made CAT 5e cable.

 

[yol]

Hi Realbeast,

well regarding Linux, none of the clients run it.

as i also had a doubt concerning my crimping abilities (i made some test crimping with several jacks just to learn how to do it with a new tool i have for that purpose and then made my first cable between the two floors), so i crimped a jack to a short cable and shorted every two pairs, then i took a male to male adapter (an adapter that has female jack on each side) and put the short test cable i made on one side of the adapter and the other side to the connector downstairs. then i went upstairs and using a multimeter i found that i have short between each pair - so i think my cable is ok...

just to be completely sure i took the router from downstairs and connected it in the same way just this time with a commercial cable (one that came factory crimped) right next to the upstairs router, then connected a pc to it, and found that speed was 10MB/sec back again.

so i can only think that i have issues with the cable i am using as it is from a brand new sealed box of 100m of this CAT.5E cable which is supposed to be suitable for this purpose. or maybe the RJ45 connectors i use are somehow bad (they also come from a brand new pack).

by the way, what about the shield wire ? when i crimped the jacks, i bend this wire back on the cable so that after i crimp the jack the crimp itself hold it against the jack's shield - is that ok ?

Thanks !

 

[RealBeast]

I usually snip the shielding off but that should not be an issue. The issue that you are having is the reason that I always test cables, a manufacturing defect or just someone bending it too tight before boxing it up can damage one or the wires or one of the attached jacks could have a small undetectable defect.

You can attach a new jack to one end and see if that does it, if not redo the other jack, if that fails use a new length of cable.

 

[yol]

well, i pulled back the cable, took another piece from the reel, crimped it on both sides and tested it before i placed it back to make sure i get the 10MB/s.
after it passed this test i cut one end close to the jack and routed it back in place, crimped another jack back and tested again - now its all ok.

Realbeast, thank you so much for your support and helpful advises !!