Ethernet cable question

Posted by: hungryhalibut on 05 November 2013

This is not about whether Ethernet cables affect sound quality, have no fear.

 

I have a Cat 6 cable from my router to my switch, 10 m in length. It's a bit too long, and is fat and ugly, so I invested £10 in a shorter, and flat, Cat 7 cable, thinking it would be neater an tidier.

 

On connecting it up, the LAN light on my Draytek router is amber, which means that it's working at only 10mbs, rather than 100. Assuming that 100 is better than 10, I've replaced the new wire with the old one, and the light is now green again.

 

Can anyone tell be why this has happened, as I'd expect Cat 7 to be better than Cat 6. Maybe I've just bought a rubbish Cat 7 cable, but how can that be?

 

Thanks.

Posted on: 05 November 2013 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Hi, it could be the new cable is faulty, and one of its wires is broken so only working in half duplex mode. I can't remember for sure but the default for half duplex might be 10 Mbps unless you over ride.

Simon

 

Posted on: 05 November 2013 by hungryhalibut

Thanks Simon. It's either a refund or the bin I suspect. At least it was only a tenner.

Posted on: 06 November 2013 by Lumos

Just simple cat5e is your friend. Smaller, more flexible, multi core and designed for applications where the wire is not rigidly mounted. Higher numbers are not always better and with cat 5 can be a worse solution. 

Posted on: 06 November 2013 by maze
Originally Posted by Hungryhalibut:

This is not about whether Ethernet cables affect sound quality, have no fear.

 

I have a Cat 6 cable from my router to my switch, 10 m in length. It's a bit too long, and is fat and ugly, so I invested £10 in a shorter, and flat, Cat 7 cable, thinking it would be neater an tidier.

 

On connecting it up, the LAN light on my Draytek router is amber, which means that it's working at only 10mbs, rather than 100. Assuming that 100 is better than 10, I've replaced the new wire with the old one, and the light is now green again.

 

Can anyone tell be why this has happened, as I'd expect Cat 7 to be better than Cat 6. Maybe I've just bought a rubbish Cat 7 cable, but how can that be?

 

Thanks.

So am I correct in thinkng if one has an amber light on their router or streamer then all is not well, it should glow green?

Can anyone clarify this please?

 

I seem to recall last time I looked my streamer 172 was showing amber.

Posted on: 06 November 2013 by Lumos

The lights are not depicting an error state, they are saying the speed that they are connected. This could be 10 or 100 for a 100mb/s switch or between 100 and 1000 for a 1Gb/s switch. Whilst you will have to check the manual my guess is that you are connecting at the slower or its speed options.