LAN cable length

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S1ght

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Hey all,

Using wireless at the moment to connect my pc to the router on other side of house but with games like TF2, it really gives me a headache with latency issues so i want to put a LAN cable through the roof but am concerned about the length, they are suppose to have a max of 100m but i know some of my friends who have had cables up to 30m where it lost data and didn't work so well.

Any views? is it just that they had a cheap quality cable? or do they normally tend to have problems going around that length?

Thanx in advance
S1ght
 
30 meters should not be a problem. If you're afraid that it might, stick a switch halfway in the attic and plug your pc into that.
 
As far as I know the max length for LAN specs is ~90 meters. Do some research to be sure though.
 
Depends on the cable. 30m should be doable easily. 60m probably, 100m unlikely.

You might also have better luck with a cable rated for a gigabit network. CAT 6 I think.
 
30 meters shouldn't be an issue at all. Just use quality cable and avoid bending where possible. You should also avoid running the cable parallel to power cables in the ceiling.
 
someone also mentioned something about the possibility of rats that get into the roof eating through the cable, any way to protect it from that?
 
Cadavre777 said:
30 meters shouldn't be an issue at all. Just use quality cable and avoid bending where possible. You should also avoid running the cable parallel to power cables in the ceiling.
Click to expand...

That's the secret man, avoid bending and more important, don't stretch the cable. By stretching and bending you change the characteristics of the cable itself (twists/feet) which affects performance. You shud get up to 90m straight line. To be safe work on 50 though :)
 
Exactly, bending and sctreching the cable change the twists per inch which causes havoc. Always make the cable a little bit longer with some slack, the extra few meters wont break the bank, but it will be cheaper in the long run if the pc moves further away from the router.
 
about 7 years ago i ran a 80 meter cat 5 cable between my house and my neighbour running at 100mbits. i have never had any packet loss or any other problems in that time. i have tested it with network diagnostics software multiple times.
 
As mentioned in one of the above posts, avoid using it near power cables.

At my work we have long long runs of cables, and have no issues at all. Even some of the stuff I've put in has been 30 odd meters, and so far so good.

Use CAT5E or CAT6 for best performance
 
From experience... 100m max, starts running errors at about 80m, depending on the quality of the cable.

CAT5E / CAT6, use STP (Shielded cable). I used shielded CAT6 once on a 86m run inside conduits (no interference) and I had issues...
 
The standard is 90 horizontal cable with 5 meters of patch cable on either side... That is for CAT 5e.

If they had trouble on 30 meter look at the quality of the crimps and other factors (power cables, etc) there should be no problems.

I have seen test result for cables up to 110M they work but can not be "certified" as they fall outside the spec by Krone & 3M
 
Throw a repeater in the middle of the connection and worries are solved , putting a cheap hub is the other option (as mentioned) it might come in handy if the house ever gets more than 1 computer.

Mice, or Rats eating the cable, if you have had rats in the past, put the cable "up">> connect the cable to your cross beams rather then just let it lie on the boards (It would add about 3 meters to the length)
 
R2.85 is quite good. I recently bought 100m on a spindle for R2.05/m and that was directly from a cable installer, no RJ45 connectors conneted, had to do it myself.
 
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