Where to get CAT5e/CAT6 Cable

[mic_y]

I need to run a network cable between 2 pc's, and i need it to work at 1Gb. Have had a few problems with bad cables before where i wasn't getting transfer speeds of over 11MB/s which is the limit for 100Mb ethernet.

Now i dont know if i am right in doing so, but I blame it on the cable. The NIC's were reporting being connected at 1Gb, but considering the fact that i was limited to 11MB/s transfers I suspect that the cable is at fault.

So now i gotta do 120GB of backups on another PC, and would love to get transfer speeds up a bit. So I want to know where in Joburg I can get a CAT6/CAT5e cable so I can increase transfer speeds, if it is the cable which is at fault.

Thanks in advance.

 

[bdt]

Ah! Seeing as you have the good fortune to be in JHB, Cablelink isn't too far away at all in Strijdom Park ..and best of all, they'll sell to any schmo off the street.

 

[mic_y]

ah, shot thx bdt. on the topic of: do u think it will help in terms of transfer speeds? any clues on that?

 

[skydog]

ah, shot thx bdt. on the topic of: do u think it will help in terms of transfer speeds? any clues on that?

just thinking off the top of my head but once you have got rid of the bottleneck at the network card it may start on the hard drive. eg your hard drive cant transfer fast enough read or write... just a thought.

im sure there are more technically minded people that will give the correct info.

 

[mic_y]

skydog, that is very true about the bottleneck being the HDD at the end of the day, but the reason why i am so sure that it is the network atm is that the transfer rate is a solid 11MB/s. The other thing is that both computers were running 2xSATA HDD's in RAID0 so i really would expect better performance than 11MB/s.

Anybody have any clues if my suggested solution will help?

 

[bdt]

ah, shot thx bdt. on the topic of: do u think it will help in terms of transfer speeds? any clues on that?

For a start, the major difference between doing 100TX (which I see runs at a theoretical max of 12.5MB/s ..as in basically what you're getting now) and GbE is that the former requires only 4 wires (i.e. 2 pairs) while the latter needs all 8 wires to work. So how's this for a theory: maybe you're being limited on your current cabling because you have only 2 pairs (correctly) wired. I'd love to give you a link to the correct wiring but I've regrettably lost access to international sites!

But anyway, according to the specs GbE will work over Cat5e (aka 'the cheap stuff') and you can get them to correctly wire up the cable for you. Of course, if you're feeling rich(er), you could go for the Cat6 but I don't know that it's necessary.

edit: int'l came back! Here is a wonderfully clear and detailed guide on Ethernet cabling. Another one is here.

NOTE: if you get Cablelink to make up a cable for you, insist that it follows either the T568A or T568B wiring scheme exactly ..and check the ends before you cough up any dough; GbE speed is doing far too much fancy footwork to 'get by' with just stuffing the wiring in any old way.

FYI, I've got the T568B scheme hardcoded into my head; though they're equally correct, after doing far too many cabling installation jobs. (and yes, convenient as they are, I've had to be ..insistent.. at them for trying to palm sloppy workmanship off on me (it's simple, get it right or get out of the way, dammit!))

 

[skydog]

skydog, that is very true about the bottleneck being the HDD at the end of the day, but the reason why i am so sure that it is the network atm is that the transfer rate is a solid 11MB/s. The other thing is that both computers were running 2xSATA HDD's in RAID0 so i really would expect better performance than 11MB/s.

Anybody have any clues if my suggested solution will help?

I'm not ignoring bdt's reply as it may very well be valid but i find it interesting that when i copy form my laptop to my PC and via versa it is not the same speed both ways.... i am connecting to a switch.... is it then network cards that make the transfer 10-11MB on the on side and 7-8 mb on the other ???

any thoughts....

 

[Sapphiron]

I'm not ignoring bdt's reply as it may very well be valid but i find it interesting that when i copy form my laptop to my PC and via versa it is not the same speed both ways.... i am connecting to a switch.... is it then network cards that make the transfer 10-11MB on the on side and 7-8 mb on the other ???

any thoughts....

I have found something related. I had 2 identical machines setup and copied data across. When I "Pushed" the Data from the one to the other, I was getting close to 90% gigabit. When I "pulled" the data in the same direction I got about 45% of gigabit. These were very high end Machines, so I supect the problem is software related. I don't know if this might be the same situation for you.

Getting back to network cards. They play a huge role in the network speed. cheap R150 PCI cards or cheap VIA, SIS and ATI onboards wont give you close to a gigabit transfer speed. More like 30%-40%.

Higher end cards like Marvel, Intel PRo, Nvidia will give you close to 80%-90% of Gigabit. Expect to pay about R400 for a good Marvel PCI-Express Gigabit card.

 

[bekdik]

Sometimes when set to auto, a NIC will negotiate 10MHz rather than 100. If your NIC's connection is set to auto, try forcing it to 100 full duplex. You may also have to do this with your switch.