Cat5 e cable problem

[octavee]

Hello,

I am stuck with this. We have a network with a D-Link router and 2 D-Link switches. So far so good. Now I connected the router with the next building (cable length 110 feet) with a CAT 5 e cable.
Option 1
I hook up a switch and the switch shows a green light. I hook up my laptop with a short cat5 cable. The sitch shows a green light. My laptop schows an orange light on the left and blinks short green on the right. It says network address assigning. And after it is assigned it indicates a 100 Mbit connection, but it does not work. Then I do the same thing with a desktop computer. No luck there.
Option 2
I connect the laptop direct to the cable instead of using the switch. Same thing. It does not work.
Option 3
I use a G4 (Mac laptop) direct. It does work.
Option 4
I use the G4 with option 1. It does not work, but the lights are green.
The cable is in a tunnel, 1 foot under ground for about 40 feet.

Any help is highly appreciated.

Thanks
Octavee

 

[franklin97355]

Scott, you are right. There are two types of connectors (actually there are more), one is designed to straddle a solid conductor and the other to pierce a stranded one. Using the wrong one will make the connection less reliable. Plugs are used all the time but most are mechanically applied and tested in a factory to insure quality. When our school district started moving to ethernet our guys terminated many hunderds of cables and had good luck but I wouldn't ever want to go back to that and would never recommend it to anyone.

 

[phuzzy42]

Scott, you're thinking IDC (insulation displacement connector). The principle is the same for solid or stranded cable - you don't have to strip the insulation and the connector itself holds the wire in. While I wouldn't use stranded cable on 110 blocks, you get a good connection using solid cable with RJs because the IDC penetrates the insulation and presses directly into the conductor.

The main reason you don't use solid conductor for patch cables is they have to flex - that'll break down a solid, changing its characteristics and causing more noise and crosstalk. That's also the primary reason you don't stretch, pinch, make sharp bends, or even let anyone step on permanent cable when installing it.

Steve Harmon
Greenfield, Indiana

 

[jeffmoss26]

I agree. I hate making solid patch cables, but at school that's what they give me. I used to make my own at home but stopped because it was a waste of time and money, and didn't give a very good connection. For my own uses, I now get premade, tested patch cords from my datacom supplier. At least that way I can eliminate one potential source of error, of course assuming that the factory made patch cords are good
Jeff

jeff moss

 

[askthetech]

Maybe you have a bad connection (bad wire) somewhere on one of the ends. Without a cable tester to show you that the cable is actually certified to work, all it takes is 1 misplaced wire to screw everything up.

 

[octavee]

Hi everyone.

It works. Finally. It is still a mystery to me. But as long as it works. I will give the way how the patch cable needed to be connected in the next post. Since I wasn't the one who put it together, I do not know right now.
Thanks everyone for their heplp.
Octavee