Long cable run causing issues

[James Nunnerley]

I have a home office at the bottom of the garden, which is about 20/25 meters from the house. Last summer, I ran a CAT6 external grade cable (

https://amzn.eu/d/hjuqJQr),

through trunking (

https://amzn.eu/d/6O55Yjf)

down the garden, and into the office. It's mainly laid along the base of a fence, and there is a small section that runs underground (about 400mm) under the grass.

There are then RJ45 sockets at either end. The house end has a CAT5 cable from the socket into the back of my router, and at the office end, it plugs into a Netgear switch.

When I first installed it all, it seemed the signal wasn't strong enough, so after some research I bought a PoE injector (

https://amzn.eu/d/1uuSiE7)

and splitter (

https://amzn.eu/d/1ado28j).

This works most of the time.

There are however times where the PoE works, but the TCP connection drops. Does anyone have any advice on what I can do to improve the stability?

 

[Scott24x7]

James,
What is the speed of your network?
Why do you think you have PoE (and are you powering some device at the end of it?) that has power, but a data signal that isn't present?
You also mention Cat5 from the "socket at the back of my router". What does that mean? You have a Cat5 cable from the router to your Cat6 wall outlet? I'm not following this.


Best Regards,
Scott
MSc ISM, MIET, MASHRAE, CDCAP, CDCP, CDCS, CDCE, CTDC, CTIA, ATS, ATD

"I try to be nice, but sometimes my mouth doesn't cooperate.

 

[James Nunnerley]

Hi

So - It's a 1000 Mbps network switch in the office. And yes, there is a Cat5 cable between the socket and the router/switch (a BT Hub).

The reason I know the PoE is working is I'm using the power from the splitter to power the Netgear hub in the office. The power never fails, it's just the network connection that drops - my laptop and another device plugged into the switch/hub still have connection lights and traffic is passing, it's just not passing to the house/internet... if that makes sense!

Thanks
James

 

[sbcsu]

Get a cheap 'end to end' cable tester that will test the connectivity of the cable and connectors.
If there is a connection in the middle check that too.
Also it is most likely that any problems are on the connectors.
If the cable run is too far you could try 'doubling up' on the pairs if necessary

 

[Westi]

The max distance for a cable is about 300Ft but that is really at the high end of it. Your 25 m should have no length issues unless you ran the cable twice around the house.

Also if you run a cat6 cable and use a cat5 patch cord that is a sacrilege ;-) and should be replaced with a cat 6 as well.

Easiest if you do not have the testers to test the cable is to replace the patch cords just to rule them out as well and maybe use a different port on the PoE switch and use only the feeding switch with a known good device like a PC or Laptop. IF that works flawlessly then you can go to the next steps and use the hub fed via PoE again.



Joe
FHandw, ACSS, ACIS

https://www.millsidetc.com/

 

[libellis]

The cable you used is copper clad aluminum (per the description on the Amazon URL), not solid copper as required for a legitimate Cat 6 cable. It won't meet Cat 6 specifications. You need to get a real Cat 6 cable.
It was surprising to see that the cable was identified as copper clad aluminum (CCA) since they are usually not identified as such, and are sold mostly as a scam.

 

[James Nunnerley]

Thanks for everyone's replies. Next time it drops (and I don't know why I haven't thought of this before) I'll put my cable tester on to see if it's a specific wire that's failing. If that shows nothing, then sounds like I'll need to upgrade the cable to a proper CAT6, and not a fake one... or... double up the existing cable!
I'll update with my findings in the future

Thanks

 

[Scott24x7]

James,
One other thing to think about are the connectors. The conductors internally may be stressed. You also want to make sure that the connector is rated the same as the cable. (In your case, I would highly recommend that you get your entire cable run, including connectors (and by that I mean on the cable, and at any wall outlets that connect cables together) are the same category. Connectors have a category just like the cables do.


Best Regards,
Scott
MSc ISM, MIET, MASHRAE, CDCAP, CDCP, CDCS, CDCE, CTDC, CTIA, ATS, ATD

"I try to be nice, but sometimes my mouth doesn't cooperate.

 

[Westi]

doubling up will probably cause a whole slew of other issues and might have the opposite effect and cause a storm of data corruption.

I have had a similar issue with a room that was inaccessible and used powerline adapter. It doesn't give me Gig speed but 300Meg is fast enough.

Joe
FHandw, ACSS, ACIS

https://www.millsidetc.com/

 

[libellis]

Using CCA cable is no small issue. The short length is likely the only reason it's working to some extent. It's not just the higher resistance of the wire, attenuation (much higher) and other (of the many) Cat 6 parameters will be off. For PoE, aside from absolute resistance, the Cat 6 specification for resistance unbalance of a wire pair is important to avoid saturating the transformer in a switch (or extender). No specification on a CCA cable being sold as Cat 6 should be trusted. And as others have already pointed out, if you want Cat 6 performance (on a legitimate Cat 6 link) use Cat 6 patch cords, and don't even think about "doubling up".

 

[Scott24x7]

Well, first things first. Test, and get real information.
Otherwise you're trouble-shooting from the end backward which, if you have multiple issues will end in never having a resolution.
Start from the beginning, and work your way down to the endpoint.
Test, and prove along the way.
That will show you where your bad component or connection is.
Cat5e can still support 1gb speeds at distances of around 25 - 30 meters, though not terribly reliably, it won't result in "loss". Just performance.
Cat6 is better if you have it end-to-end.
But at the moment, you haven't proven where the real root of the problem exists.


Best Regards,
Scott
MSc ISM, MIET, MASHRAE, CDCAP, CDCP, CDCS, CDCE, CTDC, CTIA, ATS, ATD

"I try to be nice, but sometimes my mouth doesn't cooperate.

 

[SD Cabling]

Hi

First off, CCA is never a good idea, especially if you plan on using POE.
Having said that, 25-30m is the advised max for running POE over CCA.

Like Scott24x7 suggested, check the connectors and termination boxes, especially the pins where your flyleads plug into the termination box. We find these pins to be an issue from time time, straight from the manufacturers.

SD Cabling Company

https://cablingcompany.co.za

https://networkcableinstall.cablingcompany.co.za