Test Network Cable for Speed and reliability.
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Okay so long story short, I rent a house and want a couple wired connections instead of wireless for obvious reasons. The house is old and I rent, so running new cable to certain locations (aka the location I need) is pretty impossible without hiring a cable guy since I am terrible at fishing them through walls and floors anytime after dry wall goes up. There was an existing phone jack in the room which I removed and found (to my delight) 4 pairs of wires. I traced this wire to my basement which is where I need it to terminate where my router will be. The problem is, when I inspected the cable, it appears to me that the pairs are untwisted. Which I have never seen before (they could be twisted but just much less than I am used to seeing and I didn't want to strip enough of it to find out as it is run through flooring and walls to get there and I only have so much). In the basement, where the wire goes up through the flooring, it is run parallel to a power line and one can only guess how far as it is not visible again until the wall plate upstairs. (Worth noting that the cable is unshielded). I have seen flat cat5 where the wires are not twisted, but the twists are there for a reason, you shouldn't run unshielded cabling parallel to power, but this is my only option. Its a small house and not a long run, so I am thinking it might be okay but my OCD wants to test the cabling (for more than just continuity and I don't have 1000+ dollars for a fluke tester).
My plan so far is to make a short cross over cable and plug a laptop in upstairs and one downstairs and run iperf. However, I think iperf results might be influenced by the computer performance unlike a low level cable test like a fluke device would do. It also occurred to me to use wireshark or even a continuous ping to test for lost packets.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
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In a rental, and without a Fluke tester, I'd just terminate both ends and give it a go. Maybe a day of wiresharking first, to prevent frustrations while you try to stream something, but I think plugging a device in and firing up Netflix would be the best real world test.
If that's a no go, if you have carpet and baseboards, it's pretty easy to hide a long cable along the floor tucked under the carpet's edge.
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Carpet and baseboards is a good call, but I would have to managed that up 2 sets of stairs and I would rather not deal with it if I don't have to. I just terminated the ends last night and have not had time to test yet. I think Netflix is a great idea, I overthought myself way past that way of testing haha. Typical move for me to make. My only concerns are streaming and gaming (specifically "casting" my xbox one to a windows 10 machine). I suppose I should just plug shit in and give it a go.
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Your issue may be (since it was a phone jack) that it was spliced somewhere along the way to another jack
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but, it won't hurt anything to plug stuff in and give it a go though.
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If nothing else, have you given it the tug test? You might be able to pull your own CAT5e or CAT6 through, given permission from the owners.
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The cable is not spliced along the way. I have toned it out, terminated, and tested for continuity. I am sure it will be fine so long as the conditions I described (pairs are not twisted or twisted much less than normal, cabling is ran along with power, cabling is run for a short distance over a gas heater [this third condition will be remedied as I can easily run around the heater in the basement]).
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I have given the tug test. That was my first move as it was my original plan. It will not work for this situation as it would be easier for me to just make a run a completely different manner. The cabling goes through a first floor into a wall, either under or over a set of stairs, into a different wall, into an electrical box with a small hole that has almost no wiggle room.
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@dafyre said in Test Network Cable for Speed and reliability.:
If nothing else, have you given it the tug test?
You'll go blind if you keep doing that...
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@RojoLoco said in Test Network Cable for Speed and reliability.:
@dafyre said in Test Network Cable for Speed and reliability.:
If nothing else, have you given it the tug test?
You'll go blind if you keep doing that...
So that's why my cataracts got so bad.
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@jhtech86 If it were me I'd just tie some Cat5e to one end of the phone cabling and when you pull it through you also run the new cabling. That's the easiest way.
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@travisdh1 said in Test Network Cable for Speed and reliability.:
@RojoLoco said in Test Network Cable for Speed and reliability.:
@dafyre said in Test Network Cable for Speed and reliability.:
If nothing else, have you given it the tug test?
You'll go blind if you keep doing that...
So that's why my cataracts got so bad.
And I already have glasses and can't hear.
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@wirestyle22 said in Test Network Cable for Speed and reliability.:
@jhtech86 If it were me I'd just tie some Cat5e to one end of the phone cabling and when you pull it through you also run the new cabling. That's the easiest way.
That was my thinking. Use string or as @wirestyle22 said, just pull the cat5 along behind it... That would be for a more permanent setup though.
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@dafyre said in Test Network Cable for Speed and reliability.:
@wirestyle22 said in Test Network Cable for Speed and reliability.:
@jhtech86 If it were me I'd just tie some Cat5e to one end of the phone cabling and when you pull it through you also run the new cabling. That's the easiest way.
That was my thinking. Use string or as @wirestyle22 said, just pull the cat5 along behind it... That would be for a more permanent setup though.
He has to use him own judgment. One of my old landlords ended up hiring me to cable the rest of the house before I left.
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@jhtech86 You can also do ethernet over power: https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Powerline-Ethernet-Adapter-TPL-401E2K/dp/B004D9V8C8
I think where your circuits are located matters though so you're going to have to figure that out for yourself. This isn't anywhere as bad as it used to be. A friend uses this constantly to play steam link.
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@dafyre said in Test Network Cable for Speed and reliability.:
@travisdh1 said in Test Network Cable for Speed and reliability.:
@RojoLoco said in Test Network Cable for Speed and reliability.:
@dafyre said in Test Network Cable for Speed and reliability.:
If nothing else, have you given it the tug test?
You'll go blind if you keep doing that...
So that's why my cataracts got so bad.
And I already have glasses and can't hear.
I have to say, my experience with cataract surgery was amazing. Went from legally blind to only needing reading glasses. If I would've had the money, I could have eliminated even the reading glasses. That would've been another $1000 per eye tho, so $5000 instead of $3000.
The fact that I'm not deaf today is another one of those modern medicine wonders. Had something like 11 tubes in my ears as a kid with 9 surgeries to put them in. Still ended up with around a 30% hearing loss in my left ear, but without them I'd be deaf for all intents and purposes.
Modern medicine can do great things.....
I hope those of you who know me were sitting down for that last statement.
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@dafyre No amount of string or pulling will get new cable from the basement to the top floor. It is simply ran through too many walls and takes too many twists and turns. I would likely rip the cord through the wall before I could just pull the new cord up. Trust me, I wish it was that easy. I am not particularly worried about my landlord, but from what I have seen and from how hard I pulled the wire just to see... Its not gonna happen without some serious work. The place is wired pretty badly. If I owned the place, I would fix all kinds of things and rewire the entire place.
As for the powerline adapters. I am just not convinced they are worth it except for certain situations. Basically, I don't think the powerline adapter will be any better than wifi on an AC router which I already have.
My original Question was not so much "how do I run cable" but "does anyone know a way to test the quality of a cable without a thousand dollar Fluke tester?" I think that information would be valuable to many people as well as myself in the future. So far it has boiled down to, plug shit in and try to use Netflix or similar.
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There used to be something called Long Range Ethernet designed to provide 10-15Mbit connections over cat-3 phone wire. Doubt you can get much faster over any sort of phone cable. You might be able to use something like this but its expensive:
https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-VDSL2-Ethernet-Extender-Single/dp/B002CLKFTG -
@jt1001001 said in Test Network Cable for Speed and reliability.:
There used to be something called Long Range Ethernet designed to provide 10-15Mbit connections over cat-3 phone wire. Doubt you can get much faster over any sort of phone cable. You might be able to use something like this but its expensive:
https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-VDSL2-Ethernet-Extender-Single/dp/B002CLKFTGI actually saw that in use way after it should've been replaced. This was back in 1999, and cat3 was serving a small office space.
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If you have coax in places, MOCA is a pretty fast connection.
