CAT5 Vs. CAT6 Cable.

[newfiend]

My Network consists of 4 PC's (including the HTPC) an XBOX and a DMA 2100.
I have my main desktop PC hooked up with CAT6 cables to the Router (Linksys E4200) As is the HTPC (CAT5)
Would I gain anything switching the CAT5 on the HTPC to CAT6? sometimes I get a bit of network lag on the XBOX and Linksys DMA 2100..
TIA,
newfiend~

[lithium630]

My Network consists of 4 PC's (including the HTPC) an XBOX and a DMA 2100.
I have my main desktop PC hooked up with CAT6 cables to the Router (Linksys E4200) As is the HTPC (CAT5)
Would I gain anything switching the CAT5 on the HTPC to CAT6? sometimes I get a bit of network lag on the XBOX and Linksys DMA 2100..
TIA,
newfiend~

I don't think it will make much of a difference. Are you using the built in switch in the router? I had frequent network issues on a 100% cat6 network. I tried every tweak I could find. I finally replaced my cheap netgear gigabit switch with an HP Procurve and haven't had an issue since.

[newfiend]

Yep Using the built in switch in the router. It's not a frequent thing, once in awhile I get the Network error on the XBOX .. but not often. Just wondering if the cable would maybe help the situation at all?
newfiend~

[AnnasDaddy]

The cabling shouldn't make much of a difference, unless of course you are talking about upgrading to cat6 shielded and only then if there is a possible interference issue. I agree with lithium that the switch could make all the difference in the world. I was seeing nothing but the dreaded "network performance issues" on my XBOX when I was using a cheap netgear 8 port gigabit switch. Then went to a spare 5 port dlink switch, with minimal improvement. Finally went with a decent switch, and haven't had any issues since (knocks on wood).

I was VERY anxious as I had just run almost 750+feet of cat6 STP solid in wall rated cable, and was afraid I would have to start repulling it...

If it is of big enough concern, might try upgrading to a decent switch and see if that helps.

AD

[adam1991]

ah, Big Bang Theory. "Simple math says it's 1 better..."

[STC]

Are you running gig over regular cat 5 or cat5e Mr.N?
Any joins in the cable?

[newfiend]

Are you running gig over regular cat 5 or cat5e Mr.N?
Any joins in the cable?

It's GIG over Cat5.. might be CAT5e? I'm actually not sure to be honest. I know it's not CAT6 except for the desktop PC as I specifically bought CAT6 for that. I didn't know if the cable as it's supposed to be "better" would help or not or if it would be a waste of money/time trying? No joints in the cable except I am using power line networking to get my "signal" to the bedrooms. This actually has worked very well, especially after a firmware update to the Powerline units. I know MOcA would be better but I have no extra $ to spend on switches or network equipment at the moment. I was wondering If I replaced the CAT5 with CAT6 from HTPC to Router and Router to Power Line adaptes if it might help a little since cable is a bit cheaper than hardware..?
newfiend~

[STC]

Okay, hmm, so the powerline modules are feeding the xBox and DMA? They are most likely connecting at 100Mbit full dupe then?
Cat5e is better rated for handling gig then cat5 due to a lot of things but from what you've explained, but I don't think cat6 is going to help.

Did you ever try this?:

http://thegreenbutton.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=25

[newfiend]

Okay, hmm, so the powerline modules are feeding the xBox and DMA? They are most likely connecting at 100Mbit full dupe then?
Cat5e is better rated for handling gig then cat5 due to a lot of things but from what you've explained, but I don't think cat6 is going to help.

Did you ever try this?:

http://thegreenbutton.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=25

The powerline adapters will handle up to 200Mbps The utility shows a connection speed of roughly 130+ Mbps to both DMA and XBOX. for the most part it works well I very rarely get the "network issue" error. I am mostly nitpicking trying to remove any bottlenecks in the system. I did try your other link once. It didn't make a difference then but I have a new Router now so might be worth trying agian.
Thanks!
newfiend~

[STC]

I would wager it is interference running through your power line at the time and that is slowing down and forcing re-sends of data.

[newfiend]

Thanks STC..Makes sense.. Like I said it's rare I have just been on a mission lately to work out all the bugs in my setup. Maybe when $ is better I'll look into MoCA Adapters..
newfiend~

[lithium630]

Okay, hmm, so the powerline modules are feeding the xBox and DMA? They are most likely connecting at 100Mbit full dupe then?
Cat5e is better rated for handling gig then cat5 due to a lot of things but from what you've explained, but I don't think cat6 is going to help.

Did you ever try this?:

http://thegreenbutton.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=25

The powerline adapters will handle up to 200Mbps The utility shows a connection speed of roughly 130+ Mbps to both DMA and XBOX. for the most part it works well I very rarely get the "network issue" error. I am mostly nitpicking trying to remove any bottlenecks in the system. I did try your other link once. It didn't make a difference then but I have a new Router now so might be worth trying agian.
Thanks!
newfiend~

That is of course the theoretical top speed. Lots of room for error with powerline. Not knocking it though, much more reliable than wifi.

[sgip2000]

Electrical wiring in the US uses a split phase system which has 2 "hot" wires, one "neutral", and ground, which is bonded to neutral.

In your breaker/fuse panel, there will be 1 "hot" wire on each side of the panel with the neutral connection used as a return path for both sides and bonded to ground.

To get the best performance out of a "Powerline" network adapter, you would need to have both adapters on circuits on the same side of the electrical panel.

[barnabas1969]

Electrical wiring in the US uses a split phase system which has 2 "hot" wires, one "neutral", and ground, which is bonded to neutral.

In your breaker/fuse panel, there will be 1 "hot" wire on each side of the panel with the neutral connection used as a return path for both sides and bonded to ground.

To get the best performance out of a "Powerline" network adapter, you would need to have both adapters on circuits on the same side of the electrical panel.

You are mostly correct. Line1 and Line2 are not usually on opposite sides (left/right) of the panel. They are usually connected to every other breaker. So that Line1 is connected to the first breaker on the top left, Line2 is connected to the 2nd one, and so-on.

It is definitely important to connect any kind of powerline communication devices to the same phase though. This includes Powerline modems, X-10, and Insteon devices. Insteon devices have a "phase coupler" that can be used to jump the gap between phases... X-10 probably does too... but I don't think anything like this exists for powerline modems.

[STC]

FIZZLE - FIZZLE - BANG!

Oops! That'll tech me to play with my breaker panel.


I'm an Insteon freak. They run at around 120-132KHz. Powerline stuff if using IEEE1901 spec I recall use 2-50MHz.
An Insteon / X10 phase coupler would most probably not be of use.

Saying that, for drop-outs that OP is describing I would suggest the source being some other electrical appliance in the home such as fridge/freezer or CFL / flourescent tube lighting, maybe even a dodgy PSU somewhere.

[erkotz]

I am not an expert on this, but strongly suspect the Insteon/X10 phase couplers would work on powerline networking.

[STC]

Some more digging has led to this white paper discussing the Homeplug Powerline modules not having a phase hopping issue:

It's actually very interesting. I have learned some new crap today

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/mydownlo ... upling.pdf

[barnabas1969]

Interesting link, STC. It makes sense if you understand capacitive reactance. However, I would still be inclined to believe that you would get higher throughput if both of the powerline modems were connected to the same phase. The overall impedance of the physical copper wire between the two modems on the same phase would be lower than the impedance between the two phases.

I haven't tried powerline modems yet. My whole house is wired with Cat5e, so I don't need them. I've read that the powerline modems can get pretty hot. I would imagine that they need a powerful transmitter in order to push such high frequencies over the non-shielded wires used in household electrical wiring. The wiring in a house would be seen by the transmitter as a very low impedance circuit at frequencies of 2-30MHz, with most of the signal being lost to all the parallel ground wires and such.

I use some Insteon stuff too, STC. I like their products very much.