Given fair test conditions, everyone knows wired network connections are faster than wireless, right?  How about when your wired connection crawls along at 1/5 of the speed of your wireless connection?  What’s happening?Below are two CAT 5e Ethernet cables, of the type you’d typically use to connect a router to a modem, or perhaps your PC directly into your router instead of using WiFi.  You might connect up other network-capable devices in your home too, such as a PVR/HDR, Blu-ray player and even your TV.  In doing so, you may pick up an old Cat 5 cable “you had spare” to do the job.

Beware, that not all Cat5e is the same!
If you look closely below, you’ll see that the lower, grey cable is type 568A, whereas the upper, black cable is568B.  Ethernet cables come as UTP or STP (Unshielded or Shielded Twisted Pair), meaning that each pair of conductors (wires) inside the outer sheathing are twisted together.  This helps cancel noise and improve transmission.

The difference between A and B is in the way these twisted pairs are paired up.  If your router has N-Way negotiation on its network connections, it should be able to work around using the two different types of cable.  But on my router, with N-Way negotiation, this didn’t appear to be the case.

Testing this using speedtest.net with cable type A, I got a paltry 5Mb/s down and 4Mb/s up.  Over wireless, I got 20Mb/s down and 17Mb/up.  It turned out that my router can’t handle type A cables very well.  Using a type B, I got 44Mb/s down and 18Mb/s up.  More like it!

So the next time your network is running slowly, check your cabling.  Even if it’s a well-known brand (my type Acable is a Belkin Cat5e), it may be causing a drop in performance which is easily, and cheaply, corrected.
H/t +Bob Beattie 
#networking   #speedtest   #cat5e