Networking, length of cable and quality of cable

My house has been networked for some time now. I have had a router and two computers. Recently I added a laptop. I ran a new cable from my router through the basement and up into the living room. At first I couldn't connect at all. I cut off ten feet of the cable and I could connect but not very fast. Then I switched for an unrelated reason from dsl to cable. Now I try to download a page and I get the date and half of the page in a minute. When I disconnect the laptop and plug it in where my main computer is I have no problems. My kids desktop is connected fine but the laptop won't connect at all on their connetion. Do you think I need a better quality cat 5 cable? I think the length is about 50 to 60 feet. I am not ready to spend the money to go wireless yet so that is not an option. Thanks in advance.
Jerry

 

chewie
Cable Quality especially on long runs is very important. You can come up against allot of external interference as well as signal strength dropping. Laptops are finicky when it comes to the above
problems. I suspect if you were to hook up a PC in the Living room
you would not have the problem. Cat5 cables come in different flavors, for instance Beldon cable has three qualities of cat5.
You may want to talk to a local PC shop and see if you can purchase the highest quality cat5 available to the specific length you need. Higher quality cable are not cheap either, the per foot price can be significant. Spend some time on the net checking different cable vendors and you will see the difference.
cat5, cat5 shielded and so on.
Dave

 

Look at your cable ends as well and make sure they are pinned and crimped correctly. If they are just done stright through and not to the CAT5 spec there will be signal loss and other problems. In longer runs of cable it becomes even more important. Look at this diagram for 568B...the standard has chnaged again but this should be the best for your application:

 

Right now the cable is straight through. It shows I am connected in both my laptop internet properties and my router shows a laptop. Dave you make a point. My childrens desktop upstairs is connected and works although at about half of the speed as my computer which is on a four foot store bought cable. I guess I will change the ends first as this is the cheaper route. If I can get half the speed of my cable modem I will be happy. Right now I test with a speed of modem speed and I have a cable modem. I will try and let you guys no how it turned out. Thanks again.
Jerry