Networking Issues - At my wits end
Community Forums/General Help/Networking Issues - At my wits end
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| Okay I am posting this here because I am at my wits end. For over a week I have been messing with my awful Uverse setup. What I want to do is simple, I want to add a few more wired connections to the other side of my house. I have 2 net gear routers, 1 linksys, a net gear 5 port network hub, a 48 port Cisco network switch, and a little 5 port Cisco network switch. All of these devices work as each has been part of a LAN setup at one time or another. I made my own 250ft Ethernet cable and followed the standard wiring guide for a Cat5E wire. It works great when plugged directly into any computer on the other side of the house. However it has been a major headache t rying to get any of my network devices to show anything other than limited connectivity. The only thing the At&t tech did when he came over was switch my security settings to WEP OPEN much to my disgust. These techs don’t know a damn thing. After some research and many sessions of trial and error I came to the conclusion that the signal is degrading too much over the 200+ foot distance. I am able to get any computer (raspberry pi also) working great on the switch if I plug in everything next to the Uverse router. Soon as I move everything into the other room and connect it via the gray networking cable (the one I made) I get a limited connection. I have been through every firewall setting possible, manually assigned ip addresses to the devices, and tried every one of my network devices in every configuration imaginable and nothing. Just to prove that the switch works I have the 5 port Cisco switch (bastard device) hooked up right beside the Uverse router with a 5 foot Ethernet cable. The raspberry pi is plugged into the switch and it works fine, now the gray cable plugged into it that travels the entire 200foot expanse is plugged in to my Lenovo desktop and guess what? It works! This is kind of pointless though because I need the switch on the other side of the house instead of right next to the router. I tried hooking up another switch and router on the other side of the house but I don’t think you can use 2 switches on the same Uverse router. I really need at least 4 more hard wired connections on the other side of the house. Any ideas on what I should do before I take a sledge hammer to all my hardware? This is how the current setup is working:  Obviously I need the switch in the room where the Lenovo is. I'm not 100% sure if the issue I'm having is power related but it seems logical. Why wont a router(with everything turned off) or another switch on the other end spit up the connections? I may need to change something on the Uverse router but At&t has no clue how to solve my problem. I even tried their connect tech division and all I got is "Well it should be working". I was very unhappy with their service and got it refunded. This setup also works:  This SHOULD work but it doesn't:  I freshly reformatted my Lenovo with Windows 7 just to rule out any spyware related issues. I've tried with and without firewall enabled and also tried setting the computer in DMZ mode. This is driving me crazy! I thought perhaps my gray cable was the culprit but if that was the case it shouldn't work at all. It's and older cable which I have had for years with no issues. |
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| Have you tried turning it all off and on. :D Seriously though considering the extreme maximum for cat5 is +- 285ft without a repeater perhaps that is the problem, especially if the cable is badly shielded, extremely coiled or you have a lot of devices causing interference. Don't forget hubs / switches can choke that bandwidth, so what might appear as a "good" 1-1 connection might be terrible as a 1-8 connection, especially from boxes that broadcast wifi (which will never allow max speed, and can cause interference on their own). |
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| So I need something like this? http://www.amazon.com/Ethernet-Extender-Port-Reach-2000ft/dp/B008O8CUNA/ref=sr_1_1/191-1861235-9937760?ie=UTF8&qid=1388114474&sr=8-1&keywords=ethernet+repeater I'm okay if I'm not getting full speed as the computers on the other side of the house will rarely be powered up all at the same time. According to this : "The problem experienced by many network administrators is about connecting network devices that are more than 300 feet away from the switch. As you may know, there is a 300 feet limitation to connections that use the copper/twisted-pair Cat5E cables." I am only using around 250 feet so I'm not sure if I really need a repeater. The cable works fine when directly plugged into any computer just not with a Hub, Switch, or Router attached. |
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| I used to work for an ISP (which shall remain nameless). One of my favorite toys for this sort of thing is a SLINGLINK. You might look into it and see if this product is right for you. It works by running your internet through your house wiring. As long as you don't have a reverse neutral or a hot ground. Results may vary of course. In any case, I use a couple in my house (although mine is much smaller :). I have one attached to my router via a short Ethernet cable and plugged into the wall. If you have a HomePlug ready device, like Dish Network's Hopper 2000, you can simply plug it into the wall and connect to the network. If you wish to connect a computer or router at the other side of the house, plug in another SlingLink into the wall behind it and connect that to the computer with another Ethernet cable. Do not plug the SlingLink into a surge protector or power strip. Those sometimes lead to undesired results. |
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| I used to work for an ISP (which shall remain nameless). One of my favorite toys for this sort of thing is a SLINGLINK. You might look into it and see if this product is right for you. It works by running your internet through your house wiring. As long as you don't have a reverse neutral or a hot ground. Results may vary of course. You can run ethernet-over-power using a so-called 'homeplug' adapter: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=homeplug As long as both outlets connect through the same central breaker box (which would be case in most US residential buildings, no idea where you're located) Another thought: you may not have exceeded the maximum cat5 cable length yet, but it IS dependent on conditions as well: especially if you have the cable very close to AC power cables and such you may have too much interference for a reliable signal. You may have better luck with cat-6 cable, which is 100% backwards compatible with CAT5 but has much better shielding (to allow for gigabit connections on supported hardware) |
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| The homeplug and Slinklink are very interesting ideas but without the ability to hookup a surge protector I don't know if I can trust it. I am in the United State but the power is flaky in my area. I have no idea about the wiring or grounding so I think what I should try first is a Cat6 cable. |
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| I wouldn't think the quality of throughput over a power cable would be much good ? Certainly not as good as my gigabit ethernet I use here. |
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| First of all your cat-5 cable should not exceed 100 meters (metric) ... this is the official limit. But You can have one switch per 100 metric meter cat-5 cable if you need more than 100 meters (to boost the signal). * You can have as many switches you want in a cat-5 network, there is basicially no limit. * I wouldn't use hubs any more they are basicially obsolete. Use a switch instead. * Using a router, turning off all routing functions, doesn't allways work as intended (this is dependant of individual routers). Some would work as a switch, some would not. If you want the signals just to "pass through", use a switch instead. Here's an example of a good practice network setup, always set up the router closest to the intake/modem, then use switches for branching.
PC
/
Modem --> Router ------- Switch /
\ \ PC
\ \ /
PC Switch/
\
\
PC
Hope this helps :) |
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| I wouldn't think the quality of throughput over a power cable would be much good ? Certainly not as good as my gigabit ethernet I use here. Not up to gigabit speeds yet, but many can easily do a reliable 100mbit. (most are 200Mbit, which means 100mbit up and down, some will do up to 500mbit for which you will need gigabit network adapters / switches to facilitate it) Only used it once myself, but it was surprisingly sturdy and did give me a solid 100Mbit. |
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| I've tried everything and YES to turning everything on and off. Powering one device up at a time and even doing a something like a rain dance all to no effect. I will have to save up for a new cat6 cable and possibly hardware. I can't throw money at problems like I used to so I will be weighing my options. Thanks for all the help and ideas everyone. |
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