Transfer Speeds (Cat6 cable death)

WD Legacy Products My Book Live
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Before I get into the strange Cat6 cable death, I’ll list the speeds I’m receiving when transferring large files (Largest file 5gigs in folders of 50+gigs at a time) with the My Book Live.  Using the Cat5e cables that came with my new router and the MBL, I’m receiving the following transfer rates (sustained):

PC ->MBL ~45-50MBytes / second (Write)

MBL->PC ~55-60MBytes / second (Write)

Laptop (Wireless) → MBL 8MBytes / second (Write)

Laptop (Wireless) ->MBL 1.7MBytes / second (Write) - Weak signal from across the house.

Overall, the speeds are excellent.  I noticed a lot of people reporting bad wireless speeds.  If you are in the same room as the router and the router is away from any other electronics (except the MBL in my case) the speeds WILL increase.  I moved my router from next to my PC and I went from 6MB to 8MB/sec (the location of my laptop in this case never changed).

Strange occurrence:

I just got two 1meter Cat6 cables and a 10m Cat6 cable in.  I attached the two short ones to the computer-router-MBL.  My transfer speeds never got above 650KBytes/sec.  I immediately thought, “Bad cable.” No worries, I replaced the computer-router cable with a Cat5e and my speeds returned to normal.  Then I switched the Cat6 on the router-MBL with the apparently broken Cat6 and the speeds fell again.  I put the working Cat6 back on the router-MBL and the speeds were the same as the broken cable.  In that switch the working cable died?

I could never get both cables to work again, and when I attach them, my PC network status hangs when trying to identify the network.  When I switch back to Cat5e it immediately recognizes the network.

I tried the 10m and the speeds were good, but I haven’t tried it again in fear that it will report the same results.

Anyone ever see anything like this before?  I’m returning the cables this week and will stick the with Cat5e. Suffice it to say that the Cat5e’s are old and have countless kinks in them and I’m still receiving great speeds… 

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I’d be interested to see how that turns out…

But I can tell you that you should not expect faster speeds with a Cat6 cable over a Cat5e cable…   

Cat6 doesn’t make GigE go faster.

IMHO, Cat6 is a waste of money if Cat5e is available cheaper…   Cat6 doesn’t even fit a “standard,” really.   Cat6A cable is what’s intended for 10-Gig, and I think it will be some time yet before we see that in home networks.  :)

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Remember that if the router can not handle shifting 1Gigabit of data then it also don’t matter what cable.  I got my MBL connected through one long run of Cat5e cable and inbetween there are two RD-45 plugs and sockets.  I’m getting hish speeds.  Enough that I can be shovelling a data to the MBL at full pelt and stream a video to the PC without the slightest hint of a “data hiccup”.  :smiley:

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I’ve used both Cat5e and Cat6 cables at work.  The Cat6 cables that we have are very stiff, and if you bend them sharply, then they’re garbage.  It only takes one bend, once to hose the cable.  The Cat5e cables we’ve used are much more flexible.

At home, I only use the Cat5e.