# Ethernet Cable not detected by both WiFi router and LAN Switch



## cheeeekysakura (Sep 5, 2014)

Hi guys,

I currently have an ethernet LAN wire that connects my WiFi router to a LAN Switch. It was working for the past few months when suddenly both devices couldn't recognize it plugged into both their ports - no blinking lights that usually show up.

I have a really old WiFi router (at least 6 years old, I think), but the WiFi aspect of the item is still working fine and I bought the LAN Switch within this year. Do you think I should change my router or do I have to rewire the whole thing? I'm nervous, because rewiring means that I would change the 50m wire running around the house.

How do I check if the wire or the router is the problem?

Thank you!


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## brandonwh64 (Sep 5, 2014)

cheeeekysakura said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> I currently have an ethernet LAN wire that connects my WiFi router to a LAN Switch. It was working for the past few months when suddenly both devices couldn't recognize it plugged into both their ports - no blinking lights that usually show up.
> 
> ...



Test the cable then test the ports it plugs into. Have you have storms lately? I had a bad storm a while back that took out my modems ethernet port and one port on my gig card


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 5, 2014)

You gotta have both ends plugged into a device. If they dont communicate on any port the cable might be bad. I think they make cheap ethernet cable testers





cheeeekysakura said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> I currently have an ethernet LAN wire that connects my WiFi router to a LAN Switch. It was working for the past few months when suddenly both devices couldn't recognize it plugged into both their ports - no blinking lights that usually show up.
> 
> ...


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## Ja.KooLit (Sep 5, 2014)

you could take a small 1m LAN wire, bring it together with your WIFI router and test them closer to your switch and/or modem. I experienced this before few months ago. At first, I keep getting disconnected like router is not connecting to internet. Then had a week vacation. After powering on my modem/wifi router, my router cannot connect to internet. I thought my wifi died. I have changed the LAN wire and what do you know, it was the wire. I cannot seem to explain as when I check the old cable, plugging directly from my computer to modem, it was working fine but my wifi doesnt want that cable.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 5, 2014)

Patch cables can only be 100 meters at a time iirc


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## cheeeekysakura (Sep 5, 2014)

UPDATE: I tried out night.fox's suggestion and it was the wire. :|
Sigh. I was really praying that it was the WiFi router that has the problem. Yes, changing the wire is THAT complicated.
Thank you so much for the help! I really appreciate it!


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## RCoon (Sep 5, 2014)

eidairaman1 said:


> Patch cables can only be 100 meters at a time iirc


 
90 meters is the dropoff point, I believe they still work past that, but not without severe degradation. We've just upgraded all our cabling to CAT6 (expensive stuff, but my god is it thick and built with quality!)


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## Ja.KooLit (Sep 5, 2014)

cheeeekysakura said:


> UPDATE: I tried out night.fox's suggestion and it was the wire. :|
> Sigh. I was really praying that it was the WiFi router that has the problem. Yes, changing the wire is THAT complicated.
> Thank you so much for the help! I really appreciate it!


glad that help. but too sad. i could understand  that wires must be buried or something. i suggest changing socket first. could be lan sockets.


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## FordGT90Concept (Sep 5, 2014)

cheeeekysakura said:


> UPDATE: I tried out night.fox's suggestion and it was the wire. :|
> Sigh. I was really praying that it was the WiFi router that has the problem. Yes, changing the wire is THAT complicated.
> Thank you so much for the help! I really appreciate it!


The cable is likely fine.  You just need to identify which end is bad and replace it (or both).  Visual inspection will likely tell you.  Additionally, you don't need all 4 pairs to make a network cable work.  A cable tester can tell you which wires are successfully getting through and which are not.  I have a Tripp-Lite cable tester and I love it to death (literally takes a few seconds to tell if the cable has problems or not).

Is this a CAT5e or CAT6 cable?  The connectors are not the same.



RCoon said:


> 90 meters is the dropoff point, I believe they still work past that, but not without severe degradation. We've just upgraded all our cabling to CAT6 (expensive stuff, but my god is it thick and built with quality!)


The only technical difference is a + shapped divider between the pairs.  If you want quality, get STP (shielded-twisted-pair).  The cable is literally shrouded with alumiumum foil that has an adhesive, non conducting layer on it.  STP really doesn't like bending though.

CAT6 is faster but their connectors are 10 times harder to put on.


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## cheeeekysakura (Sep 5, 2014)

FordGT90Concept said:


> The cable is likely fine.  You just need to identify which end is bad and replace it (or both).  Visual inspection will likely tell you.  Additionally, you don't need all 4 pairs to make a network cable work.  A cable tester can tell you which wires are successfully getting through and which are not.  I have a Tripp-Lite cable tester and I love it to death (literally takes a few seconds to tell if the cable has problems or not).
> 
> Hmm... eidairaman1 DID mention something about cable testers. Is it easy to use? I'm willing to get one just to check if the bloody wire is still working. I'll update you guys once I have one on hand. Good thing I found a cheap one online at 3USD.


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## brandonwh64 (Sep 5, 2014)

Just change the ends and test


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## FordGT90Concept (Sep 5, 2014)

Yeah, all you do is plug is plug it into both ends.  The batter side signals and you watch on other side.  It lights up 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, G(round), S(shield).  If a light does not show or two light when only one should, there's one or more bad connector.  Again, visual inspection of the connector is key.  They make them clear for a reason.  You can usually spot the problem once a cable tester tells you which wires specifically to focus on.

You really don't need a cable tester but they are handy to have.

Basically what you're looking for is the metal pegs that are driven through each individual wire.  The peg could have pierced two instead of one.  The peg also could have rolled the wire out of place so it missed it or made poor contact with it.  Since this cable worked for a time, most likely one of the wires shifted.  The other possibility is that something broke it.  The cable tester can tell you if this is the case because most or all of them quit working.  If the end(s) weren't put on well, you'll usually only see a problem on one or two.  If you have more than two with a problem on a cable that previously worked, I'd assume it was physically damaged somewhere in between.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 5, 2014)

Ethernet is pins 1,2,3,6, Gb ethernet is all 8 pins


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## RCoon (Sep 5, 2014)

Cheap ethernet cables are easily broken within the confines of the plastic coating. It could be the inside of the cable has become frayed from some edged object contacting it, breaking the inside of the cable, but not piercing the outer coating. A simple cable tester will tell you which twisted pairs are at fault. If the ends look fine, then there is no point re-modulating the ends, if the break is in the middle of the cable, throw it away.

In order, it should be

stripey orange, orange, stripey green, blue, stripey blue, green, stripey brown, brown. < - that is standard Type B network cabling


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 5, 2014)

All homes i noticed use white Green white orange-A standard.



RCoon said:


> Cheap ethernet cables are easily broken within the confines of the plastic coating. It could be the inside of the cable has become frayed from some edged object contacting it, breaking the inside of the cable, but not piercing the outer coating. A simple cable tester will tell you which twisted pairs are at fault. If the ends look fine, then there is no point re-modulating the ends, if the break is in the middle of the cable, throw it away.
> 
> In order, it should be
> 
> stripey orange, orange, stripey green, blue, stripey blue, green, stripey brown, brown. < - that is standard Type B network cabling


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## RCoon (Sep 5, 2014)

eidairaman1 said:


> All homes i noticed use white Green white orange-A standard.



Top image is of standard cabling


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 5, 2014)

I work for Att so I have to make ethernet chords sometimes, Every home ive been into the wiring is always setup for Type A


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## RCoon (Sep 5, 2014)

eidairaman1 said:


> I work for Att so I have to make ethernet chords sometimes, Every home ive been into the wiring is always setup for Type A



Fair game, maybe different countries do different colours? That being said, provided the cable layout is the same (regardless of colour), they'll act identically.


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## de.das.dude (Sep 5, 2014)

eidairaman1 said:


> I work for Att so I have to make ethernet chords sometimes, Every home ive been into the wiring is always setup for Type A


gigabit ehternet automatically fixes it now adays. i didnt know this but after i made a cross over cable for gigabit connection b/w my PCs, i plugged it in as a lan cable from the router to the pc and it worked like a lan cable.


50m huh? i guess you will need some ladders and a helping hand. one thing you can do is if you have check which pair of wiring is broken. skip that one and rewire the rest to use them as a lower speed cable.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 5, 2014)

RCoon said:


> Fair game, maybe different countries do different colours? That being said, provided the cable layout is the same (regardless of colour), they'll act identically.



its funny because the main diff is the green and orange pairs are swapped. Homes are A and our premade chords are B. Ive made twin head ethernet chords with Green/orange and blue and brown to feed 2 ethernet signals.

100 meters max on cat5 without a transceiver (switch).

Gbe is nice but draback is cat5 doesnt have enough prs for customers who still have pots (not voip) as a feed.


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## OneMoar (Sep 5, 2014)

he doesn't need need to replace the cable 
1. he can buy a couple of splitters and place them at both ends 
2. snip the ends off the cable and rewire it using the good pairs of cable
for option two he will of course need a mutli meter to find witch lead is bad


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## FordGT90Concept (Sep 5, 2014)

I just print this:
http://www.peakelec.co.uk/downloads/ethernet.pdf

The "Correct Wiring" in Rcoon's post is 8-wire patch cable and that is what should be used for this application.


And yes, most modern network equipment will automatically switch between A and B connectors so you don't need dedicated crossover cables anymore.  Patch is B->B.  Cossover is B->A.


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## de.das.dude (Sep 5, 2014)

RCoon said:


> Fair game, maybe different countries do different colours? That being said, provided the cable layout is the same (regardless of colour), they'll act identically.


this


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 5, 2014)

Ethernet is only transmitted on line pairs 1 and 2, 3 and 6, pair 4-5 is reserved for dialtone. With gbe is all 8, if your modem, router doesnt support gbe theres no point to having all 8 pairs terminated.


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## FordGT90Concept (Sep 5, 2014)

That's not how it works.  It uses all of the pairs available to it.  Transmission rate is auto-negotiated based on packet-loss and throughput.


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## OneMoar (Sep 5, 2014)

eidairaman1 said:


> Ethernet is only transmitted on line pairs 1 and 2, 3 and 6, pair 4-5 is reserved for dialtone. With gbe is all 8, if your modem, router doesnt support gbe theres no point to having all 8 pairs terminated.


yes but if hes only got one bad wire he can simply swap it with one of the un used ones provided he cuts the ends off and keeps the pin out the same


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 6, 2014)

FordGT90Concept said:


> That's not how it works.  It uses all of the pairs available to it.  Transmission rate is auto-negotiated based on packet-loss and throughput.



Only GBE uses all pairs, non GBE uses only those 2 pairs



OneMoar said:


> yes but if hes only got one bad wire he can simply swap it with one of the un used ones provided he cuts the ends off and keeps the pin out the same




yup, thank goodness for spare pairs, also scotch locks (by 3M)


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