cancel
Showing results forย 
Search instead forย 
Did you mean:ย 

Internet connection not working -- CAT5e

TenOC
Nomad
Nomad
My RV is 300 feet from my S&B home. About 5 years ago I ran (in a pvc conduit) a underground gel filled CAT5e cable from the S&B to the RV. I got good service at the RV with about the same speed as at the S&B.

I have now returned from 6 weeks on the road. I no longer have internet service at the RV. I do not know if there was any type of storm damage or other thing that could have "knock out" the cable while I was on the road.

I have tested the cable and I get a "pass" with one of these tester.

CAT5 Tester

Even with a "good pass" cable I can not connect to the internet. Is there some other type of tester that I can use to find out what is wrong?
Please give me enough troubles, uncertainty, problems, obstacles and STRESS so that I do not become arrogant, proud, and smug in my own abilities, and enough blessings and good times that I realize that someone else is in charge of my life.

Travel Photos
24 REPLIES 24

Sam_Spade
Explorer
Explorer
YC 1 wrote:
Time to pull a new cable. I suspect you will find the old one soaking wet.


He did say that his original cable is gel filled, right ?

Unless it is badly damaged, that should work completely submerged......right ??

My bet is that the conduit and cable are crushed somewhere along the line, or similarly damaged. If that is the case, the old one might not pull out very good or at all. Or will have to be pulled in TWO pieces, one from each end.

I still think that proper WiFi equipment might be a better option.
'07 Damon Outlaw 3611
CanAm Spyder in the "trunk"

Chris_Bryant
Explorer
Explorer
Cat6a is good for 328 feet @ 10 gbps, but you might also Google cantenna
-- Chris Bryant

YC_1
Nomad
Nomad
Time to pull a new cable. I suspect you will find the old one soaking wet. If you find it wet try to find a midway point in the conduit and drill a hole from top through the bottom once you pull the old cable out and just have a string attached.

Then seal the top hole. It does not need to be any bigger than 1/8 of an inch drill bit.
H/R Endeavor 2008
Ford F150 toad >Full Timers
Certified Senior Electronic Technician, Telecommunications Engineer, Telecommunications repair Service Center Owner, Original owner HR 2008

wa8yxm
Explorer III
Explorer III
300 Feet is not too far for wireless if you have a good Wi-Fi Client (Nano-Station Loco M or M2 as an example)

300 Feet IS the limit for Cat-5 if I recall correctly.

It may be the cable has gotten wet I have that issue when my 100' Cable gets wet.. Enough. You may just need to pull a new cable.
Home was where I park it. but alas the.
2005 Damon Intruder 377 Alas declared a total loss
after a semi "nicked" it. Still have the radios
Kenwood TS-2000, ICOM ID-5100, ID-51A+2, ID-880 REF030C most times

wnjj
Explorer II
Explorer II
TenOC wrote:
ksg5000 wrote:
Agree with Bobbo - take the computer into the stick house and direct connect. Easiest way to determine whether the cable is the issue.


The computer connects to the internet in the house using the same configuration (less long cable -- I used a short patch cable) as at the RV. Thus I am sure it is a cable problem.

After replacing the ends of the long cable I get and "unidentified" network error. Thus I think I need to spend the money for a new cable. I can not think of any reason to go to a CAT6 cable because as I understand it the CAT6 is NOT high speed at this long a distance.

If replacing the ends changed the behavior, double check your work (i.e. which colors on which pins). How likely was it that the ends were bad AND something with the cable?

turbojimmy
Explorer
Explorer
TenOC wrote:
After replacing the ends of the long cable I get and "unidentified" network error. Thus I think I need to spend the money for a new cable. I can not think of any reason to go to a CAT6 cable because as I understand it the CAT6 is NOT high speed at this long a distance.


It does sound like an issue with the cable. Unless you're throughput is 10GB or more the choice between CAT5e and CAT6 is irrelevant at that distance. I'd get whatever is cheaper. With either cable you are approaching the distance limitations anyway.

I have a couple-hundred feet of direct bury CAT6 running to a WiFi hotspot on my property (it uses PoE). The only problem I've had with it so far is that a fox chewed it up one night. The wireless camera connected to the hotspot caught him doing it up until I lost connectivity. He was trying to pull it up out of the ground for some reason.
1984 Allegro M-31 (Dead Metal)

TenOC
Nomad
Nomad
ksg5000 wrote:
Agree with Bobbo - take the computer into the stick house and direct connect. Easiest way to determine whether the cable is the issue.


The computer connects to the internet in the house using the same configuration (less long cable -- I used a short patch cable) as at the RV. Thus I am sure it is a cable problem.

After replacing the ends of the long cable I get and "unidentified" network error. Thus I think I need to spend the money for a new cable. I can not think of any reason to go to a CAT6 cable because as I understand it the CAT6 is NOT high speed at this long a distance.
Please give me enough troubles, uncertainty, problems, obstacles and STRESS so that I do not become arrogant, proud, and smug in my own abilities, and enough blessings and good times that I realize that someone else is in charge of my life.

Travel Photos

ksg5000
Explorer
Explorer
Agree with Bobbo - take the computer into the stick house and direct connect. Easiest way to determine whether the cable is the issue.
Kevin

mike-s
Explorer
Explorer
All xxxBASE-T Ethernet up to 10G is specified for 100 m, not 90, although it may work at greater distances.

How does the wiring go? Does the camper end just come out somewhere and you plug it directly into the PC? Or does it connect to a jack on the camper, which is then wired somewhere?

Bobbo
Explorer II
Explorer II
Have you connected THAT pc to the internet in the house to be sure that the pc is connecting? That takes the long cable out of the picture. If the pc connects while in the house, I agree with the options of 1. replace the connectors on both ends, and 2. replace the entire cable.
Bobbo and Lin
2017 F-150 XLT 4x4 SuperCab w/Max Tow Package 3.5l EcoBoost V6
2017 Airstream Flying Cloud 23FB

TenOC
Nomad
Nomad
theoldwizard1 wrote:
Most cabling is NOT rated for "direct burial". Conduit are not guaranteed to stay dry for their life, so you should still use direct burial cable.



I used direct burial gel filled cable
Please give me enough troubles, uncertainty, problems, obstacles and STRESS so that I do not become arrogant, proud, and smug in my own abilities, and enough blessings and good times that I realize that someone else is in charge of my life.

Travel Photos

theoldwizard1
Explorer
Explorer
Most cabling is NOT rated for "direct burial". Conduit are not guaranteed to stay dry for their life, so you should still use direct burial cable.

For long distances and in "rough" conditions, I would recommend Cat 6. Large gauge wires so it should be able to handle abuse better.

The maximum recommended distance for a single segment of Cat5/Cat 6 wire is 90 meters or about 295'. You are close to that limit.

TenOC
Nomad
Nomad
mike-s wrote:
When plugged in, do you get a link light (little LED where the cable plugs in) at both the PC and "router" ends?

No led light at the PC. I have not checked the router end yet.

Assuming you do, and it's a Windows PC, open a command shell (cli), and enter "ipconfig". In the output, you want to look for the IPv4 address of your Ethernet adapter. If the address starts with 169.254... then it's not talking to the "router." You should expect it to start with 192.168...

The PC does not see any connection at all



Please give me enough troubles, uncertainty, problems, obstacles and STRESS so that I do not become arrogant, proud, and smug in my own abilities, and enough blessings and good times that I realize that someone else is in charge of my life.

Travel Photos

Sam_Spade
Explorer
Explorer
TenOC wrote:
I get internet when a short patch ethernet CAT5 cable is plugged into the same port on the the router at the house that the long cable uses. Thus I know the router port is working.


IF....you are using the same laptop that you use in the RV to do this test, then you have tested everything GOOD except the cable and it's connectors.

Time for a new cable. Or maybe a WIFI extender.
'07 Damon Outlaw 3611
CanAm Spyder in the "trunk"