patch cords

I recently upgraded from a 10 speed hub to a 10/100 speed switch.

My network has

OS @ nic speed

w98 @10
w98 @100
w95 @10
w95 @100
xp he @100

Two cables appear to be no good at 100 speed although they work w/ problems at 10 speed. So I'm looking for two 100 speed cables and finding they cost about as much as the switch.

Any recommendations here? I need a 14' and a 4' or 6' and was hoping not to spend all that much.

Marty

 

where the ones that don't work homemade. Could the ends be wired wrong? I have seen network cables wired wrong and work 10baset and not 100baset. The cable should also be cat 5 or better.

sam

 

Hi Sam,

Yep, homemade -- albeit not by me. And now that I looked around these things are dirt cheap for cat 5e so that's what I'm going to do, buy them from an outfit on the web.

Any recommendations?

Marty

 

Marty - you can pretty much shop by price. The specs for Cat5 vs cat3 or whatever are solid and deal with the required number of twists per inch for internal wire pairs. Dead easy to check with a meter to see if a cable meets spec and professional installers who need to certify their installation always do check.

So any company that puts out bad cable has a very short life as a cable maker or else get their act together quickly.