What would cause an underfloor Ethernet connection to work only half the time?

hatrickpatrick

We've just built an Eco-house ("shomera") at the back of our house and one of the components is an Ethernet connection to the main house, so that we can connect a router to our sky hub and have an Internet connection in the outside room.

The problem is that the cable which connects the two rooms together, or the port at one end or the other, seems to be faulty. Now before you ask, the problem doesn't seem to be with either router or the Ethernet cable that goes from the port in the Eco house to the repeater router - I've tried plugging them directly together side by side with this same cable and they never have a single problem.

So what are the possible issues? The setup involved a cable which runs under the garden and has an Ethernet port at the Shomera end and just a crimped Ethernet Jack at the other. The Jack is plugged into our sky hub and there's an old netopia router connected to the port at the other end.

Is the issue likely to be at the port end; the crimped Jack end, or somewhere in the middle of the cable - based on the fact that it does randomly work some of the time even if no components have been moved around or unplugged, or indeed interfered with in any way?

I realise that diagnosing this issue over the Internet is almost impossible, but I'm just looking for a general indication. Replacing either the Jack or the port would be a pain in the hole, but replacing or repairing the actual under-floor cable fills me with dread as it would potentially involve having the whole f*cking garden and the floorboards inside the house excavated just weeks after they were reassembled :mad:

Anyone encountered anything like this before? It seems to work for a matter of minutes at a time, sometimes longer, and then just die altogether with absolutely no warning or apparent change in circumstances. Leave it alone for a while and come back, and there's basically a 50/50 chance it'll be randomly working again.

Once again, I can categorically rule out an issue with either router, or the cable going from router #2 to the Ethernet port - when they are plugged directly together side by side without the underground cable being involved, they work flawlessly.

heroics

Get a loan of or buy a cheap network tester. where about a in country are you?

Something like below the kit below would allow you to test and re punch the cable

https://www.fruugo.ie/kabalo-network-lan-kit-rj45-cat5e-rj11-pc-cable-tester-crimping-crimper-punch-tool-set/p-10283444-21566912?gclid=CN3DmdDsldMCFeq17QodUOMCcg

heroics

Also what distance is the cable run including patch leads?

ted1

Try recrimping the cable.
What type cable is as used? Is it in ducting? Is there mains cable beside it? How long is the run?

ED E

The others have covered a lot already but here's a rundown of what we need and suggestions.

Qs:
1. Length of the run?
2. What class of cable (Youll see UTP CAT X(x) on the side)?
3. When it works is it 10Mb or 100Mb (green or amber light, if the device has both)?
4. Is there mains in the same duct?
5. Does the eth port link light on the sky hub go dead when the link fails?

Suggestions:
1. Some switches are better at running long runs than others, putting a €30 switch between the Hub and long run might assist
2. Drop the netopia. Its at least 12yrs old now. They're tanks, but at this point their behaviour cant be trusted and the wireless radio is pretty basic.