On 19/03/16 14:01, David Christensen wrote: > I use category 5E cables for Gigabit. Category 5 and category 6 > cables were not reliable for me.
Cat 5 cables _should_ work, in theory, though I gather some don't work so well. If you have any cat5 or better cables that are unreliable, I'd suspect the individual cable, not the stated spec. They may just be badly made. > Perhaps the NAS has an automatic crossover feature on it's Gigabit > port. If you do a computer-cable-computer test, you will want a > (category 5E) crossover cable. There's no need for crossover cables for gigabit. Gigabit communicates both ways over all 4 pairs anyway, and autonegotiating is part of the spec. > Make sure you are using the right cables and that they are known > good. I own an Ideal LinkMaster cable tester, and it has been worth > every penny: > > http://www.amazon.com/Linkmaster-UTP-stp-Cable-Tester/dp/B000LDC3LA A > tester like that will tell you if there's continuity in the right places - a cat 3 cable will test fine, and you could make a cable with phone cable, power cable or whatever you like and get it to test fine. Testing to Cat5 or whatever takes a _much_ more expensive tester, to check impedance and capacitance (and variations of those down the cable) and suchlike. It's a good start, but probably won't help much for "it's a bit slow". Richard
