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I've just ran a CAT-6 cable throughout my house. I've terminated both my ends using a CAT-6 patch panel and a CAT-6 keystone jack.
I've put two computers on either end (Macbook Pro 13"; I believe capable of a Gbps, and a Gateway PC that is definitely capable of a Gbps), set them up on the same network (manually assigning an address of 192.168.0.1/24 and 192.168.0.2/24), and ran iperf. There is no switch, hub, or any other network device inbetween: just the two laptops, connected via patch cable to either a keystone jack, or a patch panel.
The results are as follows:
eddie@prowl ~ $ iperf -s
------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 256 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 4] local 192.168.0.2 port 5001 connected with 192.168.0.1 port 1303
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.0-10.0 sec 560 MBytes 470 Mbits/sec
[ 4] local 192.168.0.2 port 5001 connected with 192.168.0.1 port 1304
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.0-10.0 sec 559 MBytes 469 Mbits/sec
As I understand it, the theoretical maximum I should get would be about 1000 Mbit, or 1 Gbit. Unless I'm mistaken, what I'm seeing is exactly half of that.
Now, the known problem I have is that I used patch cable to attach to the patch panel and the keystone jack, and I'm wagering those are CAT-5 or CAT-5e at best.
Anyhow, my question as it stands is whether I should be happy with the output of this cable as is, or if I should be investing in some CAT-6 patch cable (I plan to anyhow later, but for testing purposes now, I'm curious if I should get some immediately) to improve those numbers.
Thanks.
2You left out something very important: is there a switch or router? If so, what model/speed? – JNK – 2010-09-08T16:43:17.597
Good point. I'll update the question here, but in this test - no. It's just going straight through the patch panel. – Eddie Parker – 2010-09-08T16:46:26.563