Is this true in regards to a new Install?
 

My friend who is a neighbour of mine is getting a 100Mb installed soon and i wanted to find out about somehing.

I heard years ago when I had my install that the length of the copper wire from the box outside the house to the modem can affect performance if it's too long?

I wanted to know is this true as I cannot remember what I found out a few years ago :S

My friend has two options,

1). Copper wire straight through the wall and to the router and then Ethernet wire up stairs.

Copper wire would only be 0.25 - 0.5m.

Ethernet wire would be 10m.

2). Copper wire running up the wall into the bedroom directly above the box.

This would mean copper wire is 4 - 4.5m and Ethernet is 5m.



So would option 1 be better than 2?

Or does it not really matter ?

Yep coax signal degrades over distance, but the extra length inside your house is normally nominal.

But if you are worried option 1 would be better.

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

It doesn't matter and the wire VM use isn't copper

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

Please tell us all what it is then.

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RG-6

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

it's still copper :)

as for the OP's post 4-5 metres of coax is nothing and won't have any effect on the broadband ... the engineer will set the levels so that the modem/super hub can run correctly .... in my old house i had a coax run of more than 30 metres and still had full speed on my connection (30mb/s)

also bear in mind that ethernet cable is also copper and thus suffers losses over distance in the same way as coax does ... however as it is data that is sent over the ethernet cable there is no need to worry about signal strengths etc .... as long as the data reaches the router that is all that is required

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

No it's steel, with a copper coating

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

So from that i can gather your not an engineer for Sky then ;)

I think you will find it is a coax cable consisting of steel and copper that has the capability to carry far more than old fashioned outdated twisted pair common to adsl connections.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaxial_cable

To put it simply it beats the pants of a copper pair and the average house is no more than 150 meters average from a node so signal loss is far less than on copper pairs :)

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

yes but as any electrician that knows his stuff will tell you, electric current actually travel on the outer edge of the cable ... so in this case it will be travelling on the copper :)

also steel suffers even more losses than copper does ... which is why VMs coax has the copper coating

of course gold is the best conductor but it's not finacially viable for VM (or any other company) to use gold cable ..... besides i reckon cable theft would leap through the roof if they did :)

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

:clap:

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

Even Ethernet needs a repeater after 100m or so.

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

"Ethernet" requires a repeater only when used over a transmission medium that exceeds its maximum length in one run. :angel:

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

Are you sure?

Me and my fiend will be doing a lot of gaming so it's more a matter of latency than speed.

But I guess I'll take your word for it :)

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

Bearing in mind that the signal travels along the cable at something approaching the speed of light, I don't think an extra five metres will make much difference.

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

Nobody likes a pedant.

Copper is the generic term for the cable.

Yes, there may be different compounds but we all call it copper. Ask any engineer/ tech and they'll call it copper.

It's a HFC network not a HFS or a HFCCS network ........

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

Which is cheaper and has more attenuation than copper :rolleyes:

As for skin effect at the frequencies used not all the current will be going through the copper with a proportion going through the steel.. Not a great deal though compared with lower frequencies..

Anyone here got zapped by the skin effect on SHF high power cable ;)

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

So why did you chose cable over ADSL or better still if available FTTC?

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

What do you mean?

I have some of the lowest pings I have ever seen with my connection :/

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

What about jitter?

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

You get about 0.2dB attenuation per meter. The extra length of cable will not be important unless you are already very distant from the street cabinet you connect to.

OP - do you know the distance from the cab?

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

Even if he is distant, it's VM's job to keep his levels in check not his.

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

To be pedantic once more, the C in HFC is coax, not copper. I wouldn't call coax copper. I'd call it coax.

Anyway, @OP, it would really make very little difference either way. Having longer ethernet & shorter coax may make a tiny difference, but not so much that I'd go out of my way to make sure I had that setup.

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

1 - 2 ms Jitter when pinging Australia on Pingtest :/

---------- Post added at 00:57 ---------- Previous post was at 00:56 ----------


The green cabinet is about 4 or 5 houses down on the corner.

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

The length of cable coming into your house will have negligible effect on ping and jitter, what matters is the people sharing what's on the other end of the cable.

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

No one else uses the connection.

Just me.

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

That's not how cable works. All cable connections are merged with hundreds/thousands of others and your connection is shared by hundreds of users as well.

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

I meant in my home >.<"

Of course others share it but in my home it's just me :)

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

Apparently a hollow copper pipe would carry the same current as a solid copper wire. It's the cross sectional area that matters. The saving costs of using steel in the middle is immense. The current is very low so heating up is not a problem

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

It depends on the frequency.. DC most of the solid copper wire is used and there is little skin effect, where as when you get beyond Ghz most of it is on the skin.

Re: Is this true in regards to a new Install ??
 

In response to my post which specifically said

"the other end of the cable."