heat effecting ethernet speeds

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AllNightNerding

411 posts

Ultimate Geek

#15191 8-Aug-2007 22:03

just wondering if anyone else ha noticed this but my Ethernet cable runs outside along our wall for about 3 m from our office to my bedroom and I find that on a cold day the internet speed seems to slow in my room and it noticeably different on other computers in the house.

just wondering if its just me of if other people have this and whether i should put some form of insulation on the cable to make it warmer.

grant_k

3539 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 124

Trusted

#81657 8-Aug-2007 22:16

AllNightNerding: just wondering if its just me of if other people have this and whether i should put some form of insulation on the cable to make it warmer.

Ethernet usually runs at 100Mbps. Your internet connection is 8Mbps max.

So, the Ethernet cable is running at least 12x faster than your internet. Therefore, any small differences in Ethernet speed would not make any difference at all to your internet speed.

You could try doing some tests using www.speedtest.net to check if the internet speed is any different on different days.

And also try copying some large files across your network from one PC to another and record the time it takes on different days.

By doing both of those tests, you will prove where the changes are occurring.

Whatever you find, I am quite certain that insulating the cable will give no benefit whatsoever. It could be that you have a faulty network switch or hub which is affected by temperature.

pando

235 posts

Master Geek

#81698 9-Aug-2007 09:56

Interesting theory, have a read on thermocoupling on wikipedia or something

AllNightNerding

411 posts

Ultimate Geek

#81762 9-Aug-2007 16:24

Hi there i noticed the speed difference when doing back-ups onto our server. and there wa a significant delay form a warm day to a cold day lol