Troubleshooting Steps

[Ilmater]

I could really use some help troubleshooting my home network. Here is my setup:

AT&T Router in room 1
- connected to Computer
- connected to D-Link 10/100/1000 switch in room 2
- connected to Samsung Blu-Ray player
- connected to Xbox 360

There is a 25ft cable I bought brand new to run from room 1 to room 2. From the router to the switch, there is, in order: 6ft Cat6 cable, coupler (cat6) in wall plate, 25ft Cat6 cable, coupler (cat6) in wall plate, 6ft Cat6 cable.

From the switch, I have a 1ft cable to the Blu-Ray player and a 3ft cable to the 360. All cables were bought from Monoprice for this purpose.

My problem is, when streaming some content from my computer to the Xbox (I use it as a media center extender), I frequently get network issues popping up. Also, while Netflix streaming is crazy fast and responsive on my computer, it is much slower to load on the Blu-Ray player. I understand the player won't be as fast processing, but buffering should be just as fast.

I would like to figure out where I'm having problems. I know that the AT&T router is finicky, but on days it's running fine I don't understand why the network wouldn't be flying.

Anyway, can someone tell me what steps to take to find out where the problems are occurring?

 

[spidey07]

You've got some cabling problems. The 1 foot cable is too short, needs to be minimum of 1 meter.

Then there's the couplers and the 25 foot (most likely stranded, not solid) cable. This is also out of category specifications. Replace the entire run with a patch cable no longer then 10 meters. Or use solid core cabling with jacks on each end punched down and patch cables on each end.

With most all network troubleshooting you start at layer 1, the physical layer. Get that in order first before moving on to layer2/3.

 

[Ilmater]

Thanks for your help spidey. Here are the cables I bought (I was wrong on the lengths, my mistake):

1x 50ft cable
1x 2ft cable
3x 7ft cable

All of them have the same specifications as listed below:

UTP 24AWG
4 Twisted Pairs with PE Divider
Stranded 568B
EIA/TIA TSB-40A ETL Verified
Contact Gold Plating 50u"
Molded Strain Relief
Category 6
550mhz
Rohs Compliant
UL listed
CSA Listed
CMG

Is that really that poor? Also, now that I think about it, I probably do need at least 35 feet of cable. Is there a specific type of cable that is best? What specs should I look for?

EDIT: While I bought some couplers to use, I also have a couple of these I could use. Are those sufficient quality?

 

[Ilmater]

Also, what I'm really looking for are things I can do to test each piece of the line to find the problem. I don't want to spend $50 on new wiring only to find out that the problem was the router the whole time. Can anyone help me out there?

To be clear, this is helpful, but I might not need it if my wiring is actually sufficient.

 

[spidey07]

Then take the wiring out of the equation. Move everything to room 1 and use good patch cables. That should take the questionable span out of the equation.

The only real way to test a cable or cabling is a 3000+$ scanner. Otherwise you're just guessing.

The other thing could be a duplex mismatch between your switch and router, but that would be rare because they are set to autonegotiate. But if there are LEDs make sure both ends of that link are coming up 100/full.