> OK, now I've seen alot of crazy fixes... but could someone please
> explain this:
>
> I was working on a friend's 100 mbps Fast Ethernet network. One of the
> 40' lines we had ran suddenly quit working. So we replaced the cable and
> put new connectors on and it worked. Except it was pinging about 45%
> successful and 0% if you used a larger packet (4K).
>
> By about 1 am, we were desperate. I wound up a couple feet of cable in
> my hands making a small 4" coil. Suddenly packets were flying once
> again. So we taped the cable, let go of it and once again, pings were
> unsuccessful. So we took a donut looking metal piece and wrapped the
> cable around it in a coil fashion. The rate rose to about 75%
> successful. Good enough!!!
This is wierd. The only thing I can think of is that by coiling the wire,
you are strengthening the signal it carries by coupling the wires. A
toroid is the perfect electromagnetic shape. Still, if I understand
correctly the overall length of the line has not been diminished, so Im
not sure why this is working for you.
> There was another line which had been run right next to the original
> cable. Although it worked perfectly, we tried disconnecting it and only
> running one cable at a time. This had no effect.
Over CAT5 cable, and I think over CAT3 and 4 as well, you shouldnt have
any trouble with crosstalk. Hopefully for 100 Mbps you are running CAT5.
I forwarded this to my Communications prof. He always has something to
say.
> Any ideas on why this happened ????
> No transmitters were being used at the time. Any ideaS???
>
> Thanks - Tim/kb8eht