# Does ethernet cable quality affect Wi-Fi strength



## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

I have a wi fi router connected to 50 ft of lower quality cable. (All I had available) Will this affect the signal strength? If so, what quality cable should I have? Thanks!


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

MichaelZ said:


> I have a wi fi router connected to 50 ft of lower quality cable. (All I had available) Will this affect the signal strength? If so, what quality cable should I have? Thanks!


How are you connecting to the router. WiFi signal or network cord?


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## GTX63 (Dec 13, 2016)

With two teenagers still in our house, we have a lot of devices sucking bandwidth. In order to keep our living room tv from lagging/buffering (we stream tv via the internet) our youngest ran 50' of ethernet from the tv to the router. He said that will prevent spikes and drops in the bandwidth when someone else goes online. A constant steady level continuously. So far he seems to be right.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

MichaelZ said:


> Will this affect the signal strength?


Many things will "affect" the signal.
The question is will it be enough to notice, and there are other variables involved.
I'd simply try the set-up as is, and see if it performs satisfactorily.

There may not be a big enough loss to justify any added expense to make it minimally better.


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## MoonRiver (Sep 2, 2007)

At 50' you should be fine. An ethernet segment using cat 3 wire can be up to 100 meters.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

MichaelZ said:


> I have a wi fi router connected to 50 ft of lower quality cable. (All I had available) Will this affect the signal strength? If so, what quality cable should I have? Thanks!


Ethernet cable has nothing to do with the wifi. All the cable does is get the internet connection to the router.

Almost all ethernet cable is Cat 5, Cat 5e, or Cat 6. Any of them will work fine.


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

painterswife said:


> How are you connecting to the router. WiFi signal or network cord?


Our router is connected with Cat 5e cable. Our computers use the wifi signal.


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

MichaelZ said:


> Our router is connected with Cat 5e cable. Our computers use the wifi signal.


You should have no proof em then with the signal unless you have lots of computers all streaming at the same time. I have about 15 things connected at once by WiFi. From cable boxes to security cameras, servers and computers. No problems.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Cat 5, 5e & 6 ethernet cable should have no problem with 100 meter runs. 50 feet is nothing to be concerned with, as long as the cable terminations at each end were pinned properly. If you purchased the cable with the RJ45 plugs already installed, I think you have nothing to worry about.

If you're having problems with wifi signal strength then you should consider a new dual band "wireless ac" router, and operate at 5GHz. You'll get a lot more distance with 5GHz than with 2.4GHz.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

By the way, a dual band wireless ac router doesn't have to be expensive.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/382325870338

Running that router at 5GHz will more than double your range.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

bandwidth limits are most likely not an issue inside your home but leaving your home. You only have so big connection to your ISP. Once thats saturated nothing inside is going to help. Now you do need look at wifi usage in your home. If you have a smart phone download wifi analyzer. Use it to view what channels are being used in your area. many "wifi issues" can be corrected by moving to a new channel. Also as Nevada suggest, moving to 5ghz can help in several ways, wider bandwith, not as crowded, more channels. The only issue is not all devices support 5ghz. You might also want to make sure your router is using the latest firmware. Upgrades may fix bottle necks. As you add more and more wifi connections a higher end router might also be in order. I have 20-30 devices wifi connected to my router. Most are low bandwidth devices, but you can have lots of devices attached.


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## Steve_S (Feb 25, 2015)

There is few things that can affect Ethernet, damaged cable, cable running side by side with power cables / lines, cable running beside an electric motor (electro-magnetic interference from motor) but not much else and they won't deteriorate over time. Recent & Current Ethernet also runs @ minimum 100 Megabit typically 1 gigabit, Wifi is well below that level of bandwidth. IoT devices can often chew up bandwidth and add phones, tablets, computers etc and resulting lag will be noticed.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Gary in ohio said:


> The only issue is not all devices support 5ghz.


Yeah, I ran into that. My new router can operate at 2.4GHz and 5GHx. It operates like two different devices. If they're both enabled it shows up as two different devices with unique SSID's when the local wifi network is browsed.

I had hoped to run just the 5GHz band, but I have a Honeywell wifi thermostat. The 5GHz SSID didn't show up at all when the thermostat browsed the wifi network. I had to reactivate the 2.4GHz band to put the thermostat back online with the new router.

By the way, I really love the wifi thermostat. I can control heating & cooling from either my laptop or smartphone. That lets me save energy by changing the settings while I'm gone, then 15 minutes before I head home I can turn it back up. I don't know that it's worth the $100 Home Depot wants for wifi thermostats, but I got mine at eBay for about $35 (it was new, but an open package customer return). It was certainly worth $35 to me.


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