Mains broadband

There is no need to ban them. Almost everyone who has tried them regards them as the worst of all possible worlds.

The word gets around.

That is not so easy in a region where the fastest fixed line internet connection available is a poxy 5Mbps and 2Mbps is more typical.

The people using the VH are better off using their mobile phone as a hotspot - at least if they have any signal. But only EE does...

Assuming the ethernet cable terminates in a socket each end, then I would just swap both pairs over and see what happens. Sometimes the connections if not well made just need redoing.

If you decide to replace the RJ45 connectors, either to test the other pairs or on a new cable then I would advise buying pass through connectors as they are much easier to confirm that each wire is in the right place & has terminated correctly.

yes. Corrosion on IDC is a well known issue. If you put a new socket on a new section of cable, discarding the corroded end, all that is gone.

That's what OpenReach do :-) They dont lay new cables, they remake connections that have got wet...

Any pipe installed underground and used as a conduit will soon have water in it anyway :-)

Hobby Radio users don't pay for a license, so it's not really something that the government has a continued interest in protecting. In fact, they would rather sell frequency allocations given half the chance.

It's worked fine here for several years. Streamed music, CCTV and 4K TV without any issues using TP-Link homeplugs.

My neighbour uses them to connect his tv to his BT router in the opposite corner of the same room. He doesn't seem to have any problems.

That's about their limit IMHO, across one room hardly seems worth the effort, why not use WiFi or a length of Cat5e?

I use a pair to connect skyq to skyq minibox in other room and apart from sometimes losing signal, probably because of mains noise they work fine. Just make sure you get one with pass-through socket and you have enough room under the socket to accept the length of the unit.

Thank you for that, a good tip - it is a pain to ensure each wire is in the right place. Not necessary in this instance, though, I shall get a cable with connectors at each end. One end will go straight into the router, and the other snipped off to crimp into the wall socket in the outside building.

I would advise against that. The cat 5 cable that is used for flexible drop leads is not really suitable for punch down IDC connections.

use drop leads from socket to appliance, but solid core cat 5 in between.

Even buying 50 metres of external cat 5 cable from my supplier it comes with a connector at each end - and it is solid core.

That's very unusual. Solid core cat5E is intended as 'installation' cable.

Both of you might well be correct, need to investigate further - it's not my field.

Mmm. Then it may not punch down so well on IDC.

You may be right, but it caused me problems in the past.

I have never seen a reel of cat 5 with a connector on each end.

I have seen a 50 meter drop lead though..

In all cases a search for 50m of cat 5 on say Amazon reveals two distinct products. Long patch leads, and house wire cable suitable for punchdown on wall sockets and patch panels.

NOTHING says that the wire gauge and type is the same in these two cases.

From memory, the solid cores in drop leads are much thinner and hence more flexible. They have more attenuation as a result.

The RJ45 plugs used are radically different in idc dimension . I cant say with total authority, but I think you should research that issue....

I think you're right, it is a patch lead. Actually, I've just looked at mine again because I wondered why the cat 5 cable leaving my indoor office into the loft is white, yet the cable leaving the loft on the other side of the house is black!

The reason is - and I've just looked - is that I used a long flexible type patch lead, complete with fitted connectors, from my router up into, and all the way across, the loft. At the other end I fitted a one in/one out connector to join the exterior installation cable to it (with an RJ45 connector that I fitted). This cable went around the garage, etc, to the outside office where it went through the wall and was punched into the wall socket.

This all makes replacement much easier, because all I'll need to do is replace the exterior bit.