cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Now Hub2 and LAN connection dropping - fixed. Yay!!

Joined Now Broadband less than a month ago.  Hub2 box been giving me grief ever since. 

Called support - disable "Energy Efficiency" on the router settings was the only suggestion.  Read the forums - separated 2.4 and 5.0 configuration.  Disabled the 2.4 and 5.0 synching setting.  All of which helped wi-fi performance but made no difference to the LAN connection between router and computer dropping after 2-3 hours.

We have a Broadband/Wi-Fi extender to our living-room downstairs (we have a "dark spot" for wi-fi - a big metal girder in the ceiling for a room extension).  So the Hub2 feeds the extender by the computer with a LAN cable, and the extender downstairs feeds the the tv with another LAN cable.

And then I stumbled across "RJ5 (LAN) cable techie forums" elsewhere on google - loads of different specs for different RJ5/LAN cables (who knew?).  It began to make sense: we are using one carried forwards from previous broadband providers - all of which worked perfectly until the Now Hub2.  But now examining ours - it did look ancient! 

So we bought one from Amazon @ £6.99 for 1 metre (other lengths available):  "UGREEN Ethernet Cable CAT 8 Ethernet Cable 40Gbps 2000MHz PoE High-Speed LAN RJ45 Cable S/FTP Pure Copper Network Lead Compatible with Xbox One Switch" (quoted in full in case anyone else is in need - other makes are available).  One end into the Hub2 router, the other to the computer.

BINGO!!

The LAN connection has stayed up for a solid 14 hours since plugging it in - and was still up when I switched-on the computer this morning.  And when I changed the cable yesterday I re-enabled "Ethernet Setup "Gigabit ethernet"" on the Hub2 (one of the suggestions had been to use "Fast ethernet").  And today I am going to re-enable "Energy Efficiency" to see if the LAN connection stays up with that setting again.  And I have just ordered two more of the cables for the 2 x Broadband/Wi-Fi extender boxes.

So if anyone else if out there despairing - what a great broadband deal with NOW - but what frustration with the Hub2 - then maybe exploring/investing £6.99 for a LAN/RJ5 cable might be worth trying.

(I am still doing my happy dance here!!)

2 REPLIES 2
RoyB
Legend

@Anonymous User 

Good for you!

But for those who don’t know, there are two things germane to LAN cables - the CAT rating, 5e, 6, 6a, 7, 7a, or 8 as above, where higher is better - and usually more expensive, but not by enough to matter; and the physical construction - round, flat, armoured…

They can also come straight-through or crossover, but you don’t see many crossover ones in domestic installations, if any at all.

The main thing the CAT rating determines is if the cable is rated to carry Gigabit Ethernet, or just 10/100 Megabit

The trouble with 5e and 6 cables, though, is that their rating can drop if you look at them funny (not quite, but just stepping on them or bending them to too small a radius can cause it).

I have an Ethernet switch where the ports light up red or green according to whether the cable plugged in is carrying Gbit or only 100Mbit, which let me throw away a couple of cables that had gone off spec, and reserve my CAT 5e cables (which can carry Gbit, but have to be set up just so) for a couple of devices that don’t need Gbit - a Philips Hue Bridge and a Hive Hub - and use my CAT 6 and CAT 7 for everything else.

So you might well have had nominally good cables before, but which had got degraded in use. Or maybe they were an earlier standard - it’s usually printed on the cable what CAT they are, straight or crossover, UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) or shielded, and so on.

I haven’t needed to buy an Ethernet cable since before CAT 8 came out, but newer is always better, I say 😛

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hi Roy - 

Never knew there was so much to know!!  Thank you!!

(still happy dancing here!!)

Paul