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Hi I have a 15m ethernet cable going under my floor from the front to back of house. It has developed a fault and pins 1 & 6 are no longer connected (I've tested it).

Given getting it back up or laying a replacement is impossible due to flooring laid since, is there a way I could utilise the remaining strands that do work? I've read some strands are not used but would like some advice on the pros/cons of this, obviously i'd end up breaking convention with wiring colours.

Thank you

sqlbanana
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1 Answers1

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Gigabit ethernet actually uses all 4 pairs (cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabit_Ethernet#1000BASE-T). So unless you want to drop down to a 100 Mbit link, you're going to need all wires in the cable. If you're willing to drop down to 100 Mbit, I suppose you could rewire the connectors on both ends and use the Blue/White Blue or White Brown/Brown pair for pins 1 and 6 respectively. Those pairs are not used in the 100BaseT standard (source: https://www.hardwaresecrets.com/how-gigabit-ethernet-works/):

Pin Color               Function
1   White with Green    +TD
2   Green               -TD
3   White with Orange   +RD
4   Blue                Not Used
5   White with Blue     Not Used
6   Orange              -RD
7   White with Brown    Not Used
8   Brown               Not Used

Before you go down that path, though, do you know exactly where the problem is in the cable? Fancy cable testers can find the exact location of the fault. If you don't have access to one of those, you could also just try to replace the connectors on both ends. It's possible (perhaps even likely) the fault is there.

Finally; any chance the cable was installed in a conduit? If it was, it may be possible to pull an additional cable next to it, or to replace the cable by pulling a new one through the conduit.

cure
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