Connection takes hour to establish.

[DocEnergy]

I have a 308ft cat5 cable running from a cisco 2650 to a small linskys giga-bit 5 port switch then to 2 computers. Every morning both computers attached to the switch can't find the network. The IPCONFIG reports "No Media Detected". All cables have been tested and came back OK. After about an hour of being logged into Windows the connection starts like nothing ever happened. If the computers are on but waiting at the login screen the connection will not work. The port light on the Cisco for that port is off. also if the computers are left they remain connected to the network.

 

[nevermind1534]

Maybe just has to warm up? A cat6 cable certainly wouldn't hurt, especially if you are using gigabit over that distance.

 

[Computer Head]

328 feet (100 meters) is the longest that any one run of cable can go without losing data integrity. Since you are only 20 feet below that, I would think that the signal is just getting weaker because of the length of cable. I would suggest putting something like a switch or something in between the Cisco 2650 and the linksys switch to make the signal stronger.

EDIT: Cat 6 will NOT help in this scenario.

 

[DocEnergy]

The problem is I only have access to about 8 ft on either side of the cable it runs across the roof of a warehouse.

Would a switch help with that little change in length?

 

[Celegorm]

if it was in the middle yes... Have you tried plugging the cable into a different port on teh switch (the input cable running to the cisco)?

 

[DocEnergy]

It goes up through the roof of the computer room and down through the office at the other end of the warehouse. I don't really have access to anything more then the first and the last 8ft.

 

[Computer Head]

Would fiber-optics be impractical in this scenario?

 

[DocEnergy]

It's what I would like to do. But rerunning a cable isn't an option. is there any way to boost the signal coming out of the cisco switch?