100 Mbit link is very slow. What to do?

100 Mbit link is very slow. What to do?
Question:
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I made my own cable to go to the hub. When trying to connect the 10/100 3com PCMCIa card to the hub using the cable, it will only work at 10MB. When it tries to work at 100MB, the 100mb light turns on, I can ping but lots of timeouts, also, connecting to other machines it painfully slow. Something is wrong.


Answer:
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One of the possible reasons is that your link from the computer to the hub is not fully Category 5 compliant.

Check the following:
- are you sure that your cable is Cat5?
- are you sure that RJ-45 plugs you have terminated on this cable are Cat5?
- are you sure that your plugs are appropriate for your wire type?
(cables can consist of *stranded* and *solid* wires. The RJ-45 plugs and outlets must be compatible with the wire type used)
- are you sure that you terminated the cable with RJ-45 plugs correctly?
(check it looking at the plugs; there should be no excessive pair untwisting there)
- are you sure that there is no excessive bends or kinks on the cable?
- are you sure that the cable is supported and/or attached correctly?
(for example, attaching it to the wall using staples is absolutely not allowed)
- are you sure that your hub and network card both support 100 Mbit?
(you can check it using software config program supplied with the card and hub)?

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