Cat 5 ethernet?

[RPeng]

Hi everyone,

I just booted up my rpi b+ and tried to get online by connecting my ethernet cable, I have no network lights coming on. I have tried running without a keyboard and mouse, I am using a 5V 2A mobile phone charger.
When I type in ip addr show eth0, it displays:

2: eth0: <BROADCAST, MULTICAST, UP, LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP qlen 1000
link/ether b8:27:eb:f2:12:5d brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.158.218/27 brd 192.168.158.223 scope global eth0
valid_lft forever preffered_lft forever

I have read somewhere that a cat 5 cable might be no good? is this true, the cable I bought was only something like $2
Any help would be great!
Thanks,

[P_Monty]

The only problem with cat 5 is that it doesn't support high speeds (I think it's limited to 100Mbit) I don't know for sure, but I can't see that being a problem. Can you ping:a) your router b) a random website?

[DougieLawson]

Have you checked the cable continuity? Have you tried another port on your router? Can you try another cable? Can you try the cable with another computer (like your laptop) connected to your router?

[RPeng]

Im new to the cli and rpi so when you say ping im not sure what you mean?

Im not connected to a router I'm using a network port as im in university accommodation. I will try the cable on my laptop tomorrow

[W. H. Heydt]

Im new to the cli and rpi so when you say ping im not sure what you mean?

Im not connected to a router I'm using a network port as im in university accommodation. I will try the cable on my laptop tomorrow

"ping" is a command you use at a command prompt. Do "ping yahoo.com" or "ping 8.8.8.8" and look at the results. On Windows, a ping will stop after 4 packets. On Linux, it won't. Use ctrl-C to stop pinging.

Actually...you are connected to a router. It just isn't *your* router. Depending on how it's set up, it is pretty likely that you could install a switch and have both the Pi and your laptop connected at the same time.

For a start, though, get and keep a spare Ethernet cable, be it CAT-5, CAT-5e, or CAT-6. For practical purposes, it is unlikely to matter. Having a spare will allow you to swap cables if you suspect a bad cable. At the very least, you can try switching which ends of your sole cable are connected to what. (That is, turn the cable end for end and reconnect.) That *may* make a difference. When I traveled on business and carried a laptop, I always had a couple of different lengths of CAT-5 cable tucked in the case.

Since you are in university housing, you might ask a fellow student if s/he has a spare Ethernet cable you can borrow for a few minutes. (If any of your fellow students are Engineering majors, and especially if they are EE majors, they are pretty likely to have spare bits of electrical or electronic equipment about.)

[B.Goode]

Im not connected to a router I'm using a network port as im in university accommodation. I will try the cable on my laptop tomorrow

Ask the IT or Network Support Help Desk of your University for assistance. If you are permitted to connect your own device to their network you will probably be entitled to help to do it. Maybe they have to enable the port in your room before it can be used, or perhaps your device has to be registered or authenticated.

I just booted up my rpi b+ and tried to get online by connecting my ethernet cable, I have no network lights coming on

Have you booted up the NOOBS Installer, or an Operating System such as Raspbian? Raspbian is configured to bring up an ethernet network connection by default - if you have no network lights it almost certainly means you do not have a working cable or wall port.

[DougieLawson]

"ping" is a command you use at a command prompt. Do "ping yahoo.com" or "ping 8.8.8.8" and look at the results. On Windows, a ping will stop after 4 packets. On Linux, it won't. Use ctrl-C to stop pinging.

Or use the count option (-c <number>)
ping -c 4 yahoo.com
ping -c 4 8.8.8.8

to stop after 4 pings.

[RPeng]

When we use an ethernet cable whichever website we use first it re-directs to a university login page. But nothing appears to load, also still no lights!

I'm off to get another cable and re-try, if not then i guess I should cut my losses and move onto getting a wipi?
Out of curiosity is there a way to verify this is not a hardware fault?

[DougieLawson]

Go and talk to your University Network HelpDesk.

[RPeng]

ok so firstly I apologise for wasting peoples time! But at least I've learned some useful stuff
but it turns out I have a broken port in my room after trying this in someone else's port, hopefully I won't have any more problems once that is fixed

thanks for your help!

[W. H. Heydt]

ok so firstly I apologise for wasting peoples time! But at least I've learned some useful stuff
but it turns out I have a broken port in my room after trying this in someone else's port, hopefully I won't have any more problems once that is fixed

thanks for your help!

Excellent! And...no time "wasted" since you learned some things. Plus, now you have some better ideas of how to approach future problems, so it's all good.

The valuable lesson here...isolate your problems, even if that means swapping bits around to eliminate those parts that *aren't* the problem.