The Ethernet range of a router is determined by its wireless capabilities and signal transmission distance.
The Ethernet range of a router is determined by its wireless capabilities and signal transmission distance.
Looking up online information about Ethernet shows typical ranges around 100 meters for standard cables and 55 meters with Cat6 when speeds exceed 1Gbps. In your situation, you're using 800Mbps and connecting over 60 meters, which is within the usual limits. Your friend mentioned a maximum of 15 meters, but that seems to be an outdated or specific case. You can boost signals using repeaters or extenders, and measuring distance capacity usually involves testing with a signal strength meter or using built-in router diagnostics.
These Ethernet standards set a uniform maximum of 100Mbps. All devices will function identically under these constraints. Your connections will operate at 100m/1Gb rates only. If your ISP provides an 800m link, it will effectively run at 1Gb speed.
The Ethernet specification sets the upper limit for distance: 100 meters or 55 meters for 10 Gbps on cat6, assuming the cable is of good quality and supports the required bandwidth. High-quality cables with solid copper wires can meet these demands without issues. CCA (copper clad aluminum) cables are more affordable but have inferior performance since aluminum conducts less efficiently. This leads to signal loss over distance, potentially causing data errors and requiring retransmission by network devices. Such interruptions may cause speed drops, delays, and packet losses—especially in UDP-based applications like online gaming or video streaming, where minor errors are often tolerable.
Historically, the 1 Gbps standard was developed decades ago when network chips were less advanced. Today’s processors handle more complex tasks and signal processing better than older hardware. Modern network cards can interpret weaker signals effectively, sometimes as low as 75% quality, whereas earlier cards struggled with such conditions.
For short distances, CCA cables perform well—around 30 meters of full copper may offer near-perfect performance, while CCA cables might drop to about 90%. At 60 meters, a CCA cable could start to weaken the signal enough to cause occasional corruption. A practical fix is to turn off power-saving modes on network cards, ensuring they operate at maximum power for clearer transmission.
Because current network cards are more capable at decoding weaker signals, they can often maintain performance even with lower-quality cables, making them a smarter choice for longer runs.
You're absolutely correct about the cable being 100% copper and intended for this purpose. It should perform well without interference from the router, just the cable itself. Thanks for asking!
I understand, I wasn't sure how to put it. Let me try rephrasing: I'm planning to install cables between these two routers (an AX73 and a C6) that are 60 meters apart. A friend suggested the cable might handle clean signals up to 100 meters, but my routers can't send the signal that distance. I've never encountered anything about this before, so I'm looking for answers on this forum. He mentioned it could be related to the voltage of the routers, implying they might not be powerful enough. Since I haven't built a network like this before, I'm unsure. It seems like he might be sharing inaccurate information—he's probably used to working with lower-quality CCA cables (not my setup), thinking 15 meters is a limit. We're both self-taught, so maybe he's spreading misinformation.