lonnnnnnnng usb cables plz help

[JimmyBoy]

just wondered where i can order a nice lengthy usb cable until i can get enough money for router, network cards etc, basically,, my cable modem is downstairs, i want to use it on the upstairs pc in my room, i'll need 15 - 20 m of cable im guessing which ive found can be bought but im not sure wat type, male female, i have no idea, basically the modem is a terayon tj210 (if n e 1 else has this modem, i think a fair few will who have broadband via ntl) the end that connects to the modem is quite big, n e ideas wat it is where i can get the lead etc etc

any help would be a massive thing for me. cheers guys

[iMc]

i think its bad to go over 10m woth USB cables as the signal can deteriorate a lot. this doesnt happen with ethernet cables. wish i cud remember where i read this to back it up.

ive had a quick look and i cant find any 10-20m usb cables, most likely bcus of my above point. i dnnoif u can get siganl boosters or the like.

[Jiff Lemon]

Can the modem not run from Cat5 as well as USB? The ntl ones I've had to deal with can. Cat5 can go for some silly lengths before signal loss.

[5cupa]

u can get 15m usb from egay. but personnally any thing over 10m is gonna be prone to corruption

[Alex]

well why not get 2 10m cables, and have a powered hub connecting them? or would this still not work? a powered hub is only a few punds from ebuyer...

[Dr. X]

Am I correct in thinking that a powered USB hub will only be useful if it has a built in repeater or similar device? The aim of the USB hub is normally to give the devices enough power, I'm not sure whther many have a repeater function as well.

Also worth noting is that most peripherals demand USB cable of under 1.5m, my scanner wouldn't work with a 2m one, so I wouldn't be too hopeful about covering that osrt of distance too well.

Good luck.

[directhex]

the USB specification has a maximum of about 5m iirc - hence belkin don't make cables over 5m

you CAN use any old powered hub to extend the distance, but cables longer than 5m break spec & may not give sufficient signal for devices to work.

CAT5 has a maximum distance of 100m between switches/hubs/repeaters.

[Rave]

The problem is that you get timing errors over long runs of USB, so you can't get round the problem by using high quality cables. Cat5 would be your best option if that's possible.

Rich :¬)

[JimmyBoy]

mm, yer but basically i wanted a cheap way of gettin online upstairs
creating a simple network will require downstairs pc to be on to get online so id need a router aswell, but cant afford just yet, so having to wait it seems then thanx 4 the response guys