Why is my cat5e cable not okay?

Solution 1:

If the cable seems okay, I'd suggest rebooting your computer and unplugging the router for a few seconds and plugging it back in, if you haven't already done that.

Some motherboards have network diagnostics built into the BIOS. Sometimes the diagnostics are even available via a utility installed along with the driver software. The diagnostics should be able to tell you if a pair is crossed, or if one or more wires are not making contact. Usually they can even tell you roughly how long the cable is.

If all else fails, double-check the cable again. Are you sure you got the wires far enough in? You should be able to look through the very end of the plug and see the shiny tips of the conductors flush with the plastic. If they're not all flush with the end of the connector, I'd try crimping on a new end. Also, if you didn't crimp them hard enough, it's possible the RJ45 connector's didn't pierce the individual wires' insulators and make contact.

When I make a cable, I give myself a little extra wire to work with when stripping off the outer jacket. Then I line up all the wires straight, in the correct order, trim them (leaving about 1/8" extra), and push them into the RJ45 connector. After that, I pull them back out and trim them down to the right size before finally pushing them into the RJ45 connector one last time and crimping the connector.

For a short cable, you can often get by with any wire order (and you should at least get a link), as long as both ends are the same. But FYI, the link you provided doesn't make it clear that the green and green/white wires straddle the blue and blue/white wires. In fact, I think the page you linked is trying to illustrate the EIA/TIA-56A spec, which is only used on one end when you're using a crossover cable. You want to use the EIA/TIA-56B pinout on both ends.

As for the indicator lights on your Ethernet card, they could mean different things. Sometimes the amber light just means you're transmitting, not necessarily that there was a collision. If the amber light is on solid, it could also mean that your connection is either maxed out (e.g., 1000Mbps if you have a gigabit card) or your connection has fallen back to a slower speed (e.g., yo have a 1000Mbps device on one end but only a 100Mbps or 10Mbps device on the other end).

Solution 2:

There must definitely be a problem with the cable, somewhere. Throw out the cable (don't know what part of the cable can be trusted) and get a new one, then carefully crimp both ends. And get a cable tester to check it.