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would there be any degredation in using a 35ft ethernet cable to connect my xbox to my router?

No

sweet feet.

200 foot would still be better and faster and more reliable that wifi.

i use ethernet........try using a duo dlan box.......uses the wiring loom in the house as a carrier for the broadband....even works in the office i put in the garage.
Just plug the receiver plug into any socket around the house...dead quick too..

i used to use home plugs at the rents

Oh cock. The router/modem only has 1 ethernet port, which is for the pc. Fuck.  >:(

Get a new router...

Or a cheap hub/switch

Cheers for the advice. Batch, I'm assuming the hub you're talking about is an ethernet hub? Would I plug the router straight into the ethernet hub, then run the pc and xbox out of that? Do you know the best one to get?

You are correct, router into hub, PC and Xbox into hub. Everything should be able to see everything else then!

I don't have any recommendations. The disadvantage is that you need a spare power socket to power the hub, and that you'd then have two "boxes" instead of one.

A cheapo one is here (£10 delivered):

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/5-Port-10-100-Fast-Ethernet-Switch-Hub-Network-LAN-RJ45_W0QQitemZ400020147137QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_NetworkSwitches_RL?hash=item400020147137&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1300|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318

Then again a new router with integrated hub can be got for £20-£35 quid. Up to you really..

http://www.overclock.co.uk/product/Edimax-ES-3105P-5-Port-10100-Ethernet-Switch_1487.html

£7.99 for a 5 port switch.

Yeah either will do I guess, both are technically switches so it's all good. I'd go with overclockers, because ebay is, erm, ebay.

Yeah I agree Batch...Ebay is great for some things but to use a reputable company with come backs if there is a fault is recommended, but TBH either really is fine, I posted that before I saw Mr Batch's post.

Or as batch says and spend a few quid more...around £25 and get the wifi/5 port hub ADSL2+ in one go, which is the better option.

Cheers for the advice gents! Not sure what I'm gonna do... a new router would be ideal but I've been told virgin is a bit tempramental when it comes to using a non-OEM router. Hmmmmm

I setup Luci's ok, you just have to make sure you get a cable router modem not the one for adsl.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132429#

Yer ya go, £19.99 wireless DSL 4 port should do ya.

That doesn't have a cable modem does it?

No it doesn't, but it allows you to plug the virgin media modem into it

Is it (the existing solution) just a modem then? Never seen one of their boxes, assumed it was a modem/router and so a switch would be cheaper.

i have a spare netgear router somewhere if youre interested leggett?

When I used to work in cabling we'd never recomemnd cat 5 over 20ft or so.

All depends on the run.

Jj, my sisters fella emailed her that very link earlier, so I've gone with that. Thanks chief :)

Not being clued up on such things, why?

I'd have thought that even with some interference/signal degradation, the cable route is still going to be more stable than a wireless connection and unless you're using 802.11n, faster than the most stable WiFi.

Of course that's not to say you're wrong, I'm just curious because I'm a geek and I like to know such trivial things.

Its just the data travel. Copper is more reliable than wireless obviously, but over such distance we've always advised fibre in cases over 25ft or so. Obviously not in a domestic sense, but i have known cat5 cables over a certain length to often fail after a few weeks. Most cat 5 pre-cabled are no longer sold over 5m nowadays. Very rare to get 15m especially.

My mate just got a reel of cat5 cable and the rj45 connectors straight on from Maplin (I think it was actually PC World but I have no idea if they still do this) and never had any problems.

you can buy reels of the stuff to make up you own cables, it would probably be fine domestically as it wouldn't carry much data. Its just a little slower over longer distances.

I thought the standards say 10BaseT/100BaseT should be good up to 100m using cat 5. So I'm  a bit confused by Sippo too, though I am not saying he is wrong.

You can use any length you want. In the past we've 'recommended' to people over a certain length that the speed/reliability of the cable will be more noticeable the longer you go. It also depends on the 'run' as said before. Copper can go around bends, 90 degree corners etc but the cable is likely to get damaged more...

Also the data can't go as far if it's uphill.

I was taught at Uni that never exceed 100m on cat5 as there will be data loss but I have installed 50+m with no problems at all and that was in a workplace carrying tons of data from a PC to 4 serial Xerox 4135 high speed high volume spool printers and also carrying network data too.

Hence uploads are slow, dowloads are fast.

:)

You have to straighten the cables out occassionally. Digital data is in 0s and 1s and the ones can't always get around tight corners.

Surely ones are skinnier and more nimble than zeroes? I'll check the cat5 cable specifications in a minute to be sure.

They get stuck at corners though.