Originally Posted by DaveyC
You are correct in that a good Ethernet cable will transmit the Ethernet signal without data errors. In fact, with the help of TCPIP, it will do that all day, every day, year after year, as long as you don't try to use too long a length of cable.
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This is the key point: all can appear entirely well from a data integrity point of view, as error correction will mask the inevitable distortion of the analogue sine waves that I descried above. This distortion is an unavoidable fact, driven by how an electromagnetic signal interacts with a conductor.
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This is factually incorrect. Whilst TCP/IP does allow for error correction;

1. TCP/IP is used only used for some communication, notibly it is NOT used for Sooloos audio data communication except for very coarse integrity checking.

2. IP networking has error detection built in for other types of communication and this statistic is available at NIC level.

3. Lengths of cable are part of specification so gigabit over CAT5e/6 is good for 100m ish.

If your NIC on PC or Switch supports it, check out its error count. If it's anything other than 0 errors, something is broken with the network. Providing all parts of the network are built using in spec components, and the network is designed to be in spec, the network will be verifiably error free, TCP/IP error correction or not.

Meridian owner since 1992
Prime & PSU, Focal Elear headphones, Roon (ROCK 8Gi5 NUC), Explorer 1 & 2, F80. 200/203, various Sonos (via Roon).