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A technical question: Is the flat ethernet cable supplied with Sonos equipment "twisted pair" like traditional (round) ethernet cable?
Hi Jakob, 



it is indeed. Just flat :-) 



Regards, 



Daniel H. 
I used this cable to plug in my Apple TV to a gigabit ethernet switch, noticed that the connection was throttling at 35-40Mbps . I then switched to my 5GHz wireless network and sure enough the speed jumped up to 250Mbps+, I have blazing fast internet speed to today's standards in the US sadly, but good for me.



But I was disappointed my speed has been throttling.



How can I find out if this cable can handle 250Mbps or so? Or is there an issue with my Gigabit switch?
Wherever the issue is, it will NOT be with the cable, it is as good as any other ethernet cable, functionally. The only problem I have found with it is the tendency it seems to have to fail. I have had two failing on me in 6 years , while none of the round type ever have. But when it does fail, it will be a total failure, not a throttling down.
I'll still try another cable as I don't want to assume it's not defective without testing another.
Of course; the point I am making is that if it is defective, it won't work at all. And if it does work, it will work as well as any round one.
Ethernet cables don't necessarily behave in an atomic manner as you describe. I'll report back with updated findings.
I would be interested in learning if the supplied by Sonos cable, if in working condition, can ever adversely affect streaming music, or video of any definition, in a manner that can be heard or seen.
Does the Apple TV allow for port config changes?

Out of interest, what is the CAT rating of the flat cable?
I believe I found the root cause behind the throttling. "Also, rather amusingly, the new Apple TV still lacks gigabit ethernet. Whilst the internal WiFi has been upgraded to 802.11ac, the internal Ethernet is unchanged and maxes out at 100 megabits."





https://9to5mac.com/2015/09/09/new-apple-tv-has-2-gb-ram-included-802-11ac-wifi-is-faster-than-its-ethernet-port/
That doesn't explain why you're not even getting half of that though.??
Theoretical throughput maxes at 100Mbps, according to the speed test I ran, I was getting 35-40Mbps actual throughput. At any rate, I'm compartmentalizing and moving on as ethernet is out of the question with the Apple TV. It's going to have to be 5GHz.
A dodgy cable will quite possibly yield widely varying ping test results, if not complete failures, particularly if the cable is flexed during the test.



Also don't rule out the RJ45 couplings. Pull and re-seat the plugs a few times to clean the mating surfaces.
Theoretical throughput maxes at 100Mbps, according to the speed test I ran, I was getting 35-40Mbps actual throughput. At any rate, I'm compartmentalizing and moving on as ethernet is out of the question with the Apple TV. It's going to have to be 5GHz.



With cable, there is no real "actual throughput", you get 100Mbit, period. Any discrepancies is on the communicating parties that can't keep up with that.



Flaky transmission on ethernet cables are mostly due to mismatch in duplex and/or negotiated speed (using auto in one end, and a configured port speed in the other), but that usually have worse result than 30-40% (more like 2-3%). Do note that sometimes auto-negotiation fails, unplugging and replugging then usually fixes it.
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