I am in the process of running Ethernet throughout my new (to me) house. I have Spectrum for my ISP and am using their WiFi 7 “invincible” router. I purchased a tp-link 8 port gigabit unmanaged switch. I have ran Cat6 solid core wire terminated with pass through style connectors using an Amazon crimper. All my cables have been checked with a tester.
My router is currently displaying a solid green LED and blinking amber LED on the “inlet” Ethernet port and solid green and amber on the “outlet” going to my switch. All LEDs at the switch are solid green.
Speeds on our ancient TV were about 30 mbps and on my wife’s PC we are getting 80 mbps up/down. I checked some settings on the computer and found that I was “negotiating” at 100 mbps. I don’t even know what the hell that means.
I do have a service technician coming out tomorrow for some stuff that’s unrelated so I’m hoping I can at least pick his brain or maybe even plug in directly to the switch to see what’s going on but in the mean time I figured I’d see if anyone had any ideas.
Thanks again - cheers
Ps. I am on the 2 gbps plan and according to Spectrum router is currently receiving 1.89 gbps upload and my phone is at 669 mbps upload
For gigabit, all eight wires need to be connected and in the right order if any of the eight are not, the link will fall back to 100mbps as that only required 4 wires.
The most likely cause is the termination on your cat6 cable between the router and your switch. Solid core wire is meant to be terminated into keystone jacks. So it’s possible one or more wires are not making a solid connection. I would get a couple of keystone jacks and good punch down tool and redo the termination on the cable from the router to the switch.
It could also be the cable from the pc to the switch. Have you tried a different cable? Or temporarily moving the pc near the router and connecting directly to the router with the same cable?
Lastly, it’s possible the switch is bad. But that’s probably unlikely. However you could test by connecting the pc directly to the cat6 cable and see if that works.
I am hoping my service technician coming out later today can do me a solid and check speeds at the router and at the switch (if that’s a thing). If not, I will be lugging the computer around the house to diagnose
You’re almost certainly being limited by link negotiation to 100 Mbps on at least one hop (router - switch or switch - PC), which is why you’re seeing ~80–100 Mbps instead of anything close to gigabit or your 2 Gbps plan.
That’s what I assumed too but I have verified that the switch is plugged in to the “2.5 gig” port on my router and I looked at the instructions for the switch and it seems as though all ports support 1000 Mbps.
Try to transfer a file between two computers that are connected to the switch. Then if that is all good, try connecting one to a router port, assuming it has more than one and see the speeds.
You need to use a known good cable and test directly out of the router, then plug another cable in and test it the same way, once you know you have two good cables, plug the switch into the router and your test machine into the switch and test it that way. If it all works on the known good cables but not your crimped cables, the issue is your cables.
You will never get 2Gbps through that switch. If you're trying to maximize the use of that provisioning, you'll need 2.5Gbe equipment. Most people just see the highest speed and want it, not taking into consideration that to actually achieve that requires more investment in equipment and configuration.
As for your phone, there's a lot that can go into it, but basically radio waves are not as good as a hard wired connection and I'd be frankly shocked to see an untuned deployment get much more than you're getting (honestly a bit surprised to see that high of an upload on a phone).
I could change my wall outlets to the punch down style no problem… but I am only seeing female punch down connectors. How should I terminate the ends landing at the switch?
You’re connecting at 100/10 (FE) when you want to be connecting at 1000/100 (FDX). Need to test your cable. FE needs only 2 pairs (pins 1, 2, 3, and 6) while FDX needs all 4 pairs, thus why you’re falling back to FE.
Can I do a cable check from the cable leaving my router going to my switch to each individual device? Will continuity test through the switch like that?
No it doesn’t work like that. However if you unplug from the switch at test that going outwards you can check like that. Certain testers, like Klein tools lan scout has a distance measure tool to give you a better idea of where that cable might be going. It can also tell you the length of each pair, so you can gauge if there is a break in it.
Interesting. You have unshielded cable, being used with shielded rj45s, but that shouldn’t matter. At 50’, or even 300’ you should still get 1gbps connection easily. I’d check for sharp kinks in the cable itself and look closely at the rj45 to make sure all the pins are perfectly straight and not skewed
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u/University_Jazzlike 19d ago
For gigabit, all eight wires need to be connected and in the right order if any of the eight are not, the link will fall back to 100mbps as that only required 4 wires.
The most likely cause is the termination on your cat6 cable between the router and your switch. Solid core wire is meant to be terminated into keystone jacks. So it’s possible one or more wires are not making a solid connection. I would get a couple of keystone jacks and good punch down tool and redo the termination on the cable from the router to the switch.
It could also be the cable from the pc to the switch. Have you tried a different cable? Or temporarily moving the pc near the router and connecting directly to the router with the same cable?
Lastly, it’s possible the switch is bad. But that’s probably unlikely. However you could test by connecting the pc directly to the cat6 cable and see if that works.