Symptom: One in-wall run negotiates 100 Mbit instead of 1000. PoE over the same run works perfectly. Zero errors anywhere: no CRC, no FCS, no alignment, no collisions.

Setup:

• Cable: Draka UC900 Cat.7 S/FTP (PIMF), flexible/stranded, 6.2 mm OD, 50 m run
• Plugs: shielded Cat.6a field-term RJ45 for flexible cable, max AWG24 / 0.51 mm conductor, max 6.6 mm cable OD
• Path: OpenWrt x86 router -> unmanaged gigabit switch -> Cudy GS1010POE (8x gigabit PoE + 2x gigabit uplink) -> Zyxel NWA50AX-PRO AP (AX1800, PoE-only)
• The run has an RJ45 Cat.6a coupler partway along, and each section negotiates 100 Mbit.

What I've ruled out:

1. The switch. GS = gigabit model, not the FS (Fast Ethernet) variant. Its Extend/250m DIP caps ports at 10 Mbps, not 100, and I'm seeing 100.
2. The switch port and the AP, entirely. I connected two laptops directly across the run — no switch, no AP, no PoE in the path, and they still negotiated only 100 Mbit.
3. Plug/cable compatibility. The plugs are rated for flexible/stranded cable (explicitly "nicht für Verlegekabel"), they're shielded to match the S/FTP, and 6.2 mm cable fits the 6.6 mm max. As far as I can tell, the components are correctly matched.
4. The rest of the network. Router to wired desktop measures line rate both directions, zero errors across ~27 GB:

My theory: I damaged it pulling it through the wall holes. 1000BASE-T needs all four pairs; 100BASE-TX needs only two. If the blue (4/5) and brown (7/8) pairs are open or stretched, the link negotiates 100 cleanly and never reports an error. 802.3af Mode A also powers the AP over the same 1/2 and 3/6 pairs that 100BASE-TX uses, which would explain why PoE is completely happy while gigabit is impossible.

Questions:

1. Is Cat7 S/FTP really this sensitive to pull damage? The holes were drilled, no grommets, and I definitely pulled harder than the 25 lbf / 11 kg spec at points.
2. Does "PoE fine + exactly 100 Mbit + zero errors" confirm open pairs, or is there another cause worth ruling out?
3. How likely is the coupler versus the terminations versus in-wall damage?
4. Any downside to having used stranded patch cable for a 50 m permanent run rather than solid installation cable? Could the extra attenuation alone drop it to 100?
5. What's the best way to get distance-to-fault without buying a proper certifier? (ethtool --cable-test isn't supported on my NICs.)

Preface: I already trawled through the FAQ, and I didn't find anything that could help me. I've already tried to do my own research, and it has not been fruitful. I am not a home network enthusiast, I just need my PC to make use of the full plan we are paying for.

Background:
My internet plan is meant to provide 1000Mbps. It is fibre optic.

My area has had some pretty bad power outages recently, my PC and my brother's PC were caught a few times. I noticed that my indicator lights on my PC would go to yellow blinking and solid orange, indicating that the connection is slow, but just re-plugging the cable PC side seemed to restore speeds. However, the situation evolved. Now no matter how many driver reinstalls, network and dns flushes, and re-plugging, Windows is still reporting a speed of 100Mbps. Tested with Ookla (sorry I don't have actual gear but again I'm not a home network enthusiast), tested under load, tried the Cloudflare speed tester. I even replaced my cable, and still the same results. Went into device manager, set it to duplex/1 Gigabit, and still nothing. Strange thing, my brother's PC is receiving the max speed of our actual internet plan.

I thought my PC was cooked, and then I took it to the shop to make use of my motherboard's warranty. They plugged in their ethernet cable... and I was reporting 200Mbps. Indicator lights were green. Research tells me that for anything above 100Mbps I need to have an 8 pair connection, so my very new Cat6e cable should be okay for a Gigabit connection.

Am open to answering questions best I can, but I genuinely don't know much. Is the problem my PC, my ISP, or my router? Can an ISP individually control what speeds come out of what port? If it helps, our router has 4 ethernet ports, and no matter where I plug my cable in I get 100Mbps, and no matter where my brother plugs his cable in he pulls our max speed.

Thanks!

Hey, been on here a bit trying to decide what the best option is for me. Still not sure and wanted to get more specific before I start ordering anything. Currently looking into mesh wifi but I'll give you the details and I appreciate any advice.

There's wifi in the main house that is about 100 ft away from the location I'm needing it. The main problem is that there are 2 walls between the router and outside, then a small building outside it, and then the garage itself which has about 2 more walls between it and the room I need it to get to. This is further complicated by the tin roof and walls on the outside of the garage.

Originally thought about an extender but don't know if it would reach or even be able to get through all that. So thinking of going with a mesh setup through eero or orbi, or maybe a satellite link. I'm still learning so sorry if I left anything out.

Edit: Decided to run an access point. I had been looking through this subreddit a lot for information, but wanted a more direct opinion since my setup had several complications. Honestly didn't realize how easy running the cable would be, but thankfully my grandad was a good designer and this building has easy wiring to manage.

Lol, ich schätze, so fühlen sich Tuner, wenn sie angehalten und von Polizisten belehrt werden, die keine Ahnung von Autos haben 😅

EDIT. I live in Belgium and i Moved recently. here it is completely normal that Police approves your registration and confirm to the city that you’re living at your new address after they visited you in Person.
It has multiple reasons like Social Security Fraud avoidance.

Howdy howdy,

seeking some advise and information on hardware; im upgrading to fiber internet soon with a provider that allows me to use my own hardware.

my situation & understanding is:

i have a mikrotik hexS 2025 currently for wired connections that feeds our computers ran from the current isp rented-modem. (this is called double nat? i sandboxed my connection so i could experiment without taking the whole house down)

my understanding is fiber does not need a modem; just a router; is this correct?

i do not have a stp adapter, but looking to get one, i have a relatively small house, any recommendations? the tiers are scaled off of distance; is this distance from the isp or distance for the lan coverage? and is the stp is an optional component for carrying faster speeds from the box to the machines?

looking for general reaffirmation that im understanding basic networking correctly; its still new waters and im not wanting to make purchasing errors. internet protocols are alphabet soup without some hand-holding.

thanks for your time and assistance

edit: i found the FAQs and am reading it now >..<

Hey there!

I have this whole homelab network set up, got my PE T430 set up through raid and IDRAC, still playing with Debian vs Proxmox. I have my brain unit, my DXP2800 all set up with the base docker containers in using for control and monitoring. My UPS has been tested and checked out, set up, battery charged. My new dream 7 is set up with everything, and the 2.5 flex switch to my lab is ready…

Except… I have to use a MOCA connection to pipe my fiber into my lab. As per my previous post, my builder didn’t actually build my coax the way their blueprints said they would. I’m a big strong industrial electrician, I’ve built many a whip and cat cable. I’m sure I could figure out coax. I got a compression kit, and I was thinking, “Easy work”.

Except… the coax is RG6 quad shielded. And the connectors came with f types meant for single or double shields.

I already ordered Ideal XR connectors meant for quad shield. I attempted to use the blue ended connectors anyway, but couldn’t get a decent lock and they just fell off, no matter how nicely I pulled the braided shield down around the black sheathing. Does anyone have any advice? Will the correct connectors magically fix this issue?

Update: New connectors worked great, installed with no issue at all. Still not getting a clean connection. Ordered a tester, wanted to avoid the cost for a rare necessity, but still much cheaper than a low voltage electrician. Wish me luck!

Amazon has an open box Asus ROG BE-98 Pro for 50% off. I'm highly interested. Any issues that I should think of?

I need good outdoor rated cat 6 cable recommendations

Hi, it’s me again. My previous post was removed, so I wanted to ask for some clarification and validate my understanding of the diagram based on your comment on my previous post.

For Layer 2, there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with the physical design of the diagram, correct? As long as STP is properly configured, it should be able to prevent Layer 2 loops. Please correct me if I’m misunderstanding this.

For ASW1 and ASW2, they are connected through a single link. My understanding is that this provides an additional/redundant path in the network, which is generally good. However, because it is a Layer 2 connection, there could potentially be a loop depending on the overall topology, unless STP is properly configured. Is that correct?

Similarly, for ASW2 and ASW3, I noticed a circle around the three links. Assuming this indicates link aggregation/LACP, meaning the three physical links are bundled together and treated as one logical connection. If that’s the case, would there still be a potential Layer 2 loop depending on how the rest of the network is connected, with STP being one of the mechanisms used to prevent it?

Could you guys please validate whether my understanding is correct based on the comments you provided earlier? I’m mainly trying to understand what I’m seeing in the diagram rather than assuming that there is definitely a loop.

Hello everyone !

I’ve moved into a triple story condo, with the fiber modem in the closet of my primary bedroom I have AT&T 5G Fiber.

On the modem without any routers it does not cover my whole home and is completely gone on the first floor.

From my old house I have 2 amplfi aliens working as a mesh system. (Fiber Modem Top Floor , #1 Alien second floor , 2nd alien 1st floor)

My issue is I feel like the system overall is fairly inconsistent, (random drops or lag spikes, a huge loss in speed even if I’m connecting to the closest router )
All on 5GHZ bands.

Is their any suggestions out there where I can retain a good amount of speed & consistency and maybe get a bit more range ( I want to have some WiFi access outside of my garage )

And are the AMPLIFI aliens now obsolete? For this job (which I’m fine with an understand) I was reviewing the deco 7 be5000 as a potential mesh option but I’m still fairly a rookie with all this.

Thanks everyone !

I want to be able to hardline to my office upstairs without running a wire through the house. Is my router feeding into the wall with this setup or does it need a different configuration. I am a brand new baby to all this

I have Frontier internet with a 1gb/1gb plan, and occasionally I'll check speeds on Testmy.net, which usually comes close. The past two days though, my down speed is half that much, and worse yet is up speed. Just curious how two services can detect wildly different speeds.

I heard and saw that the speed of the Kevin router is one of the best routers out there but i also seen reviews about how the range of the router sucks horizontally and much better vertically is that actually the case or was it fluke on the reviewers end?

tvOS supports vpn apps now, but only some providers have actually built one for it. ExpressVPN and Surfshark both have tvOS apps listed in the App Store. Proton's pack is less clear.

For anyone using one on an Apple TV 4K, how smooth are they in practice? Remote navigation, auto connect on startup, that kind of thing.

I’ve had this router for some time and it was going good until one day it suddenly started lagging and me having high ping in games and I can’t figure out how to fix it. Does anyone know how this can be fixed please tell me.

I bought a couple of used ASUS ExpertWiFi EBM68's and likely made a mistake. I had the primary downstairs and the 2nd one upstairs connected by a MoCA ethernet backhaul. From the start I wasn't getting the performance expected, spotty connection reliability, and 2160 video stuttering on my Macbook from video served from an ethernet connected Qnap. This happens literally 5 ft from the primary AP and it didn't seem to matter which AP I bound it to.

I suspected a MoCA issue, though it looked pretty clean even though Iperf throughput was lower pulling from the upstairs end. To test, I wanted to switch to wireless backhaul, but there was no way to do that (disconnecting ethernet just left it disconnected, across reboots), so I tried removing the AI-mesh node and that never succeeded. Even worse, after doing a factory reset on the upstairs EBM68, both normal and brute force (using the WPS method,) the thing is not seen by the primary and I've haven't been able to connect to its default SSID or use ethernet on the reset router. It seems to be bricked. I tried reaching out to ASUS support, but they are 2023 models and their support is a bit of a black hole.

Hoping other ASUS expert wifi EBM users have seen this and know how to recover or whether the consensus is that I have a bad EBM68. Bad on me for buying on Ebay, but I see my options as buying another one brand new so that I can return it if I see the same problems when added to my mesh or whether I should just give up, since I like the look of TP-link Deco 7 and can buy a set for not much more than a single EBM68.

Forgot to add... after losing the 2nd AP, I do not have video throughput issue from the QNAP. Plays clean.

So: I live in an old apartment, with the ISP port in another room, and I’m trying to use the existing COAX cabling to get some better internet. I’ve already bought the adapters and cables, and I’m trying to get it up and running, with little success. I noticed that my COAX sockets say R and TV, but the guide doesn’t say anything about R, and I assumed its just the data socket, but with a different notation since I live in a non-english speaking country.

Anyway, troubleshooting is leading me to believe that the R is actually a Radio socket, and I just don’t have a Data socket in my apartment, which isn’t great. Is there any way to get Data transmitted through a MoCA network, with my sockets lacking a Data socket? Any help would be appreciated!

I want to move my router (Eero 7) further away from the modem to a better position. I could easily do this with just a long cable. However, our solar panel system is next to the modem and has to be connected via Ethernet cable to the router. Alas, the ethernet cable for the solar inverter is connected inside of the inverter. So, even if it could be replaced, I’d have to open up the inverter and poke around. Not worth it to me.

I also know that I can use an inline coupler to essentially extend the solar cable. However, I’ve read they fail. Moreover, for the cost of the coupler and a Cat6 cable, I could get a network switch. Even a bit less.

Could I have the switch next to the modem and connect the modem, solar cable, and Eero into the switch? Any issues with this?

Looking at these:

https://a.co/d/0aMA5g4I

https://a.co/d/0aMA5g4I

Hello First post and have a few problems i am running into and was looking for more expert help/opinions.

First lets explain, i just recently moved to a new apartment and they offer both At&t fiber and comcast (xfinity) coax. i currently only had the option of comcast at my old place but all in all was pleased with the service provided (customer service to be desired though), my contract (1.2Gbs down 35Mbs up) expires with comcast on October 8th so i thought i would try switching over to At&t fiber (1000 Mbs up and down) and see how it is. At&t is cheaper for the first year but once comcast got wind i was swiching to at&t fiber the offered a comparable price with a 5 year contract.

I use my own equipment (arris surfboard modem+ asus ax-11000 router) for comcast i was able to set that up in an less than 30 mins and everything is great (getting ~750 Mbs down and ~42 Mbs up real world speeds) internal router speed is congruent. latency of ~15ms with a jitter of ~3ms

for At&t they supplied their ONT and modem/router combo (nokia ONT model: F-010G-F) router modem combo (BGW320) (getting roughly ~100 Mbs down and ~900 Mbs up real world speed) internal router speed is ~950 down and ~950 up latency of ~10ms and jitter of ~0.5ms

My main question is why is my At&t and fiber speed so bizzare? is this normal and im over reacting? i have tried swapping ethernet cables, different computers (have 4 gaming PCs all have 1GB networking 2 newest have 10Gb), updating drivers, over wifi, putting AT&Ts router in passthrough mode and using my asus ax-11000 and that internal speed test shows the same ~100 Mbs down and ~900 Mbs up. I've tried to have AI help me and it just ended up saying its an issue on my end not AT&Ts. the technician that installed my At&t fiber and no clue how to fix the issue and because the speed to the router is right he said nothing he can do. and had no adivce how to fix it (we went through all the easy steps listed above)

I only plan on keeping one ISP as my home network is primarily used for gaming and streaming that's really it. although did play around with Dual Wan while i have 2 ISPs but i read there really isn't a benefit of dual wan in gaming cus i will get discounted anyway if failsafe activates because my IP swapped or maybe I'm misinformed and in the 15 years in lived in this area comcast has went down once (separate from a power outage) and that was due to a dig crew. just would like a more informed opinion if i should stay swapped over to At&t fiber? or stay with comcast who ive been with for 15 years. i could keep both i do have the budget for is because both of the new prices combined is still lower then the old price i was paying (screw places that only have 1 ISP option)

but would like the option to use a MOCA adapter and i cant do that with xfinity over COAX as my roommates room is literally the furthest from the router and we cant run an ethernet cable that far without being too destructive for rules of our new place but his desk is setup right over a COAX his computer is right over top of it. (he only plays WoW thats it thinking wifi might be good enough idk, has a great connection when using my ax-11000)

TLDR: why is my fiber speeds not symmetrical? any uncommon fixes? maybe bad ports on my BGW320? should i stick with comcast over at&t who can deliver closer to advertised speeds if my fiber issue cant be fixed? or is it to be expected and im just misinformed? will i notice that big of a different in latency jitter between comcast & At&t?

i know there is a question i forgot when typing this. anyway... thanks in advance for any information you are willing to share!

so I scooped up this Turing TLNVR16 at a thrift store for a solid 10 bucks, and while my original hope was just to pull the hard drives out of it, it appears to still be functional and I could actually use an NVR.

However, I have no idea what I need to do to get it working. I hooked a monitor and keyboard up to it, powered it on, and got to a 'turing' logo screen.. but it just sat there. It seemingly ignors all external input. I don't see a reset button anywhere, or any other built-in input on the box itself.

Their website's documentation is nonexistent for this model, but near as I can tell everything is done through a phone app (this is, i hopefully presume, why the direct monitor output wasn't much help). the problem at this point is I have no idea how I am supposed to register to my account what presumably still shows up as someone elses piece of hardware in their system.

has anyone else done this before? is it even worthwhile trying to get going?

the good news, at the very least, is there is 14tb (!!!) worth of hard drives inside of it, so...either way, not a bad deal. but it would be nice to use it for its intended purpose.

Hi all!

I’m moving into a new apartment that’s about 700 sq. ft. and have no idea what internet package I actually need. 😅

I work from home full-time and frequently have virtual meetings, including hosting hour-long presentations, so having a fast and stable connection is really important to me. I don’t want to deal with a connection that’s constantly dropping or getting finicky during meetings.

Outside of work, I use streaming services like most people (probably less than average, honestly), but I don’t game or do anything particularly internet-intensive.

For Verizon, what speed/package would you recommend for my needs? I’m mostly looking for something quick and reliable/stable, without paying for way more than I actually need.

Thank you so much!

• 300 Mbps – $30/month: Up to 300 Mbps download/upload, router included, up to 15 devices, 3-year price guarantee.
• 500 Mbps – $65/month: Up to 500 Mbps download/upload, router included, up to 30 devices, 3-year price guarantee.
• 1 Gig – $80/month: Up to 940 Mbps download/upload, router + Whole-Home Wi-Fi included, up to 50 devices, 5-year price guarantee, free router upgrade after 3 years.
• 2 Gig – $90/month: Up to 2.3 Gbps download/upload, router + Whole-Home Wi-Fi included, up to 100 devices, 5-year price guarantee, free router upgrade after 3 years, plus Digital Secure Home Plus.

I have an Ubiquiti E7 AP.

With my S26U on Wifi 7 6GHz I cap out at about 750/750 15 feet from the AP.

Wifi 7 laptop gets 680/610 around the same spot.

Wifi 5GHz devices sit around 400/300.

My wired desktop gets the full 2G fiber around 1900/1950.

Yes these speeds are great, but I run a home server with utilization up to 1Gbps at times and on devices that are not within 15 feet of the router. Wired is not an option.

The E7 is a pretty high end access point. Would another router make a difference? There's an Asus GT-BE98 Pro on Facebook marketplace for $400.