# Gigabit port running at 100mbps



## -Spanky- (Aug 10, 2009)

I got a gigabit switch the other day and I'm just now playing around with it and so far everything is good to go except my main computer that is running at 100mbps in the "Local Area Connection Status". It's the onboard 8111c from Realtek. I'm running CAT5e cables and I tried messing with the settings such as jumbo frame and whatnot and nothing changes it to 1gbps. This is so annoying cuz I rarely hit 10mbps when transferring files. I COULD try another cable but I know I don't have one as long as I need for my desktop. Any suggestions?


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## Vagike (Aug 10, 2009)

there is a setting I think called 'Flowrate' in the hardware setting that allows you to hard code the speed in. Also try getting the lastest driver for the NIC from Gigabyte, just in case.

what model router did you buy? there are no other network switches or hubs between you and the router?


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## Pinchy (Aug 10, 2009)

My advice would be to buy some CAT6 cable and try that, unless its too hard.

I had the same problem a while back, gigabit router --> gigabit switch --> computer. The cable (CAT5e) was older and caused it to only come up as 100mbit. Installed some CAT6 and it was sweet.


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## Bot (Aug 10, 2009)

the setting in the nic's properties is "auto negotiate".
did you install the driver, right driver?
did you try a different port on the switch?


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## MadClown (Aug 10, 2009)

I dont think cat 5e can do gigabit can it?  Try cat 6


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## newtekie1 (Aug 10, 2009)

MadClown said:


> I dont think cat 5e can do gigabit can it?  Try cat 6



Good quality Cat5e can do Gigabit, however the cheap stuff can not, and the longer the cable the less likely Cat5e will handle gigabit.  I've gotten Gigabit running on Cat5 over very short cables(~3ft), but the speeds were not that much better than 100Mbit due to large amounts of packet loss.


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## -Spanky- (Aug 10, 2009)

Yea, I've come to the conclusion that it's the cable for my main computer. I looked and I don't have any long enough to test this theory. Is there a good online cheap place where I can get pre-made cat6 cables? At this point I'm not knowledgeable enough to buy a box of it and make my own.


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## Pinchy (Aug 10, 2009)

CAT5e is capable for _almost_ full gigabit speed, but as with everything it depends on the quality of the cable.

CAT6 is capable of 10 gbit iirc, as it runs on a 200mhz frequency as opposed to the CAT5e's 100mhz. Therefore, cat6 is your best bet.

EDIT: you in the usa? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...PA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=cat6&x=0&y=0


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## -Spanky- (Aug 10, 2009)

Pinchy said:


> CAT5e is capable for _almost_ full gigabit speed, but as with everything it depends on the quality of the cable.
> 
> CAT6 is capable of 10 gbit iirc, as it runs on a 200mhz frequency as opposed to the CAT5e's 100mhz. Therefore, cat6 is your best bet.



Speaking of mhz, I saw I have like a 1-2 foot CAT5e that runs 350mhz... Is that only because of it's short length?


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## Pinchy (Aug 10, 2009)

-Spanky- said:


> Speaking of mhz, I saw I have like a 1-2 foot CAT5e that runs 350mhz... Is that only because of it's short length?



No idea. I think the standard cat5 cable is 100 tho, so it may have been a typo?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable

check out the bottom.

Maybe its overclocked


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## -Spanky- (Aug 10, 2009)

Overclocked cables  Alright well thanks for the info everyone, maybe it's time to buy a box of cat6 cable and start making my own, I briefly looked them up and they don't seem too hard. Can someone recommend a cheap place to buy a box of cat6 and the connectors and stuff needed? Thanks.


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## Bot (Aug 10, 2009)

cat5 will not do 1 gig, cat5e will do 1 gig but make sure it's UL cert for QA and it runs on 350mhz, cat6 will do 1 gig and runs at 500mhz. cat6 has much better shielding then cat5e and will be less susceptible to interference.


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## Vagike (Aug 10, 2009)

Bot said:


> cat5 will not do 1 gig, cat5e will do 1 gig but make sure it's UL cert for QA and it runs on 350mhz, cat6 will do 1 gig and runs at 500mhz. cat6 has much better shielding then cat5e and will be less susceptible to interference.



Cat5e has no shielding


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## Vagike (Aug 10, 2009)

-Spanky- said:


> Overclocked cables  Alright well thanks for the info everyone, maybe it's time to buy a box of cat6 cable and start making my own, I briefly looked them up and they don't seem too hard. Can someone recommend a cheap place to buy a box of cat6 and the connectors and stuff needed? Thanks.



if you want cheap you probably have to buy mega-bulk (ie 1000ft), then you need to buy plugs, and the crimp tool.

if all you need is one or two cable, go buy pre-molded cable.

15ft of Cat6 patch cable is ~$16 CDN at my local retailer, and ~$10CDN for 15ft of Cat5E patch cable.


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## mcloughj (Aug 10, 2009)

this might be relevant.

I have a NAS (TS-209) and a gigabit router (dir-655) and the nas will only run at 100mbits because all the other devices attached to the router have to also run gigabit connections (which is currently not the case - wife's old pc causing the problem).

just connect the two and see what happens.


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## Vagike (Aug 10, 2009)

mcloughj said:


> this might be relevant.
> 
> I have a NAS (TS-209) and a gigabit router (dir-655) and the nas will only run at 100mbits because all the other devices attached to the router have to also run gigabit connections (which is currently not the case - wife's old pc causing the problem).
> 
> just connect the two and see what happens.



Hmm that is possible.... but also sound like that could be corrected with a firmware update.


I just did some pulls on my Gigabit network by moving some data. I moved a 6.5GB ISO and was averaging 650-700 Mbps (65-70MB/sec). one system has a 1TB 7200.12, and the other has a RAID 5 of 4-500Gb 7200.11. I'm obvious maxing something out.


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## Kynes (Aug 10, 2009)

Vagike said:


> Cat5e has no shielding



That's not really true, you have Cat5E UTP, STP and FTP cable. If it's STP or FTP, you can have gigabit networks over Cat5E without too much problems.


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## Mussels (Aug 10, 2009)

common misconceptions:

Cat5e is rated 1Gbit for 100 Meters.
Cat 6 is rated 10Gbit for 100 meters - or cat 1Gb for 250 Meters


I learned me a book when i did my course.


Please dont get your numbers confused - 100Mb (Megabit) transfers at 12.5MB (MegaBytes) - 10MB/s isnt uncommon on 100Mb networks


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## Vagike (Aug 10, 2009)

Mussels said:


> common misconceptions:
> 
> Cat5e is rated 1Gbit for 100 Meters.
> Cat 6 is rated 10Gbit for 100 meters - or cat 1Gb for 250 Meters
> ...



learn something new everyday.


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## Mussels (Aug 10, 2009)

since vagike posted, i'll make a new post instead of an edit 


You uhh, dont say what you're connecting to - you're going to need a switch our router with gigabit ports for this to work.


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## Vagike (Aug 10, 2009)

Mussels said:


> Please dont get your numbers confused - 100Mb (Megabit) transfers at 12.5MB (MegaBytes) - 10MB/s isnt uncommon on 100Mb networks



I think that is a common miss-conception when people read network transfer ratings.


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## Mussels (Aug 10, 2009)

Vagike said:


> I think that is a common miss-conception when people read network transfer ratings.



its far more than common. its... daily life as a network techie.


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## Deleted member 3 (Aug 10, 2009)

Vagike said:


> Cat5e has no shielding



It can, cat has nothing to do with shielding or not. UTP means Unshielded Twisted Pair, most network cables you'll come across are UTP. Though there is STP (Shielded) and FTP (Foiled). 

CAT 5e UTP does gigabit easily at short distances, I'd say bad cable. Gigabit requires all 8 wires in the cable while fast ethernet uses only 4, it could be that one of the wires isn't connected right. Try a different, preferably molded cable, if that fails there probably is another issue. You could boot from a PE CD or some Linux Live distro to see if that works correctly, if so there is a software issue.


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## Vagike (Aug 10, 2009)

Oh i guess it might be helpful to mention i'm running a D-Link DGL-4500


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## Mussels (Aug 10, 2009)

well its certainly gigabit - at this stage, i suggest unplugging the router and bringing it near the PC - see if a short cable works at 1000Mb.

if it does, your other cable is stuffed. If it doesnt, you have a software issue, or a bad network card.


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## Vagike (Aug 10, 2009)

Mussels said:


> or a bad network card.



His is onboard


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## Deleted member 3 (Aug 10, 2009)

Vagike said:


> His is onboard



So? If it's not working properly you can just insert a PCI(e) one. You don't even have to disable the onboard card. Though it might help prevent confusion 
I'm still guessing cable though.


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## Mussels (Aug 10, 2009)

cable is most likely - but i have had cards go bad on me like that before (very rare tho)


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## FordGT90Concept (Aug 10, 2009)

If it has already been said already, sorry, but some routers and switches operate at the speed of the slowest connected device.  For example, if you have a 100 and 1000 megabit device plugged into some gigabit switches, the switch will drop to 100 megabit operations for all connected devices.

Try disconnecting all non-gigabit devices to see if that is the issue.


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## Mussels (Aug 10, 2009)

I've never encountered a device that switches all ports to the lowest common denominator, nor heard of one til now.

A a device that does that would be considered faulty, to me.


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## Kynes (Aug 10, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> If it has already been said already, sorry, but some routers and switches operate at the speed of the slowest connected device.  For example, if you have a 100 and 1000 megabit device plugged into some gigabit switches, the switch will drop to 100 megabit operations for all connected devices.
> 
> Try disconnecting all non-gigabit devices to see if that is the issue.



A hub does that, a switch not, AFAIK


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## Mussels (Aug 10, 2009)

hubs just communicated the same data to all ports, making them share a bandwidth pool.

The more people on a hub the slower it gets (at a rapid rate) - but the sync speed does not lower.


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## Deleted member 3 (Aug 10, 2009)

Kynes said:


> A hub does that, a switch not, AFAIK



Mostly correct. A switch is a hub as well though  Switch being short for switching hub. Though a normal hub indeed would show this behavior, a switching hub would not.


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## Mussels (Aug 10, 2009)

Hub = hub
Switch = Switched hub

speed drops, sync doesnt.

My first network was a 10Mb hub  played games nicely... serial port links were faster sometimes.


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## Deleted member 3 (Aug 10, 2009)

I used to have a 10 MBit BNC network, endless fun. Cable loose on one end, whole network down. 
I still have a shitload of coax cabling, since I'm moving all my crap to my new home I come across this junk


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## -Spanky- (Aug 10, 2009)

I have found that it is my cable either damaged or a crappy cat5. I was lucky enough to find a female to female ethernet adapter and 2 cat5e cables and it worked fine. I got a nice boost from ~9mbps to ~18mbps, now my server's cpu is maxing out (1ghz ) which I'll fix soon.

I have heard of switches using the slowest speed of the connected device but that's certainly not the case in mine since I have a 10/100 router hooked up to it while I was doing the transfer. I know mine's a dell powerconnect but the model number I'm not sure about maybe 6462 or something. I'd like to get into more networking stuff but I think for now it might be cheaper to just buy pre-molded cables. I'll definitely upgrade to some cat6 either way though. Thanks for the knowledge boost guys


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## Mussels (Aug 11, 2009)

spanky, i mentioned this before. you are not getting "18Mbs" - its 18MB/s

Use the right terminology to avoid confusion.


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