16 port Gigabit, 1Gbps NICs -- Suddenly getting 100Mbps Speeds :(

[GamingDaemon]

Hello,

This one is hard to figure out. When I had this house built going on 4 years ago, I had them set it up for gigabit speeds. I know I asked for Cat6 cable, but I probably got Cat5e.

In my network closet, I see Cat5e cables going from my Cisco Linksys 16 port Gigabit switch to the network ports in the closet that connect the various rooms throughout the house.

My Zyxel router runs at 100Mbps.

All my NICs say they are connected at 1Gbps.

I know over time I have seen copy speeds of 80 to 90MBps between PCs in my house.

Just the other day, I upgraded my Comcast cable modem to a DOCSIS 3.0 modem. After I hooked everything up, but before I turned everything back on, I replaced the Cat5 cable going from my Zyxel router to the switch with a Cat6 cable just for good measure, even though I know I only get 100Mbps speeds.

Now, I am only getting 100Mbps speeds copying files between PCs in the house. It hits a hard stop at 11.1Mbps in the Windows 8 copy dialog.

What did I do wrong??

Please help me before I tear out my remaining hair.

 

[Fardringle]

Do the computers still show Gigabit connections in the Windows connection properties, or are they showing 100mbps?

Try putting the old cable back between the router and the switch, just for testing purposes. It's possible the new cable is bad and causing the problems you are seeing.

 

[GamingDaemon]

Do the computers still show Gigabit connections in the Windows connection properties, or are they showing 100mbps?

Try putting the old cable back between the router and the switch, just for testing purposes. It's possible the new cable is bad and causing the problems you are seeing.

Yes, all NICs on all PCs show 1Gbps, and I even changed their properties to only allow 1Gbps connections.

I tried a different Cat6 cable. Still no love. But it is the cable going from the router to the gigbait switch, and the router says it is only 100Mbps anyway, so it shouldn't make a difference.

 

[alkemyst]

Could be a bad negotiation between the switch and NIC...can you hard set the switch port to 1Gbps

 

[GamingDaemon]

Could be a bad negotiation between the switch and NIC...can you hard set the switch port to 1Gbps

Yes. I went into the properties for several of my PCs and set the speed and duplex to 1Gnps and full duplex. All of them connect quickly and say 1Gbps.

Could the router suddenly be forcing the switch to run at 100Mbps? Is there an order to follow when turning everything back on?

 

[GamingDaemon]

Ok, so I replaced the original Cat5 cable, unplugged and replugged in the cables to my switch, and found that another switch on the network had a bad port, and now many of my machines are above 100Mbps. YAY.

When I test with LAN Speed Lite, I get 758Mbps writing and 418Mbps reading a 50MB file. Is that normal? Shouldn't it be faster to read?

 

[xSauronx]

Ok, so I replaced the original Cat5 cable, unplugged and replugged in the cables to my switch, and found that another switch on the network had a bad port, and now many of my machines are above 100Mbps. YAY.

When I test with LAN Speed Lite, I get 758Mbps writing and 418Mbps reading a 50MB file. Is that normal? Shouldn't it be faster to read?

might depend on what it is reading from, and what the device hosting that read is doing at the same time. may be hdd/system lag, and not network lag

or it may be network lag

 

[GamingDaemon]

Well it all seems to be working now finally. Whew!