Connected some extra network sockets | Internet slowed down

[Ragnarb]

Hey all.

Recently I purchased a new switch and exchanged an old switch out for the new one. The changes I made were that, instead of using incredibly long (few meter) Cat5e cables, I changed all the cables to 0,5 meter Cat5e cables. I figured that'd speed it up if anything. I also connected a few extra network sockets, most of them aren't in use, but two of them are. I added one new router and I changed the location of the older router. So both of them are operating from new network sockets, but only one of them was in the office before (and it didn't work most of the time).

So my question is, could this be affecting the speed of the wired network? The wireless seems to be fine, but I've had complaints from two people about the wired network having slowed down.

 

[lif_andi]

First the obvious, all your cables up to grade? I mean, depending on your new switch, your cables are 5e or 6 ?
Second, all device network speeds are good, including your "one of them was in the office before (and it didn't work most of the time) ? Why didn't it work before and why have you added it ? And the new one, is it something you bought or found in the attic ? 😉

There are several things that can slow down a network, but physical layer problems are a good place to start checking for reasons why.

 

[Ragnarb]

First the obvious, all your cables up to grade? I mean, depending on your new switch, your cables are 5e or 6 ?

5e, all the cables are 5e. Some of them used to be Cat6 but we don't even have that kind of internet speed coming in.

Second, all device network speeds are good, including your "one of them was in the office before (and it didn't work most of the time) ? Why didn't it work before and why have you added it ?

Yeah, the wireless is fine. I updated the firmware and it has worked since.

And the new one, is it something you bought or found in the attic ? 😉

Found in the attic.. yeah, pretty much. This attic was a closet though, but the router seems to work fine.

One thing about the new router - it's on a different subnet, does that matter? Its IP is 192.168.1.1, whereas the other ones are on 192.168.112.x. Again though, the wireless is fine.

 

[lif_andi]

Just depends on what you're using it for. If it's servicing a different subnet then that is not your problem, focus on the devices on the subnet where your users are complaining. Next step would be to tracert from those computers where network speeds have slowed down towards at least your internal IP on the router, or perhaps towards the WAN interface on that router. If that all works out fine, I guess you'd expand your tracert towards google or something.

If however there are only 2 computers (out of like 5-10 or whatever) that have a reduction in speed, you should look at those specific computers and cables and ports connected to them.

And to add, cable lengths have very little bearing on network throughput, as long as you don't exceed maximum lengths, which is usually around 100 meters.
Cables might have a single wire that got loose, or a bad bend in them or whatever, first rule of troubleshooting almost anything computer related is check your cables and physical devices. Test things, try switching out cables. You can use speedtest.net or .org (don't remember which) to test internet connectivity and speeds with different cables.

 

[Mushkins]

Everyone went into network mode and skipped step one 🙂

but I've had complaints from two people about the wired network having slowed down.

Step one is going to these two people and asking "How do you know it slowed down?" Are they doing file transfers between internal resources and consistently now see a considerably slower transfer rate? Or did CNN.com load a little slow that morning and because you changed something it must be your fault.

99 times out of 100, when someone complains to me that "my connection is slow! You changed something!" A) I didn't change a thing, and B) Nothing is actually slower, they're tricking themselves into thinking they have a problem when the reality is it's working just as fast as it did before.

The other 1 out of 100 it's usually a one off website loading slow and cant be reproduced because it's not on our end and it's already fixed. Don't pull your hair out chasing phantom network problems, make sure you've got the full story and try to see the issue in action.

 

[splat_ed]

Hey all.

I also connected a few extra network sockets, most of them aren't in use, but two of them are.

This bit is the odd part in my eyes. Do you mean you've got cables to nowhere? Plugged in at one end only. Or have you plugged both ends into the same switch/router?