HELP! Just hooked up my gigabit switch, now the internet is crazy slow!!!

[thespeakerbox]

I just plugged in my gs108 gigabit switch into my network, and now the internet is going incredibly slow? Where could the problem be. Here are the before and after:

AFTER:

Cable modem ---> WRT54G (nothing else plugged into)----> GS108 (Has auto uplink) ---> 4 networks PC's

BEFORE:

Cable Modem---> WRT54G ----> 4 networked pcs


I didnt hard reboot or restart the router? Should I have?

 

[thespeakerbox]

I tried the EZLAN method and did the DRTCP settings but still no luck.

 

[spidey07]

What kind of cables being used? Homemade?

 

[thespeakerbox]

Nope. Monoprice.

All pc connections to the net are slow.

 

[spidey07]

Cat5e or higher?

Otherwise I'd suspect duplex mismatch (one side the link running half-duplex, the other side full). Make sure all nics and switch ports are set to auto-negotiate speed/duplex.

When you say your Internet is slow - what do you mean?

 

[thespeakerbox]

"Make sure all nics and switch ports are set to auto-negotiate speed/duplex." Im now sure how to do that.

I mean slow, as in it took me 1 hour to download a 10mb driver. Images are slow too.

I shut everything down and powered it up in order -- no luck.
.

Throughout the whole thing of switching etc, i've kept the same IP. Is this normal?

Here are my dr tcp settings. When I started drtcp, all of the values were blank, is that normal?
TCP receive 256960
Windows scaling Yes
time stamping No
Selective Acks Yes
Path MTU discovery Yes
Black Hole Detection No
Max Duplicate Acks 2
TTL 64

MTU 1500

Speed test Last Result:
Download Speed: 9729 kbps (1216.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 490 kbps (61.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

 

[yuppiejr]

Since I'm guessing you have an unmanaged Gigabit switch I don't believe you can configure the ports on the switch so the advice above won't help. I had a similar problem caused by speed autonegotiation between my Motorola Cable Modem and the WAN port on the Motorola Router I was using once upon a time. I had to throw a 5-port 10/100 Linksys switch between the two devices in order for them to negotiate a common link speed.

Try throwing a cheap 5-port 10/100 switch between your router and the new Gbit switch just to see if there is any change in the behavior. As a previous poster stated, this is probably a case of either cable auto-sensing or auto-negotiation gone wild between two of your devices.

 

[thespeakerbox]

I was thinking of picking up a buffalo router to load ddwrt on it. Could this potentitally solve my problem or will I still have the same problems as I do now with my wrt54g

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: thespeakerbox
I was thinking of picking up a buffalo router to load ddwrt on it. Could this potentitally solve my problem or will I still have the same problems as I do now with my wrt54g

if you take the switch out of the equation is it still slow?

 

[yuppiejr]

Well, technically swapping the router might solve the auto-negotiate problem since you'd be throwing a different LAN switch into your router... but there's no guarantee it will fix the problem, particularly if the issue is with the Netgear GS108's autonegotiation or auto-uplink features. What version of the WRT54G are you using currently? Is it already running DD-WRT or is it one of the newer versions that will only accept the "mini" image?

You know that the LAN ports on your router work since your original configuration had the PC's plugged in directly without issue so I hesitate to throw it out of the equation yet. The problem cropped up when you connected the new GS-108 switch to one of the LAN ports on the WRT54G. Since we know the ports on the WRT54G work with PC's we can assume they are good, therefore odds are high that the issue is with the connection between the WRT54G and the new GS-108 switch, again, probably auto-negotiation (link speed/duplex mismatch/etc..). You could try using a crossover cable between the switches to eliminate auto-uplink, otherwise if you have a 5 port 10/100 switch lying around try throwing it in between the two devices.

You may also want to try a different 8 port Gig swtich, though I'm running a GS108 v2 switch at home without issues I had also tried the older v1 hardware in the same environment and had a lot of problems getting it to work with other network hardware and auto-negotiating speed to individual PC's. If you look at the label on the bottom of the switch it should either say "V2" (good) next to the model number or will have no version label which means it's V1 (bad).

 

[yuppiejr]

FYI - the Best Buy in Manhattan carries the D-Link DGS-2208 which is an 8 port Gigabit switch with 9k Jumbo frame support, I'd try swapping this in place of the Netgear GS608 before changing out routers.

 

[kevnich2]

Have you tried removing the switch and then rebooting the WRT54G and see what happens?

 

[thespeakerbox]

Originally posted by: kevnich2
Have you tried removing the switch and then rebooting the WRT54G and see what happens?

I have, and the problem still occurs. But i only disconnect and reconnect the power cord, not a hard reset or anything

 

[yuppiejr]

I'd try the crossover cable between your router and switch first... if that doesn't work, try a different gig-e switch. The problem is obviously with the new switch or the link between it and your router. Your router and it's 4 port integrated switch ports are fine so rebooting won't fix the problem.

 

[spidey07]

Smells like a duplex mismatch. Make sure all ports are connected at full duplex - specifically the router and gig switch. there should be LEDs to tell you what speed/duplex they are at.

 

[thespeakerbox]

Well i picked up the buffalo WHR router on the way home from dinner. I want dd-wrt, so i guess the time was right.

I installed the buffalo router. Tested it with and without the switch. Here are the results.

With WRT54G 2 days ago (4/8/07)
Speed test Last Result: - Similar With and without Switch
Download Speed: 9729 kbps
Upload Speed: 490 kbps

New buffalo WRH -Similar with and without switch (4/10/07)
3768kbps down
377 kbps up


Straight into cable modem
4100 Down
375 Up

Now i assume its on their end. So i called up and she sent some "refresher signals" but they didnt do so good. They scheduled a tech to come out thursday. I know we have some crappy wiring from the alley behind our house ( In brooklyn, ny , so everyone shares old equipment). New coax was barrelled into the old crap that came from the box. Who knows what they are going to do.

 

[spidey07]

You are bouncing so all over the place.

What is the actual problem!!!

You cannot apply PC "swap and redo" trouble shooting with networking. Stop mucking with things.

 

[thespeakerbox]

The actual problem is the internet speed....

I am hoping the problem is on the provider side. If it's not fixed after they come thursday, i'll have to keep looking.

 

[kevnich2]

Honestly, the internet speed you gave, depending on the load and if it was at peak times, was correct. I have 7mb cable service and speed ranges throughout the day, that's just how cable internet works. Sometimes I get 7mb (~600-700kB downloads) and sometimes it goes down to 3mb. Compared to DSL though, this is still better and I'm happy with it. But your internet speed doesn't look that slow at all, so maybe I'm not totally understanding what your problem is?

Edit: The cable company can run remote diagnostics on your cable modem and see if it's a problem on their end without even coming out. But strictly off your internet speeds, I'm not seeing an issue. But the cable company will know remotely if it's really a problem on THEIR end without coming out to your place. Also, I wouldn't be swapping stuff out like your doing. Just keep the Buffalo router in for right now.

 

[p0lar]

Originally posted by: spidey07
Stop mucking with things.

That's all that needs be conveyed.

99% of networking problems come from bad cabling, the other 99% come from muck-abouts.

 

[thespeakerbox]

Originally posted by: p0lar

Originally posted by: spidey07
Stop mucking with things.

That's all that needs be conveyed.

99% of networking problems come from bad cabling, the other 99% come from muck-abouts.

I'm glad you could help with 198% of my problems.