Wierd Wired Ethernet Problems through switch

Hy guys,

I’m having a bit of a problem with my cat6 network at home. I can’t get close to gigabit transfer speeds… I know, I know, the internet is full of forums with a dozen suggestions, even here. But I’d like your opinion on something.

I tested all cables in my setup (cat 6) and they all check out, no shorts, proper lengths (or at least close enough), correct pin to pin relations, the works… Still, I’m not getting gigabit for the life of me, but that’s another problem.

I tested to cables through a non managed switch (a netgear gigabit 5 pot switch), one cable going into the switch and the other coming out. I connected the tester to the two free end on the two connected cables and a got a short error. Both cables on their own are fine, cabled the same way by me. Is it normal to have such an error testing through a switch (and not on all pairs)? Or is it a symptom of a faulty switch?

I'd guess it's not a fault with the switch but that cable testers don't work through switches. In fact it probably isn't a good idea to do that as the tester sends power down the wires to light up the other end, the switch may get damaged from that.

What speeds are you getting?

Yes, you're right, it's my fault, I should have guessed it, I just wanted to be sure.

Speeds are the problem. At first I got 9.8 Mbits/s... Then I recrimped the cables and I got 450 Mbits/s... I CAN get real gigabit trough the routers, I'm guessing the cable going from the router to the switch is at fault, but I've already recrimped it and the tester says it's ok... what am I missing?

Do you have a lot of untwisted wires leading in to the connector? You could be getting crosstalk from bad termination which a cable tester doesn't test for. Try to have the wires coming out of the sleave and in to the connector as short as possible, the sleave itself should go all the way in to the connector and get crimped with the wire extending out maybe 10mm or less.

Yeah, I did that mistake at first, but I did correct it. Short untwisted cables, sleeve into the connector and crimped over the sleeve. Still, it's UDP not STP... I also did something else in the meantime. I took the switch out and I've placed an asus router in Access Point mode in its place. My speeds have improved a bit, my average bandwidth increased to 580Mbits/s (I just run a test with iperf).

I don't think that the switch is the real problem. Yeah, it's not great, but it should be fine... It's probably the cable. Still, this cheapo tester tells me that the distance is fine, it shouldn't be 'broken' somewhere in the middle...I don't know, I'm kind of stumped... What do you think, should I get a new cable?

Getting a new cable would at least rule it out. Otherwise I'm not really sure.

You're right... I'm going to get a cat6a STP this time, see if it makes my life easier...

Thanks for the chat, I really needed someone else's opinion!

I'll post next week when I get the cable to tell you how it works.

Thanks again, have a good one!

Lunch time now in sunny Italy! :)

What switch is it?

Doesn't sound faulty nor do your cables sound like they are not made incorrectly.

It's a TP-LINK TL-SG1005D (sorry, I made a mistake in the first post). It is a gigabit switch. I think i did a decent job on the crimping and plugs

Well the wiring is fine, but that doesn't look like a cat6 plug or the plastic spacer is not in far enough.

Sounds like the switch is the main culprit here as I had near gigabit (around 900Mb/s+ on cat 5). TP-Link has this silly green tech power down that can cause some issues and maybe forcing the switch to run slower than it should.

Mhhh... there is no plastic spacer inside my plugs... And yeah the tplink does have that power saving feature that you mentioned... mhhh...

Still, I didn't get gigabit even with the router in place in the switch... The plugs i got specifically say 'cat6', with the terminals on two levels. I don't know, it's really wierd...