[SOLVED] Max speed of Gigabit Ethernet?

[Zizo007]

I have a Bell Fiber modem and 1Gbps package. Speedtest in the modem shows about 1200mbps on the screen of the modem.

I am only getting 700mbps using directly a CAT7 cable to my laptop. It was 500mbps before I update my ethernet drivers (Killer Gigabit Ethernet). I get 500-600mbps using wifi on the 3rd floor.

Shouldn't CAT7 give at least 1000mbps? Is it possible to get more than 1000mbps?

 

[Barty1884]

Shouldn't CAT7 give at least 1000mbps?

All else being capable, CAT7 is capable of 10Gbps throughput. Even Cat5e is capable of near 10Gbps over short runs.

Is it possible to get more than 1000mbps?

Well in theory, yes. In practice, not really, from what I can see.
Bell's marketing for the Home Hub 3000 / Sagemcom F@st 5566:

Throughput capability beyond 1 Gbps

I would interpret then, that each ethernet port on the router is 1Gbps and that's what they mean by "beyond".

So, if there's 1Gb port (router) directly connected to a 1Gb NIC, you're capping out a ~1Gb (minus a little bit... for whatever reason... overhead, maybe?).


Have you tried multiple devices? While you're quoted a "maximum" speed from Bell, seeing ~700mbps is definitely a bit low.

 

[bill001g]

It is not the ethernet cable limiting you. First cat5e can run 1gbit cat7 cable will not run any faster when you hook it to 1gbit port. It will only run faster if the port you attach it to can run faster.

Ethernet cable only actually run 2 speeds it runs at the full port speed or it runs as zero. So on a 1gbit port the ethernet cable is either running 1gbit or nothing. The data on the other end either successfully gets there or is discarded. There is no form of data retransmission.

All the numbers you see are average rates and delays are almost always caused by some software issue.

Your best first test it to use a simple tools like IPERF to test data transfer within your house. This is a very simple tool that only test the network it is not delayed by things like disk speed or cpu capacity. You will still only see numbers of about 940mbps or so. There is overhead in the data transmissions that is using the remainder. You could also copy large files between devices in your house. This will be affected by both the network and the disk speed in this case.

Whenever I see someone with killer chipset I tend to always blame that. They have a history of massive issues with their drivers. You need to be very sure any of that stupid "gamer" network stuff is no installed and that you have the drivers from their site that do not have this feature. They still tend to have unstable drivers from time to time.

 

[Zizo007]

All else being capable, CAT7 is capable of 10Gbps throughput. Even Cat5e is capable of near 10Gbps over short runs.



Well in theory, yes. In practice, not really, from what I can see.
Bell's marketing for the Home Hub 3000 / Sagemcom F@st 5566:



I would interpret then, that each ethernet port on the router is 1Gbps and that's what they mean by "beyond".

So, if there's 1Gb port (router) directly connected to a 1Gb NIC, you're capping out a ~1Gb (minus a little bit... for whatever reason... overhead, maybe?).


Have you tried multiple devices? While you're quoted a "maximum" speed from Bell, seeing ~700mbps is definitely a bit low.

I called them and they said the issue is your devices because the internal modem test shows ~1200mbps.

 

[Zizo007]

It is not the ethernet cable limiting you. First cat5e can run 1gbit cat7 cable will not run any faster when you hook it to 1gbit port. It will only run faster if the port you attach it to can run faster.

Ethernet cable only actually run 2 speeds it runs at the full port speed or it runs as zero. So on a 1gbit port the ethernet cable is either running 1gbit or nothing. The data on the other end either successfully gets there or is discarded. There is no form of data retransmission.

All the numbers you see are average rates and delays are almost always caused by some software issue.

Your best first test it to use a simple tools like IPERF to test data transfer within your house. This is a very simple tool that only test the network it is not delayed by things like disk speed or cpu capacity. You will still only see numbers of about 940mbps or so. There is overhead in the data transmissions that is using the remainder. You could also copy large files between devices in your house. This will be affected by both the network and the disk speed in this case.

Whenever I see someone with killer chipset I tend to always blame that. They have a history of massive issues with their drivers. You need to be very sure any of that stupid "gamer" network stuff is no installed and that you have the drivers from their site that do not have this feature. They still tend to have unstable drivers from time to time.

I already uninstalled all MSI softwares which include the Killer software. I have the most uptodate driver from MSI.

 

[bill001g]

Maybe get a linux boot image and try that. It will quickly show if you have a hardware issue or if it is something like windows or still a driver issue.

 

[Zizo007]

Maybe get a linux boot image and try that. It will quickly show if you have a hardware issue or if it is something like windows or still a driver issue.

Good idea. I will try it when I am free, thanks.

 

[Zizo007]

Maybe get a linux boot image and try that. It will quickly show if you have a hardware issue or if it is something like windows or still a driver issue.

I tried everything and my laptop won't boot Ubuntu linux, its not booting from my USB key.
It boots fine on my desktop but that's far from the modem.

I updated the Killer drivers to latest 2020, I still get 700mbps max donwload and 800mbps max upload.

 

[Alabalcho]

I updated the Killer drivers to latest 2020, I still get 700mbps max donwload and 800mbps max upload.

I asked this question on another tread: What application you're using which needs 1000mbps, and can't survive on 700mbps? You can't download the whole Internet, you know...

 

[Zizo007]

I asked this question on another tread: What application you're using which needs 1000mbps, and can't survive on 700mbps? You can't download the whole Internet, you know...

Its not the need and I won't be using wired internet. I use wifi now and get 500-600mbps on the 3rd floor.
I pay the price of the 60mbps for the 1Gbps package. I just want to be sure that I am getting the advertised speed. Also my brother plays competitive FIFA20 on PS4, he will use wired because ps4 wifi only gives 50mbps.
He needs the fastest possible.

 

[SamirD]

I tried everything and my laptop won't boot Ubuntu linux, its not booting from my USB key.

I would try a different version of linux and get it booting to run a test. This will be critical to figure out if this is a hardware or software issue.

 

[bill001g]

Its not the need and I won't be using wired internet. I use wifi now and get 500-600mbps on the 3rd floor.
I pay the price of the 60mbps for the 1Gbps package. I just want to be sure that I am getting the advertised speed. Also my brother plays competitive FIFA20 on PS4, he will use wired because ps4 wifi only gives 50mbps.
He needs the fastest possible.

I think gamers are the most uneducated people when it comes to computers and networks. They seem to believe lots of things that aren't true.

A game uses almost no bandwidth at all. Most games use well under 1mbps. Have a extra unused bandwidth makes no difference at all to ping times or performance. What does matter is the connection has stable latency. Wifi is because of its design does will have major variations in the latency. It is not that the wifi is slower it is because the quality of the data stream is much less.

 

[Zizo007]

I would try a different version of linux and get it booting to run a test. This will be critical to figure out if this is a hardware or software issue.

Ok, Manjaro Linux did boot after updating my laptop bios. I am getting 970mbps on the same speedtest as Windows. So Linux drivers are better than Windows. That's weird because usually its the opposite.