Slow speeds over certain Cat 6 wall jacks.

[80zforever]

My apartment has cat 6 built into the walls. The Cat 6 home runs back to a media cabinet where a cable modem, a wireless router and a patch panel resides. From the patch panel cat6 home runs back from: 1) kids room 1, 2) kids room 2, 3) kitchen, 4) printer bay, and 5) master bedroom. I am using a patch cord to connect from router to the patch panel. I just upgraded my Nighthawk X6 R7900 to a Nighthawk X10 R8900 wireless router. I was doing a speed test and noticed slow speeds on a few wired internet connections on a wall jacks.

I first thought maybe it was the Nighthawk X10 R899 doing some weird traffic shaping; however, when I log into the R8900 I make sure all of the below are set and further all of the direct connections at the router are 200mps/20.
1) Traffic meter is off.
2) Ethernet Port Aggregation is disabled.
3) The Quality of Service is disabled ("Dynamic QoS: Automatic traffic prioritization by application and device")
4) Router Firmware V1.0.2.40
5) Wireless works fine (200/20), but I need Ethernet as building has cement walls with wire mesh.

Then I am being to suspect bad wiring/termination from the switch to the wall jacks or sharp bends in the wall.
Using the Microsoft App store Network Speed Test App 1.0.0.23 I get the following:
1) At the router, 200mbps/20
2) At the switch, 200mbps/20
3) At Kids 1 wall jack 200mps/20
4) At Kids 2 wall jack 200mps/20
5) At the wall jack in master bedroom, 70mps/20. About 50 feet away from patch panel. Note when I did a test of the cables - wire 7 and wire 8 were not connected**.
6) At the wall jack in close closet next to master bedroom where a WAP is located 70mps/20. About 40 feet away from patch panel.
7) At the jack in the printer closet 70/20 about 20 feet away from patch panel.
8) Wireless in the same room as the Nighthawk X10 is about 200/20.

Any ideas on what maybe causing the slow speeds, especially on wall jack in master bedroom?

Hardware:
1) Cisco SG 100D-08 8-Port Gigabit Switch
www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/sg-100d-08-8-port-gigabit-switch/model.html
2) Netegear R8900 — Nighthawk X10 link_https://www.netgear.com/support/product/R8900.aspx
3) Arris Touchstone TM1602A DOCSIS 3.0_Installed May 2018
https://www.arris.com/globalassets/resources/data-sheets/tm1602_datasheet-v2.pdf
4) WAP-W3G pakedgedevice&software inc
http://www.pakedge.com/media/docs/press-releases/2014-2003/pak-wap-w3g-pr.pdf
5) Three Windows 10 Dell XPS13 Notebook computers

 

[Ralston18]

Do you feel comfortable inspecting inside the wall outlets? I.e, the "punchdowns".

And doing the same at the patch panel?

My suggestion is to do some additional research and reading. Use that knowledge to take a closer look at the physical wiring and associated jacks in place.

Overall, there may be a bad jack, sub-standard cable, poor installation/connectivity.

You are very much on the "right track". All you need to do is delve in a bit deeper. Good chance that you will identify something that seems to be very much astray.

My overall thought is that whomever did the wiring likely did not really know what they were doing and/or cut corners.

Unfortunately, you must discover the errors of omission or commission that were made.

E.g,: what is printed on the Ethernet cables being run to the wall jacks.? Look close. You may discover that the installer ran CCA ( Copper Clad Aluminum) cable. Not good.

 

[80zforever]

Thank you for your suggestion to check the wall outlets first! When I opened up the jack and looked into the metal electrical box (gangbox) behind the jack I found that the installer had not carefully made sweeping loops with the excess cat 6 cable. When packing the excess cat 6, they just did a haphazard impetuous violent jam-job creating lots of sharp bends. Looked like a rats nest! Sharp bends create impedance and degrade signal. When I first straightened out the excess and retested speeds, low and behold, speeds jumped from 60/20 to like 200/20. I carefully repacked the excess using long sweeping loops. I then closed up the box with the face plates. It now works fine!

 

[Ralston18]

Nicely done.

Interesting that the box was metal. For the most part I would have expected orange plastic (or perhaps blue) versus metal.

However, your description of the work done probably explains the "metal". Original installer probably just made use of what was available....

 

[80zforever]

Is using a metal gangbox over a plastic gangbox for data problematic? Or is there no difference?

 

[Ralston18]

Not necessarily. Just tends to corrode over time and probably more expensive. And being conductive of course, may lead to some future short due to metal rubbing insulation if things do wiggle a bit.

Plastic is being used more and more for low voltage applications: e.g., networking, telephone, home audio in lieu of the metal boxes.

Plastic can now be used for electrical outlets and switches in many areas. Tends to be thicker, heavier plastic.

[Sidebar: I just moved an electrical outlet in the garage. New box is plastic but it flexes and moves when a tool is plugged in. Will swap in a metal box as there is just too much give in the plastic....]

Codes vary. Could be that metal is (or still is) required for such installations.

The good news is that you now know "the situation" and can keep an eye on it all.