[SOLVED] Speeds capped at 100 Mbps upstairs

[zxs551]

Hey everyone, I was wondering if someone could help me out because I'm at my wits' end. Also, forgive me - my networking knowledge is abysmal.

I've had Virgin Media's M200 package for a couple years now, and if I connect a device straight to the router via Ethernet, I get 200+ speeds which is all fine.

However, my computer upstairs isn't connected directly to the router. I use an Ethernet cable (Cat 5e) which goes to a socket in the wall, which is somehow wired downstairs (I don't know all the details as this was all done before I moved in to this house). And so for the last couple years I have consistently been getting speeds that appear to be capped at around 100 Mbps (typically in the 75-95 range). Looking at the network adaptor properties in Windows confirmed this as the connection speed used to read 100 Mbps. The light on my motherboard's LAN port was also green (I looked this up on the manual and this indicates it's transferring at 100 Mbps).

So last week I thought I would check it out and finally figure out how the wiring is done. It seems that there's a bunch of cables (like 10-15) going upstairs through a hole in the wall, and the other end of all these cables are connected to this socket looking thing that says "Cat 5e" and "EIA 568B/A" on it. Further investigation suggests this is a patch panel? I'm not sure. Anyway, this panel has about 12 Ethernet ports on the other side, and there's like 5 short Ethernet cables coming off it which are all connected to a 10/100 switch.

So I thought bingo, surely the switch is the problem. And so I bought a gigabit switch the other day which I have just installed... to no avail. The speeds on my PC are the same, but the only thing that's changed is now when I go on the network adaptor properties in Windows, it reads 1.0 Gbps, and the light on my motherboard is now solid amber (which is apparently a 1.0 Gbps data transfer rate).

I seriously don't know what else could be the problem now. I suspect it's something to do with that patch panel or whatever, or maybe the cables connecting to the switch might not all be Cat 5e.

Any ideas?

 

[SamirD]

A bit of a head scratcher for sure as I thought changing the switch would have fixed it too. Does the router also report the connection as gigabit now? Because if it doesn't, the 100Mbps limit is from the router to the switch. The solution may be a simple as rebooting the router.

 

[zxs551]

A bit of a head scratcher for sure as I thought changing the switch would have fixed it too. Does the router also report the connection as gigabit now? Because if it doesn't, the 100Mbps limit is from the router to the switch. The solution may be a simple as rebooting the router.

Thanks for the speedy reply SamirD. How would I go about checking what the router reports? I should probably mention the connection from router to switch is also between walls annoyingly. The router is in the living room, with a Cat6 cable going to a wall socket, which is then somehow routed to another room where the switch lies. Anyhow, I rebooted the router and not much has changed.

 

[kanewolf]

Thanks for the speedy reply SamirD. How would I go about checking what the router reports? I should probably mention the connection from router to switch is also between walls annoyingly. The router is in the living room, with a Cat6 cable going to a wall socket, which is then somehow routed to another room where the switch lies. Anyhow, I rebooted the router and not much has changed.

Those "wall sockets" are the most likely problem location.
But if any of those "cat 6" cables are flat cables, then that could be the problem also.
If you have in-wall cabling, I recommend getting an inexpensive cable tester -- https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004CI9NRM/

 

[zxs551]

Those "wall sockets" are the most likely problem location.
But if any of those "cat 6" cables are flat cables, then that could be the problem also.
If you have in-wall cabling, I recommend getting an inexpensive cable tester -- https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004CI9NRM/

Thanks for the reply kanewolf. I can confirm none of the cables are flat cables, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks for the recommendation - I suspect you're right about the wall sockets. Only problem is I haven't got the tools nor expertise to start fiddling around with the walls. Would you recommend I just route a long Ethernet cable upstairs directly from router to PC instead?

 

[kanewolf]

Thanks for the reply kanewolf. I can confirm none of the cables are flat cables, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks for the recommendation - I suspect you're right about the wall sockets. Only problem is I haven't got the tools nor expertise to start fiddling around with the walls. Would you recommend I just route a long Ethernet cable upstairs directly from router to PC instead?

A long cable between the points connected by in-wall cables can eliminate the possibility of problems with the wall sockets. That is how I would troubleshoot it.
Keystone wall jacks are not difficult to work with. Many retail jacks include a "disposable" punchdown tool.
I would start with bypassing all in-wall jacks and test. If that works, then move from the router to the switch and check from there to the PC.

 

[SamirD]

Thanks for the speedy reply SamirD. How would I go about checking what the router reports? I should probably mention the connection from router to switch is also between walls annoyingly. The router is in the living room, with a Cat6 cable going to a wall socket, which is then somehow routed to another room where the switch lies. Anyhow, I rebooted the router and not much has changed.

What is the router model number? The specs will say so.

If the router is gigabit and the switch is gigabit and there's still only a 100Mbps connection, I would first make sure your patch cables from the wall to the devices are at least cat5e, and ideally test them somehow to be gigabit like take the switch upstairs and plug cables between the switch and your pc and confirm the link is gigabit.

If your cables are all good, then the next suspect is the termination on the cable in the walls. Generally cabling that works for 100Mb will also work for gigabit, but if the termination isn't correct, the signal will deteriorate enough that it will only work at 100Mbps. (I have several runs at my parents house done by numbnuts that I have to redo with this issue.) But as kanewolf said, redoing these aren't hard at all and you could start with just two jacks (like between the router and switch) and get the hang of it. Once you have that connection working, you'll quickly be able to fix all the others and not have to touch it again for another decade.