[SOLVED] Tenda switch dropping gigabit to 100 Mb/s

[xlr1993]

Hello Guys,

I've purchased this switch (unmanaged) from a local store a little over 5 months ago, it is a Tenda switch, around 12$. I've recently came across my internet speed dropping from ~900 Mb/s to under 100. After half an hour of troubleshooting, it looks like the Tenda is restricting this speed after a while. For example : Speed is good, I play some games, download a movie, listen to some music, I test it again, it is under 100. Nothing works except rebooting the switch (via the old plug & unplug ). After the reboot (which takes under 5 seconds) the speed is back up. The switch has 5 ports, I am using 3. It is not a port issue. The switch is powered from a common line, one socket split into 5. 2 slots feeding modem + Switch, 1 slot feeding a monitor and 1 the desktop, the other is usually free. Could this be an electrical interference?

Help would be appreciated. I do not want to take it to warranty as they would test it for 5 minutes and just send it back.

Thanks in advance!

 

[bill001g]

Most times this is a cable issue. There is also a difference between it not passing traffic properly and the port speed dropping to 100mbps. Not sure how you know this are there lights that change on the switch or are you looking at the speed on the nic.

Cables are very strange they will work on some devices but not others so it make troubleshooting very hard.

A indicator that it is the switch is if mulitple device are having this problem especially if they all happen at the same time. There is not much to these switches. Inside you will pretty much find one chip that does all the work so there is nothing to really repair.

It is not electrical related unless for example the power supply on the switch was bad. The twists in the ethernet cable pairs is what makes them mostly immune to interference.

 

[xlr1993]

Thank you for the response so far Bill, I am checking the speeds every now and then with speedtest.com and with a local speedtester (the one provided by my ISP). They both indicate the same thing, after some time, the speed just drops exactly under 100, as if it was limited. I've checked without the switch and it does not occur. Will keep an eye on this and test other devices too when this happens, but the cable explanation doesn't really make sense to me, because the speed purely goes below 100, instead of ~900. A cable issue would be constant, wouldn't it? I consider myself a tech savy as I've configured a lot of networks and I know what's inside the switch, it just beats me as to why this situation is so specific. Sort of like a limitation defaulted on the device.

 

[bill001g]

Ports only really run at 2 speeds...ignoring 10mbps. If the port detects issues on the cable it will drop from 1gbit to 100mbps. Ports do not run at say 300mbps. You might gets packet loss that makes it appear slower but the port really runs say at 1gbit for 3 seconds and then 0 for 7 seconds for a 10 second average speed of 300mbps.

 

[xlr1993]

Hello again Bill,

Thank you for the reply. I honestly do not see how that makes sense and I disagree with "ports only really run at 2 speeds". My cables are fine as I have checked them a couple of times and swapped them around. With the same configuration, everything is fine for the past 3 days.

I appreciate your input and I would appreciate others sharing their two cents as well on this.

Thanks!

 

[bill001g]

Then toss the switch in the trash and buy a new one if you have eliminated the cables as the cause.