[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Mystery of connection speed in Netflix app in TV - with or without network switch

Dear fellow Forum members,

This might be more of a Netflix/TV topic, but I think I'll find more Netflix users here, than networking experts at e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/netflix/. Thank you for your insights.

There is a Netflix app in my smart TV. It allows testing connection speed. It consistently reports 29 to 33 Mbps when the TV is cabled to a gigabit switch. It consistently reports 89 to 90 Mbps when the TV is directly cabled to the router, bypassing the switch (THIS is consistent with my 400 Mbps internet speed and 100 Mbps Ethernet port in the TV). Many other tests show the switch and cable seem fine. But is an app supposed to be aware/sensitive to "going" through a switch ??

Plenty of details and test results below.

I'd like to understand where my reasoning/testing fails. But I can't understand this behaviour so far. (I know that in both cases, Netflix streaming will work fine https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306. And I definitely can plug it in the router and call it a day. But I like learning and understanding.)

Thank you very much in advance
Enjoy the weekend
Best regards

In a nutshell, we have:
ISP Modem (DOCSIS) -> Asus Router -> Netgear Switch -> (cable_3) -> TV

If the cable that enters the TV (cable_3) is plugged in the Switch, the Netflix app reports approx. 30 Mbps. If it's unplugged from the Switch and plugged directly in the Router, the Netflix app instantly reports approx. 90 Mbps. So maybe the Switch is ill... (Tested repeatedly, on different days, back and forth)

If cable_3 is plugged in the usual port in the switch, and the other end is disconnected from the TV and connected to a laptop instead of the TV, the laptop sees approx. 360 - 400 Mbps (not 30), so my full ISP connection speed. So, switch OK ?

I also tested the switch, and the same cable in the same switch port with iperf3. So, two laptops connected to the switch, one acting as server and one as client. Full details of the client below, for TCP and then for UDP. But I basically get the gigabit speed of the switch and laptops. So, switch and cable OK ? The maximum packet loss I got (at 400 Mbps on the "LAN" (just the switch)) was 0.011%.

The PS4 connected in the switch reports between 100 and 260 Mbps. I don't trust the speedtest of Sony anyway. But it's still way more than 30 Mbps. And also seems to show the switch is OK.

Maybe the Netflix server is the culprit ? But I always get 3 times as much as soon as I connect the TV to the router. So, the 30 Mbps is not explained by temporarily overloaded test servers at Netflix.

Maybe the Netflix app is the culprit. But is an app supposed to be aware/sensitive to being connected through a switch ??? By the way, this is now experienced with the Netflix app on the Panasonic TV, but I experienced something similar with the Netflix app in a Sony Android TV a couple of years ago.

I guess DNS might result in having you connected to different Netflix servers, but I don't see how the switch would change that. The DHCP is in the router, and doesn't change.

Your insights are very welcome. Thank you in advance. And please pardon any English oddity, from a non-native speaker.

Switch: Netgear GS308E - 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Smart Managed Plus Switch.
GS308E | Plus Switch | NETGEAR Support
Find setup help, user guides, product information, firmware, and troubleshooting for your GS308E Plus switch on our official NETGEAR Support site today
www.netgear.com
Tested before and after applying "Default settings".
Tested with V1.00.08EN and the newer V1.00.11EN

ISP: VOO in Belgium
Advertised connection speed: 400 Mbps. Reliable.
Primary DNS : 62.197.111.140
Secondary DNS : 109.88.203.3

Router: Asus RT-AC86U, Merlin 386.12.x (not that it matters)
DNS settings in ASUS router:
WAN DNS Setting: DNS Server: Default status : Get the DNS IP from your ISP automatically.
DNS Director: "No redirection" for the TV
Manually Assigned IP around the DHCP list for the TV (and the Netgear Switch)

Current TV:
Panasonic JZ1500E, model year 2021.
Not Android ("My Home Screen", previously known as "Firefox OS")
Ethernet port: 100 Mbps
TX-65JZ1500
Panasonic UK Support - Search for an answer, find links to manuals and firmware or ways to get in contact with our support teams.
support-uk.panasonic.eu

Previous TV with similar behaviour:
SONY XE9005, also known as X900E. Model Year: 2017, Android.
Ethernet port: 100 Mbps
https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/televisions-projectors-lcd-tvs-android-/kd-55xe9005/specifications
(NB: Completely unrelated to the topic but FYI, the Sony accepts USB adapters for networking. The Panasonic doesn't. )

iperf3 tests:

Spoiler: iperf3 results

[Assistant]
I think it might help to think about this as "my switch does not play nice with sub-1Gbps ethernet devices". That could be explained by things like poor buffering strategies. It's mostly on the switch to intermediate between your TV's 100Mbps
port speed and the router's 1000Mbps port speed, and the switch might not be doing a great job of that.

Since it's a managed switch, there might be knobs you can twiddle to try to improve matters. I'd look at options involving QoS, flow control, buffering, etc.

Wistuplu said:
Dear fellow Forum members,

This might be more of a Netflix/TV topic, but I think I'll find more Netflix users here, than networking experts at e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/netflix/. Thank you for your insights.

There is a Netflix app in my smart TV. It allows testing connection speed. It consistently reports 29 to 33 Mbps when the TV is cabled to a gigabit switch. It consistently reports 89 to 90 Mbps when the TV is directly cabled to the router, bypassing the switch (THIS is consistent with my 400 Mbps internet speed and 100 Mbps Ethernet port in the TV). Many other tests show the switch and cable seem fine. But is an app supposed to be aware/sensitive to "going" through a switch ??

[/SPOILER]
Click to expand...
I can't explain why your speed tests higher when directly connected to the router but the speeds you are seeing are comparable to what I'm seeing on my TV connected by an Ethernet cable to a fast Ethernet port on an endpoint switch. My backbone wired LAN is connected using Smart switches with with 1 gig ports. I use slower and older endpoint switches in media cabinets has more than a fast Ethernet port.

If I test using the network test built into the Vizio TV the test show 27.73 Mbps. If I test within the Netflix App on the smart TV it shows 26.03 Mbps. I never have any buffering even with 4K HDTV streams. To a PC with a 1 Gig Ethernet adapter I can get the 940 Mbps downloads expected most of the time. I attribute the lower speeds to the fact that the TV's processor probably can't do any more and the TV manufacturers don't install gig ports and the required more robust processor to handle the faster speeds as there is no need for it to stream online. If someone wants to stream from a home server then there might be a need for faster speeds.

Good luck with your research and perhaps someone else might have a solution.

tgl said:
I think it might help to think about this as "my switch does not play nice with sub-1Gbps ethernet devices". That could be explained by things like poor buffering strategies. It's mostly on the switch to intermediate between your TV's 100Mbps
port speed and the router's 1000Mbps port speed, and the switch might not be doing a great job of that.

Since it's a managed switch, there might be knobs you can twiddle to try to improve matters. I'd look at options involving QoS, flow control, buffering, etc.
Click to expand...
I had no idea this could be a thing. But that sounds very interesting, I'll definitely look into that. Thank you for your interest.

The clients that seem to work fine with the Netgear switch are gigabit (2 laptops, and PS4).
The client that seems to not work fine has only a 100 Mbps port (and only about 30 Mbps speed measured; this is the TV).

Update:
I played with some options on the switch but none did help so far. (Activating Flow Control, putting the TV in a dedicated VLAN (port-based), setting rate control to 64 Mbps or 128 Mbps.)
BTW: The Sony TV that also showed some issue (in a landscape with the same switch) had also a 100Mbps port. But the Sony reached "fast" (like 80 or 60 Mbps) in other Android applications (like Analiti); and was struggling with some others (mostly Netflix). Maybe different applications result in different types of traffic that are differently digested by the switch. Still hard to believe.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: 2.5 Gbps, 5 Gbps, and 10 Gbps

Can you still use these network speeds locally even if your internet connection is not that fast, yet, and benefit from it from the device or devices that have a greater than 1 Gbps network card ?

It may not make sense for me though sense right now I only have one device with a network card of 2.5 Gbps.

Anyway to add a 2.5 Gbps network card to a laptop ?

[Assistant]
ng4ever said:
Can you still use these network speeds locally even if your internet connection is not that fast, yet, and benefit from it from the device or devices that have a greater than 1 Gbps network card ?

It may not make sense for me though sense right now I only have one device with a network card of 2.5 Gbps.

Anyway to add a 2.5 Gbps network card to a laptop ?
Click to expand...

Yes, your LAN speeds are not tied to your internet speeds. If you do a lot of large file transfers etc then >1G connections can be worthwhile. Obviously you'll need a switch or LAN ports on your router that can handle those speeds.

Only way to add it to a laptop is with an external adapter, USB 3.x or USB-C are the only ones that can handle >1G though.

drinkingbird said:
Yes, your LAN speeds are not tied to your internet speeds. If you do a lot of large file transfers etc then >1G connections can be worthwhile. Obviously you'll need a switch or LAN ports on your router that can handle those speeds.

Only way to add it to a laptop is with an external adapter, USB 3.x or USB-C are the only ones that can handle >1G though.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

One last question can I still get 2.5 Gbps local network speed, even if my fiber modem only supports up to 1 Gbps speed ?

I am using a third party router with it that does have a 2.5 Gbps port.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Intel WIFI 7 BE200 Adapters $20 3-5gbps

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Intel/BE200NGWGNV?qs=Imq1NPwxi768LH5kQoGXsA%3D%3D

Coming soon!!!!! It's a good sign when you find a model # and listing.

[Assistant]
I have a feeling that WiFi 7 is going to steamroll out faster than anything before it.

With the market treating 6E as a red headed stepchild I think you're spot on. 6ghz makes sense for few but, w/o any bump in speed on 6E it was just pointless except for a few use cases. The premium for the gear didn't make sense. 6/E speeds still topped out at 1.4gbps using an AX411 card.

BE doubles that obviously w/ 320mhz on 6ghz and MLO

It's just nice to spot the HW / price though some of the info out there seems to push that there's more than one version of HW which is why the speed of 3-5 came up. I was figuring 3gbps based off the AX411 performance. 5gbps would be a perk for LAN connectivity though some people are crazy enough to get ISP plans in that range as well.

In an office setting you could conceptually get those speeds if they upgrade their APs but, I doubt they would allow unlimited BW for a single user to hit those max speeds.

Now, that the pieces are coming together it's time for companies to make APs and avoid the atrocious costs of the current BE offerings.

Tech Junky said:
With the market treating 6E as a red headed stepchild I think you're spot on. 6ghz makes sense for few but, w/o any bump in speed on 6E it was just pointless except for a few use cases. The premium for the gear didn't make sense. 6/E speeds still topped out at 1.4gbps using an AX411 card.

BE doubles that obviously w/ 320mhz on 6ghz and MLO

It's just nice to spot the HW / price though some of the info out there seems to push that there's more than one version of HW which is why the speed of 3-5 came up. I was figuring 3gbps based off the AX411 performance. 5gbps would be a perk for LAN connectivity though some people are crazy enough to get ISP plans in that range as well.

In an office setting you could conceptually get those speeds if they upgrade their APs but, I doubt they would allow unlimited BW for a single user to hit those max speeds.

Now, that the pieces are coming together it's time for companies to make APs and avoid the atrocious costs of the current BE offerings.
Click to expand...
Yea, I don't think you will see much 320mhz with the big guys as they have to support to many connections. We will probably see more connections at low BW so they can handle more connections and active talkers. I would think they will be looking for 10 gig data connections since there is so much 10 gig out there.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Is it worth having a 2.5 Gbps switch at all ?

If only my current router has a one 2.5 Gbps port I believe, Asus RT-AX86. Plus I have one device that has a 2.5 Gbps network card and port.

Guessing no but wanted to make sure.

I do download on the device with the 2.5 Gbps network card and port on steam at max speed sometimes while transferring other files over to the NAS.

[Assistant]
I have the 2.5 gig capable Surfboard modem, and connect to the Asus AX86U 2.5 port... and it works flawlessly. I pay for gig but test up to 1.5 gig usually around 1.3 ish gig, so the 2.5 ports cover the speed over 1 gig for less wifi drop by squeezing 100-300 megs more outta it with all my AX devices on 160hz...then I use the other modem standard gig port out to my 8 port switch, that hardwires my whole home, where I have 2 Xbox Series X systems and some one X systems. . They test anywhere from 890-960...I'm the idiot that would go buy a 2.5 switch, to try and get them to 1000

Again, all of this help as I pay for gig and test at the modem anywhere from 1.2-1.5 gig. Wanna squeeze every ounce of speed.

ng4ever said:
If only my current router has a one 2.5 Gbps port I believe, Asus RT-AX86. Plus I have one device that has a 2.5 Gbps network card and port.

Guessing no but wanted to make sure.

I do download on the device with the 2.5 Gbps network card and port on steam at max speed sometimes while transferring other files over to the NAS.
Click to expand...
It's up to you.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Cat5e help

Hi
I have a house with 8 ethernet ports connected via a switch. I have 400mb broadband but 2 ports only give 80mb, the rest are fine. I recently upgraded to this speed and have had endless or problems with disconnections. Virgin have replaced the line into my house and the box in the house (all v old) but I still have issues of disconnecting. They are now claiming that this could be due to my 2 ethernet ports being damaged as they are pulling less speed.. The switch is fine as I have tested each socket with my laptop. Can someone help as I don't know if Virgin are pulling one on me or I genuinely have an issue. Before I upgraded to this new speed I never had dropouts (although I never had tested the 2 dodgy ethernet ports before). Any help would be appreciated.

[Assistant]
Welcome to the forums @Cohenra1979.

Pull the two dodgy runs and monitor the network for an extended period (hours, days, or a few weeks, as necessary).

If it is those runs, this test will allow you to decide where to spend time and money (if necessary).

Thanks but if I pull them out I will never get replacements in. I just don't know why they are dodgy nor do I know if they can blow out my broadband connection that virgin claims?

Are you saying that connections to two ports on your 8 port switch are only giving 80Mbps but the others are giving your full ISP speed (400Mbps)? If so then unplug the two faulty connections from the switch to eliminate them as a possible cause of any problems.

If you still have disconnection issues then look in the Virgin Hub's network log. Are you using your own router or just the Virgin Hub?


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: PLC: I need a RELIABLE 3-ethernet port unit with the British plug configuration.

Hi All

I am obliged by the layout of the house to use a PLC link from the main house Gigbit Cat 5E network to the CCTV NVR in the attic.

To date I've been using TP-link TP_PA8033PKIT's kits (with the UK BS1363 3-pin plug & socket configuration) for this, and have had little or no trouble with the units with 1 or 2 ethernet ports, but I've now had THREE of the 3 ethernet port (all ports in use) units fail after various periods of time, likely through some form of overheating as I noticed that these 3 port units ran very warm.

Therefore I'm now (urgently!) looking for a 3-port unit from almost certainly another, and far more reliable, manufacturer to replace the TP-Link 3-port unit.
It:
- must have the UK 13A BS1363 mains plug configuration
- must be "compatible" with the existing 1 port PA8033PKIT unit in the attic (to which the NVR is connected)
- needs to be Gigabit as far as the wired ethernet is concerned (because of the NAS in the conservatory)
- does not need power pass through (i.e. doesn't need a mains socket on the front face)
- does not to have a very fast PLC connection because the link to the NVR runs at only around 100-120mbs (max) and there's nothing else using that link.

Thus, please can someone point me in the right direction ASAP?

Thanks in advance.

[Assistant]
Devolo seems to be common in the UK...

Magic 2 LAN triple
Maximal speed, maximum number of Ethernet ports: The Magic 2 LAN triple supplies three terminal devices with super-fast Internet over the electrical wiring.
www.devolo.global

Heard they were a bit more expensive compared to others

John A said:
- must be "compatible" with the existing 1 port PA8033PKIT unit in the attic (to which the NVR is connected)

From what I've read devolo's products have a history of being incompatible with other manufacturer's devices, and even their own. So I'd check compatibility before purchasing. The device in the previous post seems to be such an example. According to the specs it uses G.hn which is incompatible with the HomePlug AV2 your existing devices use.

Your choices are going to be very limited if you insist on a device with three ethernet ports. Whilst it might be more ugly, using a single port PLA device with a separate 4 or 5 port switch for £10 could be a more reliable solution.

ColinTaylor said:
From what I've read devolo's products have a history of being incompatible with other manufacturer's devices, and even their own. So I'd check compatibility before purchasing. The device in the previous post seems to be such an example. According to the specs it uses G.hn which is incompatible with the HomePlug AV2 your existing devices use.

Your choices are going to be very limited if you insist on a device with three ethernet ports. Whilst it might be more ugly, using a single port PLA device with a separate 4 or 5 port switch for £10 could be a more reliable solution.
Click to expand...
Thx to both of you for the advice.

In fact I found the basic problem was actually another network switch between the main network upstairs and the downstairs section - should have checked it and found that duff wallwart PSU before I started mucking around with the PLC section. Nevertheless, even after replacing that, and reconnecting the PLC adapter, the link to the NVR is still running much more slowly than it was a few weeks ago

So I'll try a "multi-pronged" approach to fixing the overall problems:
- Short-term, I've ordered another TP_PA8033PKIT to get the 3 ethernet ports (and likely send it back to Amazon if the medium-term solution below does work!).
- Medium term, I've already got a spare 8-port switch to try as suggested
- Longterm, and assuming we haven't moved house (as is planned), I'll look for a different make of 3-port ethernet PLC adapter that IS compatible with the TP-Link kit.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: PoE does not work over self-built CAT5E cable

Hi,

In my house I have just installed a new CAT5E cable (F/UTP) and crimped my own RJ45 connectors (CAT6 STP) on it. Gigabit network connectivity works fine, but for some reason PoE does not. I am trying to power an Unifi Flex Mini switch from an Unifi Lite 8 PoE switch. When I connect the two devices via a bought CAT5 cable it works, only via the cable I installed myself it does not.

What could be the cause of this? Is there anything that could be wrong in the way I crimp the connectors that would leave Gigabit connectivity working but not PoE? Could it be related to the connectors being CAT6 STP and the cable being CAT5 F/UTP?

Any advice/insights would be highly appreciated!

Regards, Robert

[Assistant]
Did you do the ends to TIA/EIA 568b?
Even if you crimped the ends correctly you could still have a bad connector.

Yes, the cable has 568B printed on it, and I did the ends according to T-568B.

What do you mean exactly by "bad connector"? To be honest, I do not know really how PoE works, what could be wrong with the connector that would make PoE not work while Gigabit network connectivity works?

the-ninth said:
Yes, the cable has 568B printed on it, and I did the ends according to T-568B.

What do you mean exactly by "bad connector"? To be honest, I do not know really how PoE works, what could be wrong with the connector that would make PoE not work while Gigabit network connectivity works?
Well, the important part is the Cat5e. It is the ends that need to be connected per 568B. If you are using solid wire cable it can sometimes be a problem to get the ends crimped right. Test the cable and it works. Plug it into a device and it doesn't. better way is to use a punch down female connector and a patch cable to the device. I use these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005E2Y9WY/?tag=snbforums-20

With your mini PoE switch it is apparent which port the PoE cable gets plugged into so it is not operator error..
A cable continuity tester also comes in handy with Ethernet cabling to make sure the wires are in the correct place.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Confused about subnets and vlans

So I have a four port DIY router running pfsense and a Zyxel 24 port managed switch - neither are currently in use on my home network. I'm just connected to them via an old laptop to configure the web ui's. This is because my wife is very reliant on internet and access to our media server so I want to get things reliably set up and tested before swapping out the old for the new hardware, hopefully with minimal downtime.

Currently we have four rooms with two ethernet runs from each room to a centrally located patch panel. These eight runs are currently patched into a 16 port dumb switch and from there to an Asus RT-AC86U to the ISP and also my unraid server.

Eventually this hardware will be replaced with a Fujitsu Futro s920 mini PC running pfsense with a four port Intel NIC to a managed 24 port Zyxel switch (GS1920v2-24)

The idea is to have effectively two networks: One network being a basic home network LAN to the switch to pfsense to WAN, the other network being exclusively for Audio over IP which doesn't need WAN access. It will not be used very often but should be "ready to go" by simply changing which NIC is active on each of the PC's that will be used for audio recording i.e. running the Audio over IP software.

I'd imagined the home network LAN being on 192.168.1.0/24 and the Audio over IP network being on 10.0.0.0/24 so it was quickly visually obvious what was connected to what.

I'd also imagined being able to assign specific ports on the managed switch to one or other network - so for example ports 1,3,5,7 on the switch being assigned to Audio over IP with a further port (23) connecting it to pfsense em1, and ports 2,4,6,8, being assigned to the Home LAN with port 24 connecting that to the pfsense router on em0 - em3 is the pfsense WAN port and em2 is unused. In reality it's a bit more complicated than this example, but the broad principle of odd port numbers for Audio and even port numbers for Home LAN was the basic notion.

I was also advised to avoid VLANs on the audio network because apparently they can induce some latency. This latency is not normally of any concern because most uses of audio over IP are for streaming audio from a central server to multiple rooms or music from a PC in one room to a speaker in another - but it is much more important to minimise latency when trying to record live instruments and vocals in different rooms simultaneously.

However I can't figure out how to assign specific ports on the switch to one or other network without involving VLANs. And if I'm going to use VLANs then I might as well just keep everything on the same network and just assign static IP's on the different NICs in each PC for the different use case. I've tried RTFMing the Zyxel manual but I suspect I'm not searching for the right terminology or what I'm imagining I should do is fundamentally wrong in the first place.

Another option would be to continue to use the dumb switch for the Audio network and get the separation that way since the port/interface setup on the pfsense router could manage the DHCP for the audio network and it probably doesn't need WAN access.

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance

[Assistant]
Using VLANs the basic idea for a layer 2 switch is you create VLANs you want on pfsense. Plug the managed switch into a trunk port on pfsense. You also need to create the VLANs on the switch. You need to assign a network to each VLAN. When you assign the VLANs on pfsense it will create gateways that point to pfsense and it will run DHCP for those VLANs.

If you have enough ports on pfsense for all the networks then you don't have to use VLANs use separate networks on each port of the pfsense. You can just use dumb switches connected to each pfsense network port.

The latency on VLANs is probably related to having to use a router for local routing. A layer 3 switch will solve that. The problem is it will be too complex to configure for someone not really understanding VLANs.

Assuming you don't want to do static assignments and have two switches now. Plug one switch into each port on the mini and then put in the drops you want on their respective switch.

Otherwise you could do mac:ip bindings for DHCP for the subnets and use the new switch only.

It comes down to how much effort you want to put into it vs money.

Tech Junky said:
Assuming you don't want to do static assignments and have two switches now. Plug one switch into each port on the mini and then put in the drops you want on their respective switch.

Otherwise you could do mac:ip bindings for DHCP for the subnets and use the new switch only.

It comes down to how much effort you want to put into it vs money.
Click to expand...
I am not sure what you mean but you control traffic flows with gateways and VLANs. Routing also but not in his case as it is too advanced.

PS
He will need a wireless AP that understands VLANs if he uses them for wireless on both networks. If he uses separate networks then he can use his ASUS for wireless on 1 of the networks. The other network will not have wireless.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Help with planning home network

Hi all,

I’m currently building a new house and as part of that am planning a home network. I’m the house I have 8 Ethernet ports on the 2nd floor (2 per room and 2 on the landing for an access point + backup), 4 on the 1st floor ( 2 for the media centre / tv area and 2 in the middle of the open plan space for an access point) And 2 ports on the ground floor in the “man cave”.

All ports terminate into the garage.

Currently I have a Gigabit connection (A) but am planning to get a second 2Gb connection (B). If/when I do this it’s likely that I will keep B for the man cave and have A shared around the rest of the house.

In terms of routers is likely going for one of Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 or Asus RT-AX89X unless there are any other suggestions.

I believe these can both handle dual WAN connections and have at least one 2.5Gb port.

I know I’ll also need a patch panel but the last piece of the puzzle is a switch. From my understanding what I would need in a switch is 2x POE ports and at least 10 other ports (one port each next to the access points wouldn’t be used unless the other one does somehow). What I’m struggling with is what to look for in a switch and what’s a good brand etc. I’m also planning to rack the switch along with the patch panel if that’s important.

From what I’ve seen a lot of switches have for example 10 gigabit ports and 2 multi gig ports and I get the impression to get something like a switch with 12-24 multi gig ports may be extremely expensive. I’ve got a fair amount to spend but not an unlimited amount (the unlimited amount already got spent on the house build)

Since I’m planning on an unmanaged switch perhaps a good enough compromise is to connect the router from isp B into the 2.5 WAN port of the GT-AXE16000, plug the two 10 Gb ports directly into the patch panel to go to the two ports in man cave, plug the router from isp A into one of the 1Gb ports and of course the switch into one of the 1Gb ports as well.

If I’m right this should give the man cave access to the full 2Gb, the rest access to 1Gb and have everybody on the same internal network so if I wanted to for example share something from my pc to a tv upstairs I can.

Apologies for the huge wall of text but considering this, do you have any switch recommendations or things I should consider that keep in mind?

Also in case it gets asked the reason I don’t just get the 2Gb connection on its own is because it’s not available yet and I have to sign a 1 year contract for connection A. And why do I want to then add connection B (which complicates things), the only reason I can give is just because, never had a 2Gb connection and I’d like one!

If I’ve missed any information that would be useful to know please let me know.

Thanks

Edit: what may be of note is that the only device that can actually use 2Gb is my PC. Also perhaps this would have been better off in the B other LAN section?

[Assistant]
This won't work how you expect. The unmanaged switch is a single network. And there is no way to segment the 1Gbps service from the 2Gbps service to the split you want.

Why isn't a more secure location used for the cable runs than the garage?

To do this properly, you need two routers (one for each WAN connection). Commercial equipment here will be astronomically priced for these types of speeds.

You will either have one network (home+mancave) or two (home, and mancave). Be sure to put the wiring to do either, if that is what your goal is.

With a new home, I would run every cable to its physical center point (in 3D space), including multiple cables runs from the ISP point. I would also run at least two cables to each drop (i.e. 4, or more, per room, in at least a 2x combination, per outlet). This will ensure the shortest cable runs and the highest possible performance (particularly for future Ethernet standards).

To the mancave, I would be running a minimum of 12 runs. Along with convincing that 2Gbps ISP to install their equipment inside (or as close as possible) to the mancave itself (thinking about this, I would want the other ISP there too).

Don't build/install how you use/understand things, today. The few dollars those extra cable runs cost today will be worth their weight in gold in the future when needs, and technology/expectations change.

If you have a diagram of this layout, more/better suggestions may be possible.

It's possible that I missed out important details but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

I will have 3 routers. The GT-AXE16000 acting as a router and being the singular home network and 2 ISP routers both in modem mode each going to the GT-AXE16000. So the GT-AXE16000 is the "singular network" (I don't really have the vocabulary to properly describe what i'm saying) and it decides which traffic goes through which connection. As I had done previous when I had dual WAN, I will pin certain IP addresses (those of devices in the man cave) to the 2Gb connection and have everything else use the 1Gb connection. Or actually I think i used an ip address range.

I actually asked for the Ethernet to all go to the Back of the garage because i knew no better lol, perhaps I shouldn't have, I was concenred with the potential noise. It's literally the other side of the wall of the man cave though. As far as number of cables go. I think I will have to live with 2 ports (this being 2 individual cables) per location. There are pull cords so if i really needed to down the road I could add more but for my needs I can't see that being the case.

There have been many changes since these mixed bag of plans but they are close enough to represent where the cables and ports are. In order from ground, middle top. Red X's are 2 ethernet ports. the green X is where all the wires end up, so where i was planning to have the patch panel etc. Quite frankly i'm too lazy to park my car in the garage and so it will never be exposed to the elements. Also the cabinet will be wall mounted.

Anything else that would be helpful let me know.

Thanks for the response!

First thing is to skip the Asus idea. Just get a wired router for the cabling room and tie that into your switch.

For the switch either get a managed switch to segregate the ports into different VLANs when you add a 2nd WAN or you can do dumb switches and share bandwidth for the time being and then split them later. The wired router can do VL's and just plug one switch into a port for VL2 and the other into VL3 and you keep the cost down. Then later if the router doesn't have dual WAN capabilities you just get another one for the 2nd WAN connection and move the 2nd switch to the new router.

For the AP's you can get a cheap POE switch or just use POE injectors for the ports that the APs tie into.

Router - $50-$200 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BNPTW2L2/?tag=snbforums-20 $70 single WAN/LAN \\ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BKFVXNRB/?tag=snbforums-20 $150 WAN = 3 LAN or reconfigure it for dual WAN later and split the 2 ports into 2 VL's to different switches
POE Injectors - $50-$100 / https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BS5C3HY/?tag=snbforums-20 $43
2.5GE switch - $150 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0995T34KL/?tag=snbforums-20 / unmanaged $140 \\ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XWK4HNT/?tag=snbforums-20 unmanaged $100 \\ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084MH9P8Q/?tag=snbforums-20 MANAGED $180
APs - $130/ea https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HQQ4SPQ/?tag=snbforums-20
If these aren't cheap where you're located then look into the Omada APs


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Cat 6a unshielded vs cat 6 shielded or other for Future 10G network

I have had cat 6, unshielded cables installed in our old home about a year ago. All lines have full gigabit speed up and down. But lately I got enough gears to allow me to start taking a little advantage of 10G network.

The furthest distant cable has one way 10G but other way only over 1G speed ie not giving full 10G. This cable is probably a little over the limit 55m distance.

I just got 4 more lines added but all lines even short distance one not reaching 10G and the furthest one is merely 10Mbps. It’s probably also 55m distance range but less than previously installed line so not even hitting 1Gbps is not right.

I tried to re-terminate the lines/jacks on my own couple times as I’ve done that many times and all in success. But it did not improve. So I feel possible defective cable. As I try to have installer exchange these lines, I am curious what cable I should be really using.

On rack side, I usually have keystone type termination with cat 6 cable plugged into rack mounted triplite Cat 6 unshielded passthrough patch panel.

In order to get full 10G, I feel going with 6a is probably most reasonable. But reality is I am ok if I don’t get 10G at the other end of house as long as I get middle of house which should be definitely less than 55m. So with that I wonder shielded cat 6 will ensure no interference. A few questions.

1.Is cat 6A unshielded termination identical to cat 6 as long as I buy cat 6a rated keystone or RJ45 terminal? I have all tools for cat 6 and feel comfortable terminating either keystone or make end cable.

2.Shielded cat cable has grounding but my patch panel isn’t. So if I have ungrounded end, will I just get cat 6 quality or it actually result in degraded quality and result even inferior to regular cat 6 quality?

Basically, I’d want to have an setup if I could so even at furthest end I have potential to get 10G but not necessary to be right away as I am ok to leave it in cat 6 range coverage until the time comes at which point I can change my patch panel to cat 6a or shielded patch panel.

Thank you for the advice.

[Assistant]
Tech Focus said:
I have had cat 6, unshielded cables installed in our old home about a year ago. All lines have full gigabit speed up and down. But lately I got enough gears to allow me to start taking a little advantage of 10G network.

The furthest distant cable has one way 10G but other way only over 1G speed ie not giving full 10G. This cable is probably a little over the limit 55m distance.

I just got 4 more lines added but all lines even short distance one not reaching 10G and the furthest one is merely 10Mbps. It’s probably also 55m distance range but less than previously installed line so not even hitting 1Gbps is not right.

I tried to re-terminate the lines/jacks on my own couple times as I’ve done that many times and all in success. But it did not improve. So I feel possible defective cable. As I try to have installer exchange these lines, I am curious what cable I should be really using.

On rack side, I usually have keystone type termination with cat 6 cable plugged into rack mounted triplite Cat 6 unshielded passthrough patch panel.

In order to get full 10G, I feel going with 6a is probably most reasonable. But reality is I am ok if I don’t get 10G at the other end of house as long as I get middle of house which should be definitely less than 55m. So with that I wonder shielded cat 6 will ensure no interference. A few questions.

1.Is cat 6A unshielded termination identical to cat 6 as long as I buy cat 6a rated keystone or RJ45 terminal? I have all tools for cat 6 and feel comfortable terminating either keystone or make end cable.

2.Shielded cat cable has grounding but my patch panel isn’t. So if I have ungrounded end, will I just get cat 6 quality or it actually result in degraded quality and result even inferior to regular cat 6 quality?

Basically, I’d want to have an setup if I could so even at furthest end I have potential to get 10G but not necessary to be right away as I am ok to leave it in cat 6 range coverage until the time comes at which point I can change my patch panel to cat 6a or shielded patch panel.

Thank you for the advice.
Click to expand...
10gb: In theory, CAT.6 works for 50m. But it doesn't work properly over 30m in the real world.
You need CAT.6a or CAT.7. If you still want to use CAT.6 you need a 10gb switch like 20m - 10gb switch - 25m.

You're replying to a post from over three years ago.

To me there is a lot of bad cable out there. Maybe they are hoping we will run it at home with short distances and not notice that it will not stand up to the full spec.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: In need of good video(s) for Cat 6a cable stripping and punch down practices

Title explains the request.

I'm looking for one or more "How to" videos showing Cat 6a cable being installed, correctly, on to a punch block on a patch panel.

I've searched on YouTube and some, many, most of the things people say and do are questionable.

I'm looking for practices that fully and completely respect the specifications that allow for 500 Mhz bandwidth and 10 Gbps.

I have read the specs, more exactly cable manufacturer's summaries of the actual specs from ANSI/TIA-568.2-D and TIA.

[Assistant]
There is not much difference in crimping or punching down CAT 5, 6, 6a or 7. The connectors can be different. Use connectors and jacks made for the cable. In running cable avoid sharp bends. And it is a really good idea to not use solid conductor cable for patch cables.

bbunge said:
There is not much difference in crimping or punching down CAT 5, 6, 6a or 7. The connectors can be different. Use connectors and jacks made for the cable. In running cable avoid sharp bends. And it is a really good idea to not use solid conductor cable for patch cables.
Interesting videos, thanks.

I know the number of twists per inch in each pair is greater for 6a vs. 6, and I was interested to find out if there are any restrictions, limitations or good practices when the pairs are untwisted, straightened and punched. People bring this up in videos but the work varies and there's no consensus.

The guy in 1st video says make the pairs 'as straight as possible.' I've seen other vids where people say make 'perfectly straight.' Yet the specs have more twists per unit length and making the pairs straight would seem to contradict the twists.

It's also possible I am over thinking this point, expecting to see or read something, some practice, that does not exist.

Miner said:
Interesting videos, thanks.

I know the number of twists per inch in each pair is greater for 6a vs. 6, and I was interested to find out if there are any restrictions, limitations or good practices when the pairs are untwisted, straightened and punched. People bring this up in videos but the work varies and there's no consensus.

The guy in 1st video says make the pairs 'as straight as possible.' I've seen other vids where people say make 'perfectly straight.' Yet the specs have more twists per unit length and making the pairs straight would seem to contradict the twists.

It's also possible I am over thinking this point, expecting to see or read something, some practice, that does not exist.
Click to expand...

6a is a bit more sensitive to methods, most have the plastic cross in them and many have a foil on each pair that needs to be stripped back a certain amount so as not to short to the foils on other pairs etc. If you're specifically looking for 6a then I'd do some research on the methods for the particular type you have, FTP, FFTP, SFTP, etc. Each has different requirements.

Generally speaking if the distances are short and there isn't a ton of interference, it will be pretty forgiving but might as well do it right (or as right as possible).

For punching down you should not untwist at all, just open one twist enough to fit over the divider. For crimping they don't have to be perfectly straight, they'll straighten as inserted. But Cat6a requires different crimpers and ends than 5e or 6.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Just realised my Netgear switch does not support LACP or IEEE 802.3ad - does it matter?

So I bought a Netgear GS116Ev2 about 18 months ago and it stayed in the box until recently as I had to move house and then became far too ill to do anything very much for about a year.

Now I'm feeling a bit better, I've just discovered it doesn't support LACP: The manual states:

The switch does not support IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation or Link Aggregation
Control Protocol (LACP) groups but supports manual static LAGs only.

My router running OPNsense does support LACP and so does my Unraid server, so I'm a bit peeved that I bought a switch that doesn't.

My question is: Does this matter? What does it mean I can and can't do?

In OPNsense the options for LAG protocol are LACP, FAILOVER, FEC, LOADBALANCE and ROUNDROBIN so - just out of interest - which of these would work best with the manual static LAG the switch does? I assume either Loadbalance or Roundrobin?

What's going to be much more useful (because our internet is only around 70 Mbps down) is a LAG between the switch and my server which is running Unraid and has a spare 4 x 1000Mbps interface which I'd thought of splitting into two LAGs :-one to pass through to VMs and the other to handle streaming from Plex which could easily be three simultaneous HD streams and lossless audio over the LAN

cheers

[Assistant]
awediohead said:
So I bought a Netgear GS116Ev2 about 18 months ago and it stayed in the box until recently as I had to move house and then became far too ill to do anything very much for about a year.

Now I'm feeling a bit better, I've just discovered it doesn't support LACP: The manual states:

My router running OPNsense does support LACP and so does my Unraid server, so I'm a bit peeved that I bought a switch that doesn't.

My question is: Does this matter? What does it mean I can and can't do?

In OPNsense the options for LAG protocol are LACP, FAILOVER, FEC, LOADBALANCE and ROUNDROBIN so - just out of interest - which of these would work best with the manual static LAG the switch does? I assume either Loadbalance or Roundrobin?

What's going to be much more useful (because our internet is only around 70 Mbps down) is a LAG between the switch and my server which is running Unraid and has a spare 4 x 1000Mbps interface which I'd thought of splitting into two LAGs :-one to pass through to VMs and the other to handle streaming from Plex which could easily be three simultaneous HD streams and lossless audio over the LAN

cheers
Click to expand...

Not a big deal, setting up a static LAG isn't that hard. Static LAG also will not detect a "soft" failure of one link but that is uncommon anyway.

Obviously you can't use LACP mode on the OPNsense. Loadbalance is probably going to be the one that is compatible with the netgear but may have to trial and error it.

Keep in mind you can only exceed 1G if you have multiple flows/transfers going on. A single flow will still cap out at 1G. If both the switch and OPNSense support IP based load balancing it can help more scenarios utilize both links, but I suspect the netgear probably only supports MAC, in which case transferring two files between the same 2 devices will likely still be capped at 1G (though I have seen it work over both links even with just MAC, it depends on the specific scenario and all the devices in the path).

If you truly want >1G you need to look at multigig NICs and switches (2.5, 5, and 10G).

Thanks very much for
drinkingbird said:
Not a big deal, setting up a static LAG isn't that hard. Static LAG also will not detect a "soft" failure of one link but that is uncommon anyway.

Obviously you can't use LACP mode on the OPNsense. Loadbalance is probably going to be the one that is compatible with the netgear but may have to trial and error it.

Keep in mind you can only exceed 1G if you have multiple flows/transfers going on. A single flow will still cap out at 1G. If both the switch and OPNSense support IP based load balancing it can help more scenarios utilize both links, but I suspect the netgear probably only supports MAC, in which case transferring two files between the same 2 devices will likely still be capped at 1G (though I have seen it work over both links even with just MAC, it depends on the specific scenario and all the devices in the path).

If you truly want >1G you need to look at multigig NICs and switches (2.5, 5, and 10G).
Click to expand...
Thanks for this - I doubt we currently need >1G for any single flow which is why (aside from wanting to know which of the non-LACP options to choose in OPNsense out of curiosity), what I think might be practically useful is setting up LAGs between the switch and my server - which could in theory be accessed by several family members simultaneously to stream HD 2K and 4K media, access VMs, make back ups, while it's also running the *arrs and other background services, etc, etc. So it's more about just trying to make best use of what we've got and since the server has 4 x 1G ports unused and the switch has at least that many free . . .

It's clear from what you say that there's no "magic" happening with LACP and I can get to much the same place with a static LAG which is easy enough to set up on the Netgear switch. I'm just a bit peeved to note that there's a bunch of 24 port managed switches on ebay that do support LACP for quite a bit less than I paid for the Netgear 16 port switch . . . . grrrrr . . .

awediohead said:
Thanks very much for

Thanks for this - I doubt we currently need >1G for any single flow which is why (aside from wanting to know which of the non-LACP options to choose in OPNsense out of curiosity), what I think might be practically useful is setting up LAGs between the switch and my server - which could in theory be accessed by several family members simultaneously to stream HD 2K and 4K media, access VMs, make back ups, while it's also running the *arrs and other background services, etc, etc. So it's more about just trying to make best use of what we've got and since the server has 4 x 1G ports unused and the switch has at least that many free . . .

It's clear from what you say that there's no "magic" happening with LACP and I can get to much the same place with a static LAG which is easy enough to set up on the Netgear switch. I'm just a bit peeved to note that there's a bunch of 24 port managed switches on ebay that do support LACP for quite a bit less than I paid for the Netgear 16 port switch . . . . grrrrr . . .
Click to expand...

Eh if you have spare ports you can do a 4x to the server and 2x to the OPNSense. May need to check the netgear documentation to see which type they use, probably round robin I'd guess but not sure. I don't do a lot with LAG (do more port channeling on Cisco gear) but I suspect if one side is doing load balancing and the other is doing round robin it will probably coexist fine. Round robin is the most basic and easy one to implement so I suspect that's what netgear is doing.

When running VMs though I prefer to dedicate a NIC to the VM rather than sharing one, so you might want to mix and match, maybe a 2x LAG for the main OS (or the VM that will be heavily used) and 1G normal for the others.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: News MaxLinear MxL86282 for 8x 2.5GbE and 2x 10GbE Low Power Managed Switches Coming

Saw this over on servethehome.com

MaxLinear MxL86282 for 8x 2.5GbE and 2x 10GbE Low Power Managed Switches Coming
The new MaxLinear MxL86282 is an 8-port 2.5GbE and 2-port 10GbE switch chip that is set to deliver lower power switches soon
www.servethehome.com

So hopefully we start seeing prices come down a bit...

[Assistant]
I would like to see a low power 10 gig chip. I don't care about 2.5 gig.

It has two 10GbE low-power Ports. More soon to come.

sfx2000 said:
Saw this over on servethehome.com

MaxLinear MxL86282 for 8x 2.5GbE and 2x 10GbE Low Power Managed Switches Coming
The new MaxLinear MxL86282 is an 8-port 2.5GbE and 2-port 10GbE switch chip that is set to deliver lower power switches soon

So hopefully we start seeing prices come down a bit...
Click to expand...
That's too old news. I think you forgot this.
News - First picture of MaxLlinear's 8-port single-chip 2.5 Gbps switch
I attendend day 0 of Computex today and as I'm writing news for a different publication, I had a chat with the nice people over at MaxLinear and got an exclusive first look at their 8-port single-chip 2.5 switch development board. It should be quite affordable compared to current two chip...
www.snbforums.com


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: What sort of network tester do I need?

My home is cat5e networked and I have the VDSL signal from the master socket fed via Ethernet to the fibre modem sitting on my patch panel, with the modem output fed to my WiFi router's WAN port via Ethernet (let's call it cable 22) from the patch panel to the room where the router's located and plugged into the network point. This setup worked perfectly for years until recently when the router's broadband status light went red and showed as disconnected from the internet. I traced the fault to cable 22, which I tested with an RJ45 continuity tester which showed that all pins/wires were working fine, but clearly there's an issue with cable 22 from the patch panel to RJ45 module into which the router was plugged. I've since plugged the router into another network point and all's now fine.

What type of network tester could I use to diagnose the fault with the infrastructure cable 22 as it would seem the issue isn't the cable continuity but something else.

[Assistant]
Johno said:
My home is cat5e networked and I have the VDSL signal from the master socket fed via Ethernet to the fibre modem sitting on my patch panel, with the modem output fed to my WiFi router's WAN port via Ethernet (let's call it cable 22) from the patch panel to the room where the router's located and plugged into the network point. This setup worked perfectly for years until recently when the router's broadband status light went red and showed as disconnected from the internet. I traced the fault to cable 22, which I tested with an RJ45 continuity tester which showed that all pins/wires were working fine, but clearly there's an issue with cable 22 from the patch panel to RJ45 module into which the router was plugged. I've since plugged the router into another network point and all's now fine.

What type of network tester could I use to diagnose the fault with the infrastructure cable 22 as it would seem the issue isn't the cable continuity but something else.
Click to expand...
When you say you tested continuity did you use a simple cable tester that also confirms pinning similar to this tester from Amazon.

Amazon.com

Or did you just use a multi-meter?

If you also confirmed the pinning is correct about the only thing you can do that might salvage the cable is re terminate both ends and see if that solves the problem. If the actual cable it self is damaged and is in the wall not likely you can replace it.

CaptainSTX said:
When you say you tested continuity did you use a simple cable tester that also confirms pinning similar to this tester from Amazon.

Amazon.com

Or did you just use a multi-meter?

If you also confirmed the pinning is correct about the only thing you can do that might salvage the cable is re terminate both ends and see if that solves the problem. If the actual cable it self is damaged and is in the wall not likely you can replace it.
Click to expand...
I used a pin-to-pin tester like the one you've linked to. I plan to re-terminate the RJ45 socket first but might use a tool-less module to avoid errors punching down the wires.

I was wondering why the connection failed though, that perhaps there was a tester I could get that'd tell me where in the cable the issue was?

The fluke tester in my kit would do the job, but you wouldn't pay the price (£1800 when I got it). For a single cable just reterminate.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Using two routers with a switch

Simple question. How would I connect two routers to a switch? I'm not sure if one switch connection goes to the WAN or LAN side of the router, or if I use the WAN of the router and turn off DHCP and just assign an IP address withen the same space as router one. Please see diagram.

The goal here is to use the second router to cover an area with more Wi-Fi instead of this crappy TP-Link repeater I have that's been problematic.

Edit-

Forgot to include the modem. That's connected to router 1.

[Assistant]
Your picture is correct but router 2 should be configured as an access point or mesh node if you are trying to extend the WIFI.

Some mesh systems connected this way should us an unmanaged switch or a managed switch correctly set up with VLAN.

I don't want to use Wi-Fi mesh or anything fancy like that. I just want to plug-in router 2 to the switch for Internet and use router 2's Wi-Fi. So with that, how would I go about wiring with Ethernet cable router 2 to the switch in the proper way without double NAT or whatever.

You need to tell us the make and model of router 2.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: TP-Link the stupid company

Whenever I see one of my nics I feel TP-Link is just a stupid company.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09VCVTJV2/?tag=snbforums-20
AXE5400 Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.3 PCIe Adapter
Archer TXE75E arms your PC with Wi-Fi 6E technology and the brand-new 6 GHz band, unlocking your Wi-Fi 6E router’s full potential.
www.tp-link.com
They say it supports Bluetooth 5.3.
BUT.

[Assistant]
What's the problem with Bluetooth?

Packaging problem. Very bad company. Don't buy this adapter. Horrible. Disgusting. Feel better now?

It's not a stupid company , it's the people that don't read the information correctly.
They clearly state that version and features are dependent on region.
Some regions get different firmware / hardware , Bluetooth 5.2 in the UK and in other places Bluetooth 5.3.

AXE5400 Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.3 PCIe Adapter
Archer TXE75E arms your PC with Wi-Fi 6E technology and the brand-new 6 GHz band, unlocking your Wi-Fi 6E router’s full potential.
www.tp-link.com

AXE5400 Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.2 PCIe Adapter
Archer TXE75E arms your PC with Wi-Fi 6E technology and the brand-new 6 GHz band, unlocking your Wi-Fi 6E router’s full potential.
www.tp-link.com

Download for Archer TXE75E | TP-Link United Kingdom
TP Link - Download Center Detail
www.tp-link.com

IMPORTANT: Model and hardware version availability varies by region. Please refer to your TP-Link regional website to determine product availability.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: New Cisco L3 switch

I think I am going to buy a new Cisco L3 switch. One of my ports is kind of funky. I guess the switch needs a reset, but I think I may buy a new Cisco CBS350-8P-E-2G-NA switch. I found them on sale for $278 from a Cisco partner. It seems like a good buy right now. It has no fans so it will be quiet. I have a Cisco SG350x-24 10 gig switch but it gets noisy in the summertime as it has fans. I don't really need the 10 gig now as my internet is still slow.
I don't have a need for nbase-t as none of my clients have nbase-t speeds. And to buy nbase-t adds a lot to the price.
I do need POE+ power for my 3 Cisco 150ax wireless APs.
I assume the Cisco CBS switches will be as good or better than the SG switches which I have owned.

[Assistant]
coxhaus said:
I do need POE+ power for my 3 Cisco 150ax wireless APs.
So what is the verdict on the 150AX after a while in use? How would you compare them to the WAP571?

coxhaus said:
I do need POE+ power for my 3 Cisco 150ax wireless APs.
I assume the Cisco CBS switches will be as good or better than the SG switches which I have owned.

Just curious - which router are you using in your network?

RobJack said:
Just curious - which router are you using in your network?
I am using a Dell PC with pfsense using my L3 switch. I could not find a Cisco solution since they did away with the Cisco RV340 router. I tried to buy a Cisco baby Firepower firewall but Cisco will not sell me support for home use. I can buy the firewall but I can't get software updates, only for 90 days.
I was Cisco trained on the old Cisco PIX firewalls, so I have idea of how they work. I can see Cisco not wanting to deal with a bunch of homeowners buying a complicated firewall that they have no idea of how it works.

ddaenen1 said:
So what is the verdict on the 150AX after a while in use? How would you compare them to the WAP571?
I like the 150ax wireless APs as I have 9 ax clients. I don't have nbase-t clients as most of my new hardware clients are wireless which have ax support. What I like about the Cisco 150ax wireless APs is that they are cheap, and you can install a lot of them in all the heavily used rooms. I have an old house with walls that degrade the signals so having an AP in every room works much better for me.

My old Cisco WAP581 APs were better in that they were 4 x 4 units and would reach out farther, but the signal degrades going through walls so the signal is not as good overall as having more AP units. I also think the roaming could be better in the AX spec as it is not as good as the older units. But speed prevails. I do have an iRobot which vacuums my house 3 days a week and it has no problems with my wireless network.
If my granddaughter stays for the whole summer, then I will probably add another AP in her room. The Cisco 150ax are snappier using Windows 11 than using my older Cisco WAP581 APs and part of it is maybe having real close proximity with only air space between you and the AP. I have installed an AP in every room that we spend much time in. My wife's sewing room is in progress as she spends lots of time there doing projects. She also has an easy chair where she zooms a lot with her friends about their projects.

I have my 85-inch 4K TV using an AppleTV 4K on wireless. And it works great. I had a wire running there in the past but I have pulled it because the wire needs to cross a fireplace to reach the TV. I see no issues with TV on wireless. All my wireless APs run on different channels, so they do not wait on each other. The only issue I have had using the Cisco 150ax wireless APs is that they are slow to come back when you lose power. I have solved that by buying an APC Smart1000 battery backup which backs up the Cisco POE+ switch that keeps the APs hot when power drops.

My old Cisco WAP581 APs were $300 apiece. The new Cisco 150ax APs are $102. You can buy a lot of 150ax APs for what the old one's cost.
The old Cisco WAP581 APs pulls around 25 to 26 watts each. The Cisco 150ax APs pull around 11 watts so I run more for the same power draw. To run a lot of older WAP581 units I need a larger power POE+ switch.

My wireless now is the fastest it has ever been. But I am chasing 5 GHz. This is my thinking right now. I may have left out stuff as I am getting older, but this is what comes to mind as I write this.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Need help after power surge

Hey all. First post in a very long time. I'm fine around wifi routers but I don't know much about hardwire switches.

I moved into a new house like a year and a half ago. Electrician set up a wired network for me with a switch.

My setup was like this:

Comcast gigabit --> Motorola modem --> oldish Netgear orbi (wifi) ----(hardwire)--> network switch for wired Internet

I used the Orbi because that's what I had and it was working. Until last Saturday when a thunderstorm trashed my network switch. So since I need a new switch I was wondering if I should change up my setup. What would I need to buy to get wired backhaul? Can I get a switch that is a router and add access points hardwired in for wifi throughout the house? Any advice appreciated, I don't know very much and got confused researching myself.

Also would appreciate a way to test Ethernet jacks.

new setup:

Comcast gigabit --> Motorola modem --> ???

[Assistant]
Just replace your dead switch with an unmanaged 8 /16/ ? port switch to get back up. They are cheap. Netgear pro ( metal case) are generally very reliable. Buy a UPS to power the switch and your router.

use your existing lan cabling for wired backhaul with new APs if you don’t want to continue with the Orbi

Before you do that, we need to understand what devices and usage you have on your existing setup. Also, a sketch of your house , rough size, and location of all devices and lan terminations (wall plates).

First thing to do would be a whole house surge at the box. Then everything is protected. The UPS is useless if everything gets dried. Sure, the UPS buys you network time if the power goes out but, if you want long duration uptime a 5g FWA ISP box can get you 16h with a power bank attached.

Just replace the switch as stated before though and if you need more coverage get real APs like the nwa210ax or look at the omada.

I want to figure out what would be best instead of just throwing another switch in there.

Attaching pics of my house.

Can the switch be the router with access points for wifi?

Let's not focus on the surge itself. I had many devices on power surge protectors and I had whole-house surge protectors on each of my power boxes out the idiot installed them incorrectly. My modem and Orbi are on a cyberpower UPS already. My network switch was not.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Can one mix and match switches and routers from different brands?

Right now I'm using a D-Link DI-624 wireless router, but I need to add a few switches/hubs for my network. If I use some Linksys switches, which seem to be pretty good and have nice rebates from ZZF, will this cause any network instability/problems?

Will I be better of going with some D-Link switches just to avoid problems, or won't it really matter?

Thanks,

[Assistant]
I think you'll be fine.. I'm biased..i had a bad dlink switch and would not use theirs. Also had a tplink that would not really do gigabit....so biased against them also.. from one bad unit..lol.

Unless you're using a proprietary feature (AiMesh on Asus devices for example) then mix and match will cause no issues.

Ironically the only time I had an issue was 2 same brand switches - both ostensibly 8 port gig switches but different models from that brand. They point blank refused to auto-negotiate properly.

Per @eightiescalling, you might have some weird issues with specific equipment combinations. But there's no way to predict those in advance. By and large, if you are connecting 1Gbps-or-less ethernet ports you don't have much to worry about; those standards were sorted out years ago. Things are still a bit iffy at higher speeds though. For example, I have a Trendnet switch with 2.5Gbps ports that doesn't work entirely reliably with the up-to-10Gbps port on a recent Mac Mini (who knows which unit is more at fault). And I've heard other tales suggesting that the 2.5Gbps standard isn't quite compatible with faster ethernet specs. But I've never had a problem connecting 1Gbps-rated ports.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: CAT5e still shows 10/100...

Hello all - thanks in advance for the help. I'm a beginner, so go easy. I've done a lot of research and need guidance on next steps in order to solve my problem as I'm not sure what to do next.

Problem:

I'm trying to run a simple CAT5e cable from my router to an endpoint (laptop with wired connection) and get Gigabit speeds. Can't seem to get it to register at 1 gigabit though, only says 10/100 (in windows). Trying to figure out what to do next.

Some more information:

1. The cable i'm using is an old Belkin cable and it's labeled for 5e on its side. I cut it in half and then terminated both ends MYSELF to verify all 4 twisted pairs are tight with no gaps between the cable and termination. My cable tester (although cheap) registers all 8 wires as connecting properly on both ends. Cable tester does not test for speed or anything else. That all checks out so i'm pretty sure my terminations with RJ45 plugs (3 prong) using the T568B standard are good. 1 half of it registers gigabit, so I don't THINK the cable is the issue. Here's what the side of the cable has printed on it...

E158012 Verified (UL) & (ETL) CMR Category 5E 350 MHZ TO TIA/EIA-568B . 2 24 AWG 4 UTP C(UL) 06728FT

2. The original cable itself was too long, so I cut it in half as I only needed about 50 feet or so. As a test, I took the other half (longer) of the cable that I didn't run, terminated both ends and tested it between router and end point. REGISTERS 1 GIGABIT just fine.

3. The part of the cable that I did run is only through the floor boards of my house, around some of the duct work for the HVAC system and alongside some other (dead) wiring. It is not parallel to any particular AC cabling and only crosses some AC cabling at one point.

4. I've verified on more than one laptop that the bad cable still registers at 10/100 rather than gigabit.

5. I just noticed the 6728 FT part on the cable, but I know this cable is WAY shorter than that. I think total we are talking 150 ft maybe, not even. That's BEFORE i cut it in half (almost). I know I had this cable as far back as 2008 or so...I think.

Questions on next steps...

I'd really like to NOT re-run this cable and would like to figure it out. Here are some guesses.

1. When I ran the cable, I may have crimped/bent it when running it over the HVAC system. How would i test for broken or bad connections in the middle of the cable? My internet sleuthing has turned up a test that I could do with a standard multimeter (which i have) by shorting the ends of each twisted pair and seeing its resistance (ohms) readout on the other end, but I'm wondering if there is anything I can try using my PC/ Laptop and router first that would be easier? Again, my cable tester didn't show anything broken so I'm hesitant to try this.

2. My terminations are bad, even though my tester says they pinout correctly. Thoughts on this? I could re-terminate each end, but am trying to be smart about this. Reason I haven't is because the tester tells me my pins are lined up, so again i'm leaning away from this option.

3. How would i figure out if there is interference of some kind? Is there a way to test for this other than ripping the cable out? I suppose the ohms test in #1 might show me whats up? Again, don't want to cut off my terminations again but I'm leaning this way for both #1 and this test.

Here's the small crimping kit and tester kit that I bought for this project. I really like the crimper, as it does passthrough and feels solid (to me at least). Tester is garbage cheap but does what I wanted.

Amazon.com

Thanks for any advice. My last resort (obviously) is to re-run the cable but I'd rather learn something first

[Assistant]
koonthul said:
Hello all - thanks in advance for the help. I'm a beginner, so go easy. I've done a lot of research and need guidance on next steps in order to solve my problem as I'm not sure what to do next.

Problem:

I'm trying to run a simple CAT5e cable from my router to an endpoint (laptop with wired connection) and get Gigabit speeds. Can't seem to get it to register at 1 gigabit though, only says 10/100 (in windows). Trying to figure out what to do next.

Some more information:

1. The cable i'm using is an old Belkin cable and it's labeled for 5e on its side. to verify all 4 twisted pairs are tight with no gaps between the cable and termination. My cable tester (although cheap) registers all 8 wires as connecting properly on both ends. Cable tester does not test for speed or anything else. That all checks out so i'm pretty sure my terminations with RJ45 plugs (3 prong) using the T568B standard are good. 1 half of it registers gigabit, so I don't THINK the cable is the issue. Here's what the side of the cable has printed on it...

2. The original cable itself was too long, so I cut it in half as I only needed about 50 feet or so. As a test, I took the other half (longer) of the, terminated both ends and tested it between router and end point. just fine.

3. The part of the cable that I did run is only through the floor boards of my house, around some of the duct work for the HVAC system and alongside some other (dead) wiring. It is not parallel to any particular AC cabling and only some AC cabling at one point.

4. I've verified on more than one laptop that the bad cable still registers at 10/100 rather than gigabit.

5. I just noticed the 6728 FT part on the cable, but I know this cable is WAY shorter than that. I think total we are talking 150 ft maybe, not even. That's BEFORE i cut it in half (almost). I know I had this cable as far back as 2008 or so...I think.

Questions on next steps...

I'd really like to NOT re-run this cable and would like to figure it out. Here are some guesses.

1. When I ran the cable, I may have crimped/bent it when running it over the HVAC system. How would i test for broken or bad connections in the middle of the cable? My internet sleuthing has turned up a test that I could do with a standard multimeter (which i have) by shorting the ends of each twisted pair and seeing its resistance (ohms) readout on the other end, but I'm wondering if there is anything I can try using my PC/ Laptop and router first that would be easier? Again, my cable tester didn't show anything broken so I'm hesitant to try this.

2. My terminations are bad, even though my tester says they pinout correctly. Thoughts on this? I could re-terminate each end, but am trying to be smart about this. Reason I haven't is because the tester tells me my pins are lined up, so again i'm leaning away from this option.

3. How would i figure out if there is interference of some kind? Is there a way to test for this other than ripping the cable out? I suppose the ohms test in #1 might show me whats up? Again, don't want to cut off my terminations again but I'm leaning this way for both #1 and this test.

Here's the small crimping kit and tester kit that I bought for this project. I really like the crimper, as it does passthrough and feels solid (to me at least). Tester is garbage cheap but does what I wanted.

Thanks for any advice. My last resort (obviously) is to re-run the cable but I'd rather learn something first
Click to expand...

It is very unlikely that interference would drop you to 10/100 (which is it, 10 or 100?). Possible, but never seen it happen, it would have to be pretty severe. Typically you'd just have lots of packet loss, errors, etc.

Are you testing with the same two endpoints on the test cable vs the one through the floor?

BTW Spools of cable do not start at 0 feet. You deduct the number at one end from the number at the other to see how long the run is. It can be any random number, usually they go 00000 through 99999 and start over but I've seen higher ones too.

Did you re-terminate both ends of the cable that you ran through the floor or leave one of the original ends on it? The tester just needs some sort of continuity so maybe one pin is making poor contact but enough to register on the tester.

But other than that, your next step would be testing pairs of wires with one end shorted together and the multimeter on the other to see if there is high resistance in any of them. If you have a female keystone jack you could make your own loopback terminator.

By far the most common reason that two gig capable endpoints come up at 100M is one or more of the 8 wires is not connected or swapped. If it is a garbage cheap tester maybe it is not telling you that a pair is reversed. Look at both ends visually and make sure they are all the way in and the order of the colors is right. Those testers will tell you the cable is fine if you've made the same mistake on both sides. While technically the cable will work and is still "straight through" the crosstalk can be really bad when you mix pins up. Pairs are meant to be + and - twisted together, not + from one pair and - from another.

The color code for B should start with orange/white striped on the left when looking at the connector from the pin side (not the clip side). If you've reversed it, the crosstalk will be really bad and could explain it not connecting over a longer distance.

EDIT - realized that wasn't specific enough. Pin 1 (orange/white) is on the left when the gold pins are facing up toward the sky and are furthest away from you (cable is facing toward you with the connector further away from you). If you use a magnifying glass or have really good eyes, one side will be marked "1" and sometimes the other side marked "8".

What do you mean by 3 prong RJ45 plugs?

Worst case, cut and re-terminate both ends again. Those no-name RJ45 connectors can be hit or miss. Maybe one is making just enough contact to register on the tester but not good contact in the PC.

Picture is worth 1000 words, make sure both ends look like this

It is very unlikely that interference would drop you to 10/100 (which is it, 10 or 100?)
Great question! I can pull down around 80 so I'm pretty sure I'm capped at 100.

Are you testing with the same two endpoints on the test cable vs the one through the floor?
Not sure what you mean here. Each cable has two terminations that are RJ45 plugs that are all the same, and i've used the same test setup for both (router and pc) as end points. The only difference (that I can see) is that the working test cable is not run through the floor and around the duct work. The other one that is not working is "installed" in the floor.

Did you re-terminate both ends of the cable that you ran through the floor or leave one of the original ends on it? The tester just needs some sort of continuity so maybe one pin is making poor contact but enough to register on the tester.
I cut off all the old terminations and re-did them myself. I get your point about the connection being weak, so I might just suck it up and re-terminate again.

What do you mean by 3 prong RJ45 plugs?

If you look at the uncrimped RJ45 plugs that I got with my set, they have 3 points of contact when crimped with the wire (3 points dig into the wires when crimped), not 2. I read somewhere that 2 points was okay for solid but you need 3 for stranded. More is better here? or not?

@drinkingbird - thanks for the image, I have several cheat sheets that I've been using for the wiring standard and my crimpers even have a cheat sheet printed on them. I will double check again though for bad pairs though.

Worst case, cut and re-terminate both ends again. Those no-name RJ45 connectors can be hit or miss. Maybe one is making just enough contact to register on the tester but not good contact in the PC.
I hadn't thought about the actual gold contacts on the plug making good contact with the inside of the NIC on the machines (router and PC). I will check that next. As for the crimping part, can you OVERCRIMP? As in, will that damage the contacts and not make a connection? Really wondering if I did that here or not.

koonthul said:
If you look at the uncrimped RJ45 plugs that I got with my set, they have 3 points of contact when crimped with the wire (3 points dig into the wires when crimped), not 2. I read somewhere that 2 points was okay for solid but you need 3 for stranded. More is better here? or not?

Ah sorry, I call those teeth but prong makes sense too. All good RJ45 ends have 3 teeth. If you ever have to terminate stranded... its an art form, prepare to have some patience.

koonthul said:
@drinkingbird - thanks for the image, I have several cheat sheets that I've been using for the wiring standard and my crimpers even have a cheat sheet printed on them. I will double check again though for bad pairs though.

Yeah I would definitely double check both ends. Make sure the wires are all in the correct order and pushed all the way in.

koonthul said:
I hadn't thought about the actual gold contacts on the plug making good contact with the inside of the NIC on the machines (router and PC). I will check that next. As for the crimping part, can you OVERCRIMP? As in, will that damage the contacts and not make a connection? Really wondering if I did that here or not.

With a decent crimper and ends, over crimping should not be possible, but that set looks fairly generic, so never know. But your other test cable that you crimped works fine. It is possible the test set has pins that stick down further and are making contact with a pin on the RJ45 that is too deep. Or it is just very sensitive and a very weak contact is making it light up, but that isn't enough to pass full signal.

I stick with only recognized brands for RJ45 ends. I've been using Tripp Lite ends for years and never had a bad crimp, I've used Ideal in a pinch too and never an issue there either. Used to grab handfuls from work too, don't recall what brand, probably Commscope or Panduit. Those are the best but they're pricey, the Tripps have been the best value I've found.

If everything looks good, I'd cut your ends off, loop/short each pair and test with a multimeter and see if one pair is higher resistance than the rest. If so, you may have cracked one or more wires if you bent it too hard (especially if it is CCA however if it is old it probably is not, but copper can still crack/break). In that case you have no choice but to pull a new one through. If not, re-terminate and see if it is better this time, if so you had a bad connector or crimp.

While most "continuity only" test sets are pretty similar some are a lot better in that they will not light up if they don't get enough voltage or have high resistance.

The fact that you are getting 80 megs over 100M tells me it probably isn't terrible interference, but rather one or more bad wires out of the 8. Theoretically you should be able to get up to about 95 megs but you probably would need IPERF to get that high, 80 over an internet speed test from a 100M connection is reasonable.

Since most cannot afford a Fluke test set (which tests quality) or even the cheaper brands with quality/throughput tests (which are still expensive), there are a few tricks. A couple PCs with IPERF can tell you if you're getting 95% throughput or not. In linux, check ifconfig on both machines after and look for errors, discards, etc. In windows use netstat -e and look for errors/discards. Or better yet open powershell and do "Get-NetAdapterStatistics | fl *" without the quotes. That has much more detailed counters. There are a couple others for TCP/UDP/ICMP stats but that can be misleading as some errors/discards are normal there so I'd stick with the layer 2 ones above.

Actually you could run those now, before and after one of your 80M speed tests, and see if you're getting any errors or not.

If you put a smart switch in the path that has port counters on it, you can check for errors on that after the iperf test too but just looking at the ones on the machines themselves is better. Some smart switches have a "cable test" feature, but it is fairly rudimentary. They claim to be able to tell you the distance to the bad spot but I've never had a bad cable to test it with. I have seen a Fluke do it and it was within a couple feet of accurate (on a 100+ foot run), quite impressive (should be considering how much they cost).

Sorry that's just sort of a brain dump and not really in any particular order, just some stuff to try if you're looking to learn and troubleshoot rather than just replace the cable. Unless you're passing it through a major source of EMI I think that is the least likely cause, but never impossible. This definitely sounds like a physical problem though.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Dumb vs Managed PoE switch

We're currently using an Asus RT-AC86U but this will soon be replaced by a low power s920 Fujitsu PC running either OPNsense or pfSense (haven't made my mind up) which will in turn connect to a Netgear 16 port managed switch for the home inter PC network. When I bought this switch a while ago (we've moved house since) I hadn't factored in CCTV which now seems like a good idea, given the area we've moved to.

So the cheapest option is to buy a 5 port unmanaged PoE switch - though initially there'll only be two PoE cameras - and put this on a VLAN either through the router or the switch or direct to my server running Shinobi on a separate NIC.

My question is, given I can do the "management" either on the managed switch, the router or the server, are there any good reasons to buy a managed PoE switch I'm missing?

Assuming the answer is "no" are there any specs or features I should be looking for with an unamanaged PoE switch beyond the wattage it can supply?

Assuming the answer is "yes" and I go looking for a secondhand managed PoE switch, are modern PoE switches significantly more power efficient vs the ones I'm seeing on eBay from 10 or so years ago? Any 'gotchas' to watch out for? Any specific recommendations?

Many thanks

[Assistant]
Management means more money.

If you segment things though a dumb switch directly to the nic you don't need management functions.

awediohead said:
We're currently using an Asus RT-AC86U but this will soon be replaced by a low power s920 Fujitsu PC running either OPNsense or pfSense (haven't made my mind up) which will in turn connect to a Netgear 16 port managed switch for the home inter PC network. When I bought this switch a while ago (we've moved house since) I hadn't factored in CCTV which now seems like a good idea, given the area we've moved to.

So the cheapest option is to buy a 5 port unmanaged PoE switch - though initially there'll only be two PoE cameras - and put this on a VLAN either through the router or the switch or direct to my server running Shinobi on a separate NIC.

My question is, given I can do the "management" either on the managed switch, the router or the server, are there any good reasons to buy a managed PoE switch I'm missing?

Assuming the answer is "no" are there any specs or features I should be looking for with an unamanaged PoE switch beyond the wattage it can supply?

Assuming the answer is "yes" and I go looking for a secondhand managed PoE switch, are modern PoE switches significantly more power efficient vs the ones I'm seeing on eBay from 10 or so years ago? Any 'gotchas' to watch out for? Any specific recommendations?

Many thanks
Click to expand...

As long as everything on that switch can be in the same single VLAN, dumb is fine. You also lose port counters, QOS, LAG, etc but probably not needed.

More important is making sure the switch supports the POE type the cameras need. POE, POE+, POE++ type 3, POE++ type 4. Also the total wattage the switch can handle will cover all the expected cameras.

Thank you - very reassuring. Trying to avoid the whole "buy cheap buy twice" thing, which stings IME, so really appreciate the advice.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: CAT7 tops at 100Mbps

Need urgent help. I purchased some CAT7 cables. I have a CAT6a in the wall.

The connection from the computer to the wall is made with Cat 7 and I get 100Mbps with it. This is how the NIC reports and also a download test.
My internet connection is 1Gbps.

When I put back the old cable, cat 5e from the computer to the wall, I get 1Gbps speed according to the NIC and a download speed of 910Mbps.
A test with LANtest equipment comes fine. what could be the problem?

[Assistant]
Pins don't match on both ends and end to end.

Not sure why you're using a C7 though for 3X the price of 5E.

Tech Junky said:
Not sure why you're using a C7 though for 3X the price of 5E.
pins don't match?
But they do... how did you establish that?

As for why, because there are lots of power cables and wifi crap in the walls and house and I wanted to get the best possible line for my 1Gbps connection

gil80 said:
best possible line for my 1Gbps
Turns out the 5E is your best connection medium.

The issue with the speed on cat 7 being 100mbps is either the pins don't match, bad cable, or changing the frequency along the path is causing the degraded speed.