>1GB Ethernet

[satukoro]

Comcast has decided to upgrade my speed (without me asking) to 1200Mbps. My computer(s) at home all have 1Gb ethernet and my router is a netgear nighthawk ac1750 (R6700). I have a Netgear CM1100 multigig modem which could in theory pass 1Gb/e x2 to a router.

I really only care about >1Gb speeds on my desktop which is connected over a 100ft CAT6 (which allegedly could work up to 10Gb/s over this distance).

I'm thinking the best course of action (to support future speed upgrades but also to not overspend) would one of the following options:

• get a 10Gb nic for my pc, get a 10Gb ethernet router, enjoy 1.2Gbps internet
• get a second 1Gb nic for my pc, attempt to team my nics in debian (very little experience with nic teaming, did it once before on a windows server), get a router with >1Gb WAN port, use 2 ports on router
• wait a while and get a mobo that supports 10Gb (just installed a Ryzen 5800x so I'm not planning to upgrade my mobo + processor until late 2025 or early 2026) and get a multigig router

I'm on the fence here. Has anyone dealt with this situation recently? I'm tempted to just ask comcast to drop my speed back down to 1Gbps, but I'm curious to see what my options are for upgrades. I really like netgear's line of routers + modems (have had mine on for years with no issues) but am willing to consider alternatives.

[Good Bot, Bad Bot]

I am confused... Is Comcast charging you more for the speed upgrade?

[satukoro]

On 22/01/2024 at 11:53, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

I am confused... Is Comcast charging you more for the speed upgrade?

They've been slowly raising the price of my bill for the last two years. I finally checked it and it looks like I'm now at 1200Mbps up from 1000Mbps. I'm on the fence of whether I'm going to roll with it (gotta plan for faster speeds eventually amirite) or if it's too expensive for me to take advantage of the faster speeds I am going to drop it back down.

[Good Bot, Bad Bot]

On 22/01/2024 at 12:11, satukoro said:

They've been slowly raising the price of my bill for the last two years. I finally checked it and it looks like I'm now at 1200Mbps up from 1000Mbps. I'm on the fence of whether I'm going to roll with it (gotta plan for faster speeds eventually amirite) or if it's too expensive for me to take advantage of the faster speeds I am going to drop it back down.

But did you get an price increase when they raised your speed? They shouldn't have done that so in that case there is no real problem. Is there even a 1.2 GB plan? Are you sure not on a 1GB plan and just getting better speeds? It happens...

[satukoro]

On 22/01/2024 at 12:54, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

But did you get an price increase when they raised your speed? They shouldn't have done that so in that case there is no real problem. Is there even a 1.2 GB plan? Are you sure not on a 1GB plan and just getting better speeds? It happens...

Yes there is a 1.2GB plan. I appreciate your input but this isn't really what I'm asking about.

I'm looking for advice on supporting >1Gb ethernet speeds at home.

 

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

@BudManmay be able to help here.

 

Otherwise, which speed are you getting, currently, from your computer? Run a speedtest and let us know the outcome.

[Good Bot, Bad Bot]

On 22/01/2024 at 14:07, satukoro said:

Yes there is a 1.2GB plan. I appreciate your input but this isn't really what I'm asking about.

I'm looking for advice on supporting >1Gb ethernet speeds at home.

 

I have never seen Internet plans with small jumps in bandwidth like that (after 500 Mbps) which is why was asking. Regardless, there is no hurry for you to do anyhting. You are not going to notice any difference  between 1GB and 1.2GB service so downgrade if that is an actual option. I have a 1GB plan myself and when run speed tests the results will swing 200 Mbps easily.

[satukoro]

On 22/01/2024 at 14:11, Mindovermaster said:

@BudManmay be able to help here.

 

Otherwise, which speed are you getting, currently, from your computer? Run a speedtest and let us know the outcome.

I'm getting upper 900Mbps when I run a test, I'm definitely getting 1Gbps to the desktop (minus overhead).

[Good Bot, Bad Bot]

On 22/01/2024 at 14:11, Mindovermaster said:

@BudManmay be able to help here.

 

Otherwise, which speed are you getting, currently, from your computer? Run a speedtest and let us know the outcome.

I just checked his profile but he hasn't commented in over a month now. Hmmmm

[Barney T. Administrators]

Moved to the Network subsection for better coverage.

[satukoro]

On 22/01/2024 at 14:23, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

I have never seen Internet plans with small jumps in bandwidth like that (after 500 Mbps) which is why was asking. Regardless, there is no hurry for you to do anyhting. You are not going to notice any difference  between 1GB and 1.2GB service so downgrade if that is an actual option. I have a 1GB plan myself and when run speed tests the results will swing 200 Mbps easily.

I looked at my downgrade options recently and unfortunately it would only save me $5/mo to downgrade to 1000Mb vs 1200Mb. One town over has municipal fiber which has been expanding to nearby towns (which fingers crossed might make it up to my area in a few years) and it just makes me drool seeing them get 1Gb symmetrical for less than half the price of my internet bill. Comcast is the only non-satellite internet in my town that offers anything better than 7Mb DSL which just makes me sad.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

On 22/01/2024 at 13:23, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

I have never seen Internet plans with small jumps in bandwidth like that (after 500 Mbps) which is why was asking. Regardless, there is no hurry for you to do anyhting. You are not going to notice any difference  between 1GB and 1.2GB service so downgrade if that is an actual option. I have a 1GB plan myself and when run speed tests the results will swing 200 Mbps easily.

I personally talked to him over PM a few days ago. He has been looking around, but not posting like he used to. Look when he was last on..

[Good Bot, Bad Bot]

On 22/01/2024 at 14:31, satukoro said:

I looked at my downgrade options recently and unfortunately it would only save me $5/mo to downgrade to 1000Mb vs 1200Mb. One town over has municipal fiber which has been expanding to nearby towns (which fingers crossed might make it up to my area in a few years) and it just makes me drool seeing them get 1Gb symmetrical for less than half the price of my internet bill. Comcast is the only non-satellite internet in my town that offers anything better than 7Mb DSL which just makes me sad.

Well I wouldn't upgrade hardware for 200 Mbps so would wait until have better options.

[rmorris003]

I have just upgraded to Rogers 1.5Gbps from Gigabit a few months ago and upgraded a TP Link 10gig card to my desktop and Eero Max 7 (from Asus XT8) and works great on my Aorus X570 Elite Wifi and 5900x.

[sagum]

I'm on 10g LAN at home.

I run a mixture of 10g over OM3 fiber, and ethernet cables. I'm not going to say CAT6 or CAT7 etc, because in my experience they all perform kind of poor in comparison to fiber. Speeds range from 3.5GB/s to 7Gb/s or there abouts from 20 meter ethernet cables.
However, the biggest issue is going to have storage to support the transfers. If you're using SATA SSD drives, they're going to flush the cache pretty and even then you're going to be limited to SATA3 speeds. But at least you'll hit around 4-5Gb/s.

Still, if it's what you want;

Mikrotik CRS305 - This is a 4 port SFP+ for 10g connectivity + 1 port for gigabit. You can usually pick this up used really cheap as people use these for home labs and move on to larger switches later.
For the SFP+ ports you'll need SFP+ modules. These can be different kinds of fiber, ethernet or even coax etc. Mikrotik doesn't really mind what brand you use so just pickup the cheapest. I went with some FluxLight 10g LC fiber modules and Hi! Fiber for the ethernet connectivity. 
For the network cards, I've used HPe (518001-001) branded Mellanox 2 cards, and Solarflare S6102 cards. These were used and paid less than £15 each delivered.
Then I've purchased pre-terminated LC-LC OM3 fiber from Amazon.

This will get you up and running with a LAN at home with 10g either on fiber or ethernet with up to 4 machines. Depending on how many you want and how you want to configure the network. The switch by default is in switch mode, using SwOS, but it also supports the full RouterOS.

While not on Comcast here, I am on FTTH 1g/1g and this largely what my 10g network consists of.

With that said, all the network cables I've got, even the cheapest flat CAT5 cables will do more than 1g networking from what I've tested. So you might find you just want to check out Serve The Home's round up of 2.5G switches, they're very accessible now and you just need 2.5 to 10g cards for your machines, using your existing ethernet work. But if like me, if you're going to spend on a switch and network cards anyway... i went full 10g instead.

Good luck.

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

Your Netgear CM1100 modem appears to support link aggregation.

I think you should also be able to do link aggregation on both the WAN and LAN of your Nighthawk router:

• WAN: https://kb.netgear.com/000061095/How-do-I-set-up-WAN-Internet-Ethernet-port-aggregation-on-my-NETGEAR-Nighthawk-router
• LAN: https://kb.netgear.com/000060368/How-do-I-set-up-LAN-Ethernet-port-aggregation-on-my-NETGEAR-Nighthawk-router

If you managed to do the above you'd then need a 2.5 GbE Switch that supports link aggregation, in addition to a 2.5 GbE NIC for your PC / any other device you wish to connect at 2.5 GbE speeds.

Realistically though I think you might end up over complicating things for the sake of keeping your current hardware. It might well be easier just to get a new modem and router that support 2.5 GbE (or better) networking as you'd have to purchase a 2.5 GbE Switch to make the current hardware work.

Something else to consider is do you have a need for >1 GbE internet at the moment to make it worthwhile upgrading your hardware? I question if you will really notice much difference day to day beyond doing a Speedtest?

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Comcast has been steadily upgrading the speed of 900Mb-1Gb customers to 1.2Gb in various markets and is even rolling on 2Gb in a few.  If you do not rent a cable modem from them, the 2Gb service requires purchase of a new cable modem from a very short list of approved devices, even if your existing cable modem supports download speeds greater than 1Gb.

If price is an issue, you might want to look at using 2.5GbE for some devices and 10GbE for others.  10GbE network cards using Marvell’s Aquantia AQC113 chip are starting on Amazon for a little over $70, and Ethernet switches with 4-5 2.5GbE with 1-2 10GbE ports as well.  The latter all seem to have SFP+ for the 10GbE option, so you would need the appropriate 10GbE Base-T SFP+ module(s) well in order to use the Cat. 6 cabling with them.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[satukoro]

I found a handful of 10G routers after a bit of research but im sure I could find something a little more valuable for the money.

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-RT-BE96U-802-11BE-Performance-Extendable/dp/B0BZFK3BF8

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Nighthawk-Tri-Band-Router-RS700S/dp/B0C9JQLDCG/

This TP link one looks like the best deal of the three considering its 4x 2.5g ports however I've had bad experiences with TP link hardware and would rather something from a different brand even if I have to pay more: https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Archer-BE800-High-Performance-HomeShield/dp/B0C4VZWTM7/

I found this dual 10g ethernet pcie card but I've never heard of this brand before so I'm not sure, but I need confirmed linux support so it's not a terrible option for the price: https://www.amazon.com/10Gtek-X540-T2-Converged-Network-Adapter/dp/B01HMGWOU8?th=1

 

I wouldn't mind spending a few hundred on a new router if I can get a good few years out of it. Same for the pcie nic. I'll definitely have to look at a new modem at some point but for now my CM1100 should be fine.

*Note: I really don't think I'll be moving to an sfp+ / fiber implementation any time soon. I understand it is way better than ethernet in pretty much every aspect (I helped implement a 10G fiber backbone between buildings at my workplace), and I'm actually astonished at how low the prices are for some off brand dac cables, but for the sake of simplicity and not dealing with a 50/50 solution I'll be moving forward with ethernet until it doesn't make sense anymore.

Edited January 23 by satukoro

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

10Gtek is a networking company that originally started making SFPs, cables, and similar hardware, but has since branched out to network and storage cards.  I have used a few of the former in the past without issue.

Their X540-T2 card is based on Intel's X540-T2 Network Adapter, and performs identically to it.  It's an older model, and only supports Fast Ethernet (100Mbps), 1GbE, and 10GbE speeds, and not the newer 2.5GbE or 5GbE speeds.  The latter has become increasing rare since the price of 10GbE networking gear has dropped and the rise of inexpensive 2.5GbE gear.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

 

[+BudMan MVC]

On 22/01/2024 at 13:07, satukoro said:

I'm looking for advice on supporting >1Gb ethernet speeds at home.

There are multiple ways to do that, jumping all the way to 10 is one option..  But there is also 2.5 and 5ge options available. You can pick up a 2.5ge switch for like 100 bucks these days.

I run 2.5ge between my pc and nas via usb nics, that were like 40 bucks..

$ iperf3.exe -c 192.168.10.10                                                            
Connecting to host 192.168.10.10, port 5201                                              
[  5] local 192.168.10.9 port 56672 connected to 192.168.10.10 port 5201                 
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate                                            
[  5]   0.00-1.01   sec   284 MBytes  2.37 Gbits/sec                                     
[  5]   1.01-2.01   sec   280 MBytes  2.35 Gbits/sec                                     
[  5]   2.01-3.00   sec   274 MBytes  2.30 Gbits/sec                                     
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec   276 MBytes  2.31 Gbits/sec                                     
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec   280 MBytes  2.35 Gbits/sec                                     
[  5]   5.00-6.01   sec   282 MBytes  2.34 Gbits/sec                                     
[  5]   6.01-7.01   sec   278 MBytes  2.34 Gbits/sec                                     
[  5]   7.01-8.01   sec   279 MBytes  2.33 Gbits/sec                                     
[  5]   8.01-9.01   sec   274 MBytes  2.31 Gbits/sec                                     
[  5]   9.01-10.00  sec   279 MBytes  2.35 Gbits/sec                                     
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -                                        
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate                                            
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  2.72 GBytes  2.34 Gbits/sec                  sender             
[  5]   0.00-10.01  sec  2.72 GBytes  2.33 Gbits/sec                  receiver           

Did they change out your modem.. your modem would have to have a above gig interface for it to work.. My Arris S33 modem has a 2.5ge interface for example.. But my provider doesn't offer any plans over 1ge as of yet..

And my router has no ports over 1ge..

For you to get over 1ge to your PC you would need modem that has higher than 1ge interface on the ethernet side, your router would have to have over 1ge, your switch if using one would need to support, and then your PC would need to support.  2.5 and 5 are support on normal cat 5 for short distances.. I have seen 2.5 over 25feet without any issues on an old cat 5 cable.

But yeah 6 is rated for 10ge up to 100feet.

There are many ways to skin this cat, but 1 to 1.2 isn't all that much, not sure it would be worth forking over cash to uplift your network just to see such a small increase.. that you prob never even be able to tell.... Unless you move a lot of files between devices on your local network.. I for sure could never go back to gig.. I move too much data between my pc and nas, it would be like watching paint dry at this point.  But 1ge vs 1.2ge to the internet - prob not going to see much gain there to be honest.

2.5ge would be easier to uplift too because you see copper do this all the time, 10ge stuff is cheaper when its a fiber connection, and that is really the direction to go to for 10ge..  So an uplift to 2.5 for your router and switch would be cheaper and easier option.  And devices that don't support changing the nic, can quite often just use a usb nic to leverage 2.5.. My nas has no way to add an actual nic.. But I can see the 2.5ge via just cheap usb nic on it.

Adding multiple nics to go over 1 is an option if your talking say smb transfers between your devices locally.. That really not an option for connection to the internet for a single device.. But with smb3 multichannel and smb file transfers, you can for sure do that - all that is needed is turn smb3 multichannel on and for your devices to both have say 2x1ge connections... I did this for awhile with my nas and pc for awhile, and saw decent performance with it.  Like 220MBps.. but with 2.5ge connection I can max out at 270-280...

Your biggest expense is prob the router that has 2.5ge interfaces.. I just look saw a trendnet 2.5ge unmanaged 5 port for 85 bucks on amazon.  My S33 modem I got like a year ago maybe was 156$, just look show it on amazon for 175 currently.. There are for sure other options.. Or maybe your isp supplied device has 2.5ge interfaces?

 

 

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

One thing to keep in mind is that while Comcast supports many different cable modems at speeds up to 1.2Gbps (1,200Mbps) for download speeds, the number of devices they support for 2Gbps downloads is very small.  The latest list is located at https://assets.xfinity.com/assets/dotcom/projects/cix-4997_compatible-devices/2023.11.22 Full List of Compatible Devices.pdf and is dated 23 November 2023.  It supersedes the "main list" that Comcast still provides and much of their documentation links to at https://assets.xfinity.com/assets/dotcom/projects_2/my_device/Full-List-of-Compatible-Devices.pdf which is dated 15 May 2023.

Here's the list of cable modems from the November 2023 list that support >1.2GB download speeds.  As you can see, it is very small.  Just three models.

• Hitron Technologies CODA56 (2.33Gbps ↓ / 456Mbps ↑), $140 on Amazon
• Netgear CM3000 (2.33Gbps ↓ / 486Mbps ↑), $unknown
• ARRIS Surfboard G54 (2.34Gbps ↓ / 474Mbps ↑), $600 direct

Note that although the Netgear CM3000 cable modem is listed as supported by Comcast, it has not actually been announced by Netgear, let alone released.  The Arris Surfboard G54 includes a built-in router with 1×10GbE and 4×1GbE ports as well as a Wi-Fi 7 access point. 

If you rent the modem from them, all of this is a moot point as they will provide the appropriate hardware.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

[satukoro]

On 23/01/2024 at 22:00, goretsky said:

Hello,

One thing to keep in mind is that while Comcast supports many different cable modems at speeds up to 1.2Gbps (1,200Mbps) for download speeds, the number of devices they support for 2Gbps downloads is very small.  The latest list is located at https://assets.xfinity.com/assets/dotcom/projects/cix-4997_compatible-devices/2023.11.22 Full List of Compatible Devices.pdf and is dated 23 November 2023.  It supersedes the "main list" that Comcast still provides and much of their documentation links to at https://assets.xfinity.com/assets/dotcom/projects_2/my_device/Full-List-of-Compatible-Devices.pdf which is dated 15 May 2023.

Here's the list of cable modems from the November 2023 list that support >1.2GB download speeds.  As you can see, it is very small.  Just three models.

• Hitron Technologies CODA56 (2.33Gbps ↓ / 456Mbps ↑), $140 on Amazon
• Netgear CM3000 (2.33Gbps ↓ / 486Mbps ↑), $unknown
• ARRIS Surfboard G54 (2.34Gbps ↓ / 474Mbps ↑), $600 direct

Note that although the Netgear CM3000 cable modem is listed as supported by Comcast, it has not actually been announced by Netgear, let alone released.  The Arris Surfboard G54 includes a built-in router with 1×10GbE and 4×1GbE ports as well as a Wi-Fi 7 access point. 

If you rent the modem from them, all of this is a moot point as they will provide the appropriate hardware.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

Interesting. According to the first link you included, it looks as though my modem is the first bottleneck I should deal with. According to comcast, and despite my modem being sold as a "True Multi Gig" modem, its max throughput is 945 Mbps.

What are your thoughts on going with a combined modem/router unit? On that list is a Netgear CAX80 which I found for $499 on amazon (https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Nighthawk-Cable-Built-Router/dp/B082XW53G3?th=1) The only downside I see regarding this device rather than the ARRIS Surfboard G54 is the lack of a 10G port, but without 10G wan I'm not too worried about it. I don't do too many large local file transfers.

I figure the cax80 paired with this 10Gtek 10Gb dual rj45 nic should get me where I want  to be without spending too too much unless you think separating the modem from the router is a more sensible option.

Thank you all for your contribution!

[Brandon H Supervisor]

On 24/01/2024 at 07:44, satukoro said:

What are your thoughts on going with a combined modem/router unit?

I used to be for combo units, but these days I lean towards keeping them separate for a few reasons. Main reason being security updates; the combo units tend to not get as many updates for security flaws compared to standalone Wi-Fi routers. Used to be the combo units didn't have nearly as good antenna in them as well; though no idea if that's still true these days.

[satukoro]

On 24/01/2024 at 09:14, Brandon H said:

I used to be for combo units, but these days I lean towards keeping them separate for a few reasons. Main reason being security updates; the combo units tend to not get as many updates for security flaws compared to standalone Wi-Fi routers. Used to be the combo units didn't have nearly as good antenna in them as well; though no idea if that's still true these days.

As someone who always forgets to check for updates on their router ... 😅

But based on the lack of external antennas in the Netgear CAX80 that I linked compared to the spider-robot looking routers I'm seeing, I totally believe they don't have as good range. However, considering my apartment is a little bigger than my body and I am in the process of planning to build a tiny house (think 24' x 36' with a loft, possible second floor) I don't see it being a major issue.

[+BudMan MVC]

That thing is what I would call ugly.. $500 on amazon.. And its huge..

They really need to be clear on what they are saying.. This is misleading marketing for sure

>2-port aggregation to achieve up to 2Gbps for ultra-fast download for streaming and gaming

While you might be able to lagg the ports to leverage your 2g wan connection.. No single device will be able to use that.. Sure ok might be able to have 1 client using 1 gig and another client using the other gig.. But that wording is horrible..