Using a gigabit switch

[sc302 Veteran]

It depends on where you live, in the US, I do not think there are any gigabit speed ISPs (there might be, but I am unaware of them). Most of what people use gigabit ethernet for is transferring on their local network, from one computer to another. To do so, you need gigabit network cards on both computers (pretty common on motherboards now, much less common on older systems), and everything between the computers need to be gigabit (if you go modem -> router -> switch -> computers then only the switch needs to be gigabit to transfer between other computers on the switch at gigabit speeds, if you transfer to the router or above, then the router also needs to be gigabit compatible).

Gigabit speeds can be handled by an ethernet hand off (fiber ran to the building, then into a ethernet converter). You would have to contact your isp or a provider that can do ethernet hand off's. It isn't inexpensive and it is enterprise class. Price goes into distance to CO and facilities at CO (CO realestate isn't cheap for those kinds of speed), can the CO handle it does it have to be routed and go even farther to another CO that can handle it, etc.

[Nagisan]

so if it isn't the switch and it isn't the cable so long as they meet the proper specs then what is it? is it the magic jelly bean between the switch and the cable or maybe it is the windows computer or drivers that don't like the cable/the switch it is plugged into.

I have had 10/100 speeds on a cat5, but I have never seen gig speeds. Kind of funny actually that I plug in the crappy cat5 cables and get crap, and the same results out of 3 of them. It is like the computer knows I am attaching crap to it and it doesn't want to get the right speeds, but when I plug in cat5e it gets the right speeds.

It's possible something in the driver is detecting the cat 5 specification and limiting speeds to 100mbit, fact is cat 5 cables which meet specification are the minimum cabling type for gigabit speeds, if you are not achieving those speeds than either you have crappy quality cables or some other factor is detecting cat 5 and limiting your speeds.

[neufuse Veteran]

read my post under budmans. physical connections, not theory or what someone says. man I wish I had my flip. camera on bb is too crappy, category ranking is too crappy on the cable. stupid crappy phone camera.

If you are getting 10Mbit then you have a cable issue, more then likely you have bad twisted pair out of the 4 there are in the cable... or you have your speed negotiation set to a fixed speed like 10Mbit half or full...... instead of Auto

Gigabit takes all 4 twisted pairs to be connected... 100BASE-TX takes 2 twisted pairs

[sc302 Veteran]

It's possible something in the driver is detecting the cat 5 specification and limiting speeds to 100mbit, fact is cat 5 cables which meet specification are the minimum cabling type for gigabit speeds, if you are not achieving those speeds than either you have crappy quality cables or some other factor is detecting cat 5 and limiting your speeds.

I don't think it is the driver because it detects fine with the e cables without any other input from me. It could be the cables but multiple cables from multiple vendors, a little more far fetched than the driver being the issue.

[+BudMan MVC]

Did you try hard coding the speed? I would say your cables are bad or your auto negotiation failed..

Clearly from the 1000BASE-T specification CAT 5 is supported for GIG -- PERIOD!! This is in the spec!! If you cables do not work, then they do not meet CAT 5 spec ;)

Why would they not auto to 100?? Points to a auto nego problem or BAD cable if you ask me. If you getting 10, you sure they are not cat 3 cables ;)

[neufuse Veteran]

I don't think it is the driver because it detects fine with the e cables without any other input from me. It could be the cables but multiple cables from multiple vendors, a little more far fetched than the driver being the issue.

It has nothing to do with Cat5 cable specs, because Cat3 could carry 10Mbit with no problems... could just be either bad cable, or bad equipment

[sc302 Veteran]

Did you try hard coding the speed? I would say your cables are bad or your auto negotiation failed..

Clearly from the 1000BASE-T specification CAT 5 is supported for GIG -- PERIOD!! This is in the spec!! If you cables do not work, then they do not meet CAT 5 spec ;)

Why would they not auto to 100?? Points to a auto nego problem or BAD cable if you ask me. If you getting 10, you sure they are not cat 3 cables ;)

well they say category 5 on them....don't have a certifier to verify the cables. most I can do is test the pairs.

[Guest]

I recently upgraded my LAN at home from 100 to 1000.

Bought a gigabit switch and 305m of cat6 and loving it so far.

Are you living in an office building?

[sc302 Veteran]

It has nothing to do with Cat5 cable specs, because Cat3 could carry 10Mbit with no problems... could just be either bad cable, or bad equipment

so being that all of the equipment works with the cat5e cable connected you can conclude that it isn't the equipment. being that i tried multiple cat 5 cables you can't conclude that at least one of them are good? can I play russian roulette with you I will point the gun at you and keep clicking till I hear a bang, if you die can I have all of your assets (what I am getting at is that at least one cable that I have that was good at one time should still be good now, not like I just tried 1 cable).

Also I am pretty sure I can read a cable jacket. Not 100% sure here, but when it states category 5 doesn't that mean it is a category 10 cable?

stupid momos of the interwebs. Need to invent a sarcasm button...

[Nagisan]

so being that all of the equipment works with the cat5e cable connected you can conclude that it isn't the equipment. being that i tried multiple cat 5 cables you can't conclude that at least one of them are good? can I play russian roulette with you I will point the gun at you and keep clicking till I hear a bang, if you die can I have all of your assets (what I am getting at is that at least one cable that I have that was good at one time should still be good now, not like I just tried 1 cable).

Also I am pretty sure I can read a cable jacket. Not 100% sure here, but when it states category 5 doesn't that mean it is a category 10 cable? stupid momos of the interwebs. Need to invent a sarcasm button...

He concludes it may be 3 bad cables because a cat 5 cable that meets the cat 5 spec will run at gigabit assuming all other equipment meets that spec as well. As said earlier, if you are getting only 10mbit speeds on cat 5, something is horribly wrong with your cables or something else in the scenario.

[Sn00pY]

Did you try hard coding the speed? I would say your cables are bad or your auto negotiation failed..

Clearly from the 1000BASE-T specification CAT 5 is supported for GIG -- PERIOD!! This is in the spec!! If you cables do not work, then they do not meet CAT 5 spec ;)

Why would they not auto to 100?? Points to a auto nego problem or BAD cable if you ask me. If you getting 10, you sure they are not cat 3 cables ;)

You should never hardcode ethernet to 1000 for anything. It should always be auto.

I'd like to see your 6509 port config though... I'd expect it to work. The fact it's negotiating at 10HD suggests something is configured incorrectly. I would sway towards some issue with FLP...

[sc302 Veteran]

You should never hardcode ethernet to 1000 for anything. It should always be auto.

I'd like to see your 6509 port config though... I'd expect it to work. The fact it's negotiating at 10HD suggests something is configured incorrectly. I would sway towards some issue with FLP...

basic config to work on the primary vlan. there are other vlans, but to keep things simple with testing I figure it were easier to be in the primary /vlan1

interface FastEthernet4/7

switchport

switchport mode access

interface GigabitEthernet7/45

switchport

switchport mode access

[+BudMan MVC]

"You should never hardcode ethernet to 1000 for anything. It should always be auto.

Nonsense, its fine to hard code speed and duplex settings.. Especially if troubleshooting a auto-nego problem ;)

For example you have devices that are nego 10, when they clearly should doing at min 100, if not 1000 ;)

Should auto work, sure it should -- but he clearly has something wrong if his CAT 5 cable nego 10 in the first place..

Guess depends on how long you have been doing this what your habits are, if you have been around before 10/100 you prob hard code everything ;) There use to be lots of problems when trying to use go from a 10 port to a 10/100 port back in the day where the 10 did not understand auto, etc.

if you 100% sure both devices are compatible and compliant with the spec then sure Auto is great, but when you have concerns if the devices like to play nice.. Switches of different vendors or specific nics with a specific switch type, there is no problem with hard coding..

Some times you have to do it.. What if you don't want your devices running at 100 or 1000, which is quite common in work setups.. Say I have a 1 gig uplink from the closet to the core, more than likely I do not want all the clients running at gig, but 100 on that switch.. So to force that I hard code the ports to 100 vs gig, etc.

[morphen]

As for the cabling Cat 5 will not support it as it 10/100 Cabling only, Cat 5e is just the more updated standard which includes GigaBit, with Cat 6 being the newest stuff. See the below info:

not to be a nitpicker, but Cat 7 as well as cat 8 exists :)

[neufuse Veteran]

so being that all of the equipment works with the cat5e cable connected you can conclude that it isn't the equipment. being that i tried multiple cat 5 cables you can't conclude that at least one of them are good? can I play russian roulette with you I will point the gun at you and keep clicking till I hear a bang, if you die can I have all of your assets (what I am getting at is that at least one cable that I have that was good at one time should still be good now, not like I just tried 1 cable).

Also I am pretty sure I can read a cable jacket. Not 100% sure here, but when it states category 5 doesn't that mean it is a category 10 cable?

stupid momos of the interwebs. Need to invent a sarcasm button...

seriously? did you jus call me stupid basically? if you are getting 10mbit on cat5 then you have a problem, cat5 is capable of 1000 mbit perfectly fine

[+BudMan MVC]

if you are getting 10mbit on cat5 then you have a problem, cat5 is capable of 1000 mbit perfectly fine

QFT

This is exactly the point!! Cat 5 is quite capable of 1000mbit, says so right in the standard!! Do you really think they would of created a standard for 1000Base-T that only worked on 5e, when the vast majority of installed cabling was 5, not 5e

I have quoted the standard already, you can look it up yourself if you want..

And I would be happy to look at any source that specifically states that you need 5e -- please provide these links!

Here from the cisco site on gig

----

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk389/tk214/tech_digest09186a0080091a86.html

Because most of the cabling installed inside buildings today is Category 5 copper, the IEEE 802.3 1000BASE-T standard supports Gigabit Ethernet operation over the Category 5 cabling systems installed according to the specifications of ANSI/TIA/EIA-568A (1995)

As stated above, 1000BASE-T specifies Gigabit Ethernet operation over the Category 5 cabling systems installed according to the specifications of ANSI/TIA/EIA-568A (1995). There should be no need to replace existing Category 5 cabling to use 1000BASE-T

To sum up, 1000BASE-T specifies Gigabit Ethernet operation over the cabling installed according to the EIA/TIA Category 5 specification. Network managers should check that their installed cabling is indeed compliant with the Category 5 specifications. Also, the 1000BASE-T standard recommends two tests to qualify the installed Category 5 cable. If a Category 5 cabling plant supports 100BASE-TX operation today to distances of 100 meters, it should support 1000BASE-T to 100 meters.

----

Now as correctly stated if his cables are not even coming up as 100, then clearly something is WRONG!! Be it the cables not meeting ANSI/TIA/EIA-568A (1995), which would tell me they are not Cat 5 for whatever reason or another. Needed for 100mbit even!!

So no if your cables are not in accordance with the Cat 5 spec, then ok then gig might not work.. But there is nothing saying that they have to be 5e or 6 for it to work..

All this being said, since to be honest I find it unlikely that you could even buy just cat 5 cable today?? Someone have a link to where you could buy Cat5 cables? All the bulk cable on monoprice is listed as being 5e 350mhz. What I see on deepsurplus is all 5e as well --> Going forward your going to be using 5e or 6 going forward.

[Guest]

Didn't realize there'd be so many opinions on this

Anyway, just a thought. Do switches do anything other than provide an ethernet link? QOS for example?

[Sn00pY]

Didn't realize there'd be so many opinions on this

Anyway, just a thought. Do switches do anything other than provide an ethernet link? QOS for example?

Yeah a switch can do QoS.

And BudMan - sorry to burst your bubble but the recommendation for Gigabit is to always leave it at auto/auto due to the use of the pins on either end. The guarantee is never assured as to which pins the switchport will use - I think you'll find if you work with Cisco a lot they also recommend gig/10gig to be auto ports.

[Nagisan]

Yeah a switch can do QoS.

Not all switches, it probably takes a special one, most standard consumer switches can not do QoS....it can support QoS from a router or what not, but it cannot internally set QoS and enforce it.

[Sn00pY]

Not all switches, it probably takes a special one, most standard consumer switches can not do QoS....it can support QoS from a router or what not, but it cannot internally set QoS and enforce it.

Sorry valid point I left that quite sweeping didn't I...

Well yes a switch (depending on model) can do a lot of different things... a Cisco 3750 for example can do PoE and Layer3 so you can run MPLS/BGP on this switch for example... but a more simple 2960 will not do layer3 routing... there are many feature sets across brands/models of switches.

[+BudMan MVC]

"sorry to burst your bubble but the recommendation for Gigabit is to always leave it at auto/auto"

Where did I say it was not recommended??? So your not bursting any bubble -- I just pointing out the FACT!! That you can hard code it..

So lets see here, you have what you say is a Cat 5 cable that with auto comes up with 10.. You have SOMETHING WRONG!! I suggested you "hard code the speed" Where did I say anything about what the recommendation is??

Cisco can say many things -- please point to anything on cisco that states you can not hard code 1000?? I agree with you its the recommendation.. But that does not mean you can not hard code it..

Here is fun article that goes over what can happen when you get problems with auto, etc. Take a look at the table - what do they state for hard code 1000 full 1000 full on both switches?? ;) "Correct Manual Configuration"

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps700/products_tech_note09186a00800a7af0.shtml#auto_neg_valid

Troubleshooting Cisco Catalyst Switches to NIC Compatibility Issues

I agree with you if possible sure leave it auto auto, what I suggested is your hard code something other than 10, since you clearly have something WRONG when you have a Cat 5 cable connected to 10/100/1000 interfaces and you come up 10!!

[Guest]

Err... whats the worst case scenario even if it's not recommended? Won't it simply just not work?

[Ruciz]

Cable modem ->wireless/100Mbit router->100Mbit devices & switch->gigabit devices

Here, your router provides a hardware firewall to the WAN network, and your gigabit devices can talk to one another at gigabit speeds in LAN - but then slow to 100Mbit if exiting your LAN to WAN.

Unless you have over a 100Mbit connection this should work. cost about $30 for a 5 port gigabit switch by d-link. DHCP will be provided by the router. Anything on the router will limit to 100Mbit. Unsure how many devices you have.

You can get CAT6 cable - which is in quadrants to stop interference. Its expensive and really makes a difference if you have a giant run of cable or a hell of a lot of cables grouped together to cause interference.

I have around 75' runs on CAT5e and I get gigabit speeds or so (45-60MB/s) over the network. Maybe CAT6 would give me 50-70MB/s.. maybe

I am hesitant to believe that tho in my experimentation. I have a CAT6 cable tester and ended one end of CAT6 cable 3' long CAT5e and the other CAT6 and the tester couldn't tell the difference.

Then I put 2 CAT6 on a CAT5e and it passed CAT6 spec.. There isn't a lot of difference to be honest.

[Nagisan]

Cable modem ->wireless/100Mbit router->100Mbit devices & gigabit switch->gigabit devices

Here, your router provides a hardware firewall to the WAN network, and your gigabit devices can talk to one another at gigabit speeds in LAN - but then slow to 100Mbit if exiting your LAN to WAN.

Unless you have over a 100Mbit connection this should work. cost about $30 for a 5 port gigabit switch by d-link. DHCP will be provided by the router. Anything on the router will limit to 100Mbit. Unsure how many devices you have.

Fixed, you would only get gigabit speeds on your gigabit devices if the switch connecting them was gigabit. :p

But, nowadays most standard switches are gigabit, so it shouldn't matter too much. But, like you said, unless you have more than 100Mbit WAN connection speeds, a 100Mbit router will work fine for a gigabit network.

[Guest]

Should a cheapo switch play nicely with a wifi network too?