10/100 switch to gigabit switch not working.

Tazbo · 16 Jun 2022 at 01:19

Hi,

I have just moved into a house which has a Virgin Media Hub, the hub has a Ethernet cable going into a Ethernet port in the wall. The house is wired with Ethernet ports in each room which all run down into what looks like a patch unit. From there the cables go into a tp link 10/100mbs unmanaged switch. If I connect an Ethernet cable to any port in the house I was getting 98mbs down which is pretty much what we were paying for. Now I upgraded my internet to 350mbps down so I thought it was just a matter of replacing the switch with a unmanaged gigabit switch so I purchased a netgear and two tp link switches and none of them work. I connect them up the exact what the current white tp switch is setup with the same cables and new cat 6 cables but no luck. The ports in all the rooms just go dead. Am I missing something? Please find links below.

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AD63-C512-A8-A3-4-AA0-8002-B1-E4-F8749-C91 hosted at ImgBB

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the-evaluator · 16 Jun 2022 at 08:56

Those patch cables are pretty rough, I'd bin them off and replace with new ones. The terminations on the patch panel aren't great either.

With that said, if the cables link at 100Mbps then worse case they should link at 100Mbps with a gigabit switch.

I assume the switch you're wanting to replace is the white one at the bottom of one of the pictures? What is the model number of that switch? What model of switches have you tried to replace it with? Did you just pull all the cables from that old switch and connect them to the new switch?

Defy Belief · 16 Jun 2022 at 09:07

Somewhere in your physical layer doesn't support Gigabit I imagine.

Check things like auto negotiation on the switch(es), what CAT is the cabling?

the-evaluator · 16 Jun 2022 at 09:13

What does the text printed on the yellow cables say? I'm wondering what sort of cables they are.

Tazbo · 16 Jun 2022 at 09:38

the-evaluator said:
What does the text printed on the yellow cables say? I'm wondering what sort of cables they are.

Caged · 16 Jun 2022 at 09:43

I don't think any of the cabling is bad enough to result in every single link dropping to 10/100. It's pretty ropey but the symptoms you're describing don't sound like that's the cause.

Can you pop off one of the sockets in the house and take a photo?

Tazbo · 16 Jun 2022 at 09:43

So I purchased new cables and replaced the black custom made cables with the ones from Amazon. The old white swtich continued to work fine and all ports around the house still working. As soon as I put the cables into the new gigabit switches (images attached) I purchased two to try, everything stopped working. I put the cables back into the white switch and everything comes back on again.

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Caged · 16 Jun 2022 at 09:48

Can you patch in one port at a time and see if there's one damaged run that might be shorted out and causing the switch to go into some sort of protection mode? Or does the switch go dark as soon as you connect a single cable?

Tazbo · 16 Jun 2022 at 09:52

the-evaluator said:
Those patch cables are pretty rough, I'd bin them off and replace with new ones. The terminations on the patch panel aren't great either.

With that said, if the cables link at 100Mbps then worse case they should link at 100Mbps with a gigabit switch.

I assume the switch you're wanting to replace is the white one at the bottom of one of the pictures? What is the model number of that switch? What model of switches have you tried to replace it with? Did you just pull all the cables from that old switch and connect them to the new switch?

I tried three options

1) pull the old black cables out of the white switch and plugged them into the new switch which was the TP-Link LS108G
No luck

2) replaced the black small patch cables with new ones purchased from Amazon and connected them to the TP-Link LS108G

No Luck

3) I tried using another netgear 1GB swtich and no Luck then I tried another TP Link 1 GB no luck.

I can’t think for the life of my why they only work with that white switch it’s so annoying. I tried connecting the switches directly to the modem and the green lights started to flicker so the switches themselves work it’s just when I connect them to that patch setup everything stops.

the-evaluator · 16 Jun 2022 at 09:54

When you say 'no luck' what exactly does that mean? Does the switch have any LEDs illuminated? Are any lights flashing? Are any lights solid?

Tazbo · 16 Jun 2022 at 09:56

Caged said:
Can you patch in one port at a time and see if there's one damaged run that might be shorted out and causing the switch to go into some sort of protection mode? Or does the switch go dark as soon as you connect a single cable?

Tried that so port 4 and 8 need to be on to power the living room wall Ethernet port so I tried taking them out and placing them into the new swtich and I get a green light in port 4 but and 8 but then not flickering and the connection goes out of the living room wall socket.

Tazbo · 16 Jun 2022 at 10:13

https://www.veed.io/view/86f4455d-1d32-4aa7-862f-72c54e808879?sharingWidget=true

https://www.veed.io/view/d2ed8b49-f3ed-4d94-8c71-70739f00fd8d?sharingWidget=true

So I am getting connection from the Ethernet wall socket when the white tp link is connected as you can see it’s flashing too. When I use the same cables on the gigabit switches (any of them) there is no signal coming out of the same wall socket. The lights are on the switch they are green but nothing out of the wall socket. I tried other cables too with the same result.

Quartz · 16 Jun 2022 at 10:42

Let's go back to basics.

Do you get a gigabit link if you connect your PC directly to the Virgin hub?
Do you get a gigabit link if you connect your PC to the Virgin hub via the Netgear switch? How about the TPLink switches?

That yellow cable appears to say that it is Cat 7A. I agree with earlier comments that the cabling looks problematic. Do you have access to a cable tester? Your workplace's IT department should have one. Borrow that and test everything.

Tazbo · 16 Jun 2022 at 11:00

Quartz said:
Let's go back to basics.

Do you get a gigabit link if you connect your PC directly to the Virgin hub?
Do you get a gigabit link if you connect your PC to the Virgin hub via the Netgear switch? How about the TPLink switches?

That yellow cable appears to say that it is Cat 7A. I agree with earlier comments that the cabling looks problematic. Do you have access to a cable tester? Your workplace's IT department should have one. Borrow that and test everything.

1) if I connect to the router directly I get 350mbps down and 45Mbps up which is what I’m paying for. So that’s working correctly.

2) If connect the swtich directly to the hub and An Ethernet cable from the netgear or any of the two switches to my pc or laptop I get the same speed 350mps down and 45mins up. So they all work correctly.

I can order a cable tester and give that a try.

Tazbo · 16 Jun 2022 at 11:25

In terms of the wiring is this all correct, if any of the colours are in the wrong place would that stop you getting anything over 100mbps?

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Quartz · 16 Jun 2022 at 11:32

Tazbo said:
1) if I connect to the router directly I get 350mbps down and 45Mbps up which is what I’m paying for. So that’s working correctly.

2) If connect the swtich directly to the hub and An Ethernet cable from the netgear or any of the two switches to my pc or laptop I get the same speed 350mps down and 45mins up. So they all work correctly.

Excellent.

Tazbo said:
I can order a cable tester and give that a try.

Your IT department may have better equipment that the cheapo Amazon stuff.

Armageus · 16 Jun 2022 at 11:36

the-evaluator said:
What does the text printed on the yellow cables say? I'm wondering what sort of cables they are.

It's that good old Cat 7A+

the-evaluator · 16 Jun 2022 at 11:36

Tazbo said:
In terms of the wiring is this all correct, if any of the colours are in the wrong place would that stop you getting anything over 100mbps?

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Image 0-A5-F7833-D268-4275-B352-07-C8-DF9-CB1-A4 hosted on ImgBB

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They look to be in the correct order but it's hard to see if they're punched down enough. The fact that the cables aren't trimmed evenly tells me that a proper punch down tool wasn't used, I guess it was a screwdrive to jam the wires down and then some side cutters to trim the excess. so I wouldn't be surprised if there's an issue there. It's a pretty poor job done there.

For gigabit all 4 pairs (so 8 wires in total) are used. For 100Mbps only 2 pairs (orange & green IIRC) are used. So you let's say the brown pair on all the terminations wasn't done correctly it'd work fine for 100Mbps but wouldn't work for gigabit.

What's the model of the white TP-Link switch that you're replacing?

the-evaluator · 16 Jun 2022 at 11:38

Armageus said:
It's that good old Cat 7A+

On a cat 6 patch panel. It's a dogs dinner of an installation.

Tazbo · 16 Jun 2022 at 14:23

the-evaluator said:
On a cat 6 patch panel. It's a dogs dinner of an installation.

You can say that again, I have called out the installer who fit this and over the phone he said it does not matter if the cat 7 cables are going into a cat 6 panel as it will not effect your speeds is he right in that and he is also going to check the wiring too.