Spec me a gigabit switch

throwaway4372 · 4 Jul 2025 at 20:28

All the rooms in my house are wired up with cat 6 with a patch panel under the stairs, which is also where the eero router is.
So I have a 5 port gigabit switch between the patch panel and the eero router.
The switch is this: TP-Link TL-SG105S
This worked fine with my old PC, 1Gbps reliably, all good.
But I've just got a new PC, with Realtek 2.5G on-board ethernet, and that hates the TP-Link switch.
It'll do 1Gbps directly to the eero no problem, but via the switch it'll do only 100Mbps most of the time.

I might just go without a switch, leave the new PC wired directly to the eero, and put everything else on wifi.
But, the switch was cheap, so I'm wondering if there's another cheap one which is likely to work?
I wonder if the Realtek 2.5G adapter would need a 2.5G switch to play nicely, but they cost several times more and I only need 1G.

Moley · 4 Jul 2025 at 20:31

Have you tried hard coding the Speed and Duplex on the PC to 1G/Full? The nic will try to negotiate 2.5G which the switch knows nothing about and so you likely have issues there. Force the settings and problem likely goes away.

throwaway4372 · 4 Jul 2025 at 20:42

Yeah tried specifying 1G, makes no difference, it still drops to 100M.
Tried turning all the energy saving stuff off too.
Eliminated cables too.
Drivers defo correct.
Concluded the switch is just naff.

Caged · 4 Jul 2025 at 21:28

Low port count unmanaged switches are a commodity item, there's really no differences between them. If every single port fails to negotiate at 1Gbps then you have a cable fault or the new NIC is faulty.

throwaway4372 · 4 Jul 2025 at 21:36

Caged said:
Low port count unmanaged switches are a commodity item, there's really no differences between them. If every single port fails to negotiate at 1Gbps then you have a cable fault or the new NIC is faulty.

I tried this nic too, same issue.
The cables work when direct to the eero instead of via the switch, so I don't think it's cables. I bought new cables to make sure, same result.

Meddling-Monk · 4 Jul 2025 at 21:53

My suggestions before the switch would be:
1. Update NIC drivers.
2. Disable that TUF Languard protection in your BIOS setting (it might be interferring with the signal and causing it to negotiate to 100mbps).
3. Grab a cheapo 2.5gbps switch. One of those £20-40 ones (can't give names I think) so your onboard NIC can try and negotiate direct for 2.5gbps connection.

throwaway4372 · 4 Jul 2025 at 22:00

Meddling-Monk said:
1. Update NIC drivers.

Already on the latest.

Meddling-Monk said:
2. Disable that TUF Languard protection in your BIOS setting (it might be interfering with the signal and causing it to negotiate to 100mbps).

Same issue occurred with pcie nic so I don't think it's a tuf languard issue.

Meddling-Monk said:
3. Grab a cheapo 2.5gbps switch. One of those £20-40 ones (can't give names I think) so your onboard NIC can try and negotiate direct for 2.5gbps connection.

This is what I'm thinking. I was hoping someone would recommend one they know is decent, because I don't believe the specs on any networking products anymore.

Meddling-Monk · 4 Jul 2025 at 22:25

throwaway4372 said:
This is what I'm thinking. I was hoping someone would recommend one they know is decent, because I don't believe the specs on any networking products anymore.

If you grab them from the place you're likely thinking of, you can return them citing non-functionality and work through the cheaper (not too cheap) 2.5g switches and hope one of them works right for your setup. Optionally, I think there's that Unifi Flex 2.5g switch that's around £50 that should be quality, so you can try that if needed but that'll be on the higher end of price for a 2.5g switch.

:: edit ::
The other Western branded switches at 2.5g are extortionate, so don't go for them, you're looking at £70-80+ often siding on the mid £100 instead.

rp2000 · 4 Jul 2025 at 23:03

throwaway4372 said:
All the rooms in my house are wired up with cat 6 with a patch panel under the stairs, which is also where the eero router is.
So I have a 5 port gigabit switch between the patch panel and the eero router.
The switch is this: TP-Link TL-SG105S
This worked fine with my old PC, 1Gbps reliably, all good.
But I've just got a new PC, with Realtek 2.5G on-board ethernet, and that hates the TP-Link switch.
It'll do 1Gbps directly to the eero no problem, but via the switch it'll do only 100Mbps most of the time.

I might just go without a switch, leave the new PC wired directly to the eero, and put everything else on wifi.
But, the switch was cheap, so I'm wondering if there's another cheap one which is likely to work?
I wonder if the Realtek 2.5G adapter would need a 2.5G switch to play nicely, but they cost several times more and I only need 1G.

I have the 2.5gb version of this switch at work, just for random ad hoc stuff, nothing too serious (bandwidth wise). I want to say it was less than 50 quid, but can't say for certain as I didn't buy it (and it may have been exclusive of VAT anyway).

5-Port 2.5G Desktop Switch

As the flagship 2.5G product, the 5-Port desktop switch delivers reliable, super-fast connections with the lowest latency possible—without the need to upgrade to Cat6 wiring. 5× 2.5-Gigabit ports unlock the highest performance of your Multi-Gig bandwidth and devices, and provide up to 25 Gbps of...

www.tp-link.com

It happily negotiated at both 1GBps and 2.5GBps using a plugable 2.5GB usbc adaptor on both Windows laptops and Apple M series laptops. 99% of the time it was just used as a gigabit switch, as most devices I have are 1Gbit anyway. The bad news is whilst I still have the switch somewhere, I don't have the 2.5gb usb adaptors anymore! Also, I am certain I did it with CAT 5E cables and not Cat 6, although that should make no difference in practice. Gets a bit warm from memory.

rp2000

Snapshot · 5 Jul 2025 at 07:56

rp2000 said:
I have the 2.5gb version of this switch at work, just for random ad hoc stuff, nothing too serious (bandwidth wise). I want to say it was less than 50 quid, but can't say for certain as I didn't buy it (and it may have been exclusive of VAT anyway).

5-Port 2.5G Desktop Switch

As the flagship 2.5G product, the 5-Port desktop switch delivers reliable, super-fast connections with the lowest latency possible—without the need to upgrade to Cat6 wiring. 5× 2.5-Gigabit ports unlock the highest performance of your Multi-Gig bandwidth and devices, and provide up to 25 Gbps of...

www.tp-link.com

It happily negotiated at both 1GBps and 2.5GBps using a plugable 2.5GB usbc adaptor on both Windows laptops and Apple M series laptops. 99% of the time it was just used as a gigabit switch, as most devices I have are 1Gbit anyway. The bad news is whilst I still have the switch somewhere, I don't have the 2.5gb usb adaptors anymore! Also, I am certain I did it with CAT 5E cables and not Cat 6, although that should make no difference in practice. Gets a bit warm from memory.

I have the same switch and also use it with Plugable 2.5Gbps dongles. It works well.

I tried one of the 'alphabet soup'-named 2.5Gbps switches with a couple of SFP+ ports. It worked well on the local 2.5Gbps ports but when I had two different activities going through the SFP+ ports, everything slowed to a crawl.

Avalon · 5 Jul 2025 at 21:16

There are numerous threads detailing several of us using the Yuanley 2.5Gb/10Gb switches, i’ve had multiple 2.5Gb clients and two 10Gb SFP+ connections going flat out for days moving literal Pb’s of data over them. Zero issues. I run one on each floor to break out finer from my core switch on each floor to 2.5Gb copper. STH also review them positively as well.

bledd · 7 Jul 2025 at 09:15

On latest BIOS for motherboard?

If you've ruled out cables, check for latest BIOS and next step I'd make a Ubuntu or Linux mint usb, boot from that and check the speeds.

throwaway4372 · 7 Jul 2025 at 12:05

Yes latest BIOS

throwaway4372 · 16 Jul 2025 at 14:37

I bought this YuanLey 7 Port 2.5G switch YS25-0502 and it works perfectly, ty all.