Virgin speed upgrade that isn't..

ExRayTed

ExRayTed

ExRayTed

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
7,782
Location
Surrey
Hi all,

As all the Virgin operators are busy thought I'd ask in here.

I was upgraded to 150mb from 100mb a week ago - the engineer came and installed a new hub. I have it connected to a Linksys EA6900 AC1900 in modem mode but I'm still only getting 100mb. I've disconnected the hub and router for 30 minutes, restarted and still getting 100mb. Still using the same cat5e cabling from the original setup.

This image is from the virgin hub settings page and seems to say I should be getting the full 150mb

ud06K4H.png


Any ideas what the issue could be?

Edit - actually I think I just found my answer. The cable connecting my pc to the router has 'cat 5' rather than cat5e stamped on the side. This would limit my speed to 100mb right?
 
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What's the link speed between the VM Hub and your router? The router web admin interface should tell you.

Also, this cat 5e cable, can you see how many wires are going into each plug? Some manufacturers scrimp and use 2 pairs whereas gigabit etherent needs 4 pairs. If you've only got 2 pairs then you'll only get 100Mbps between the Hub and router.
 
the-evaluator said:
What's the link speed between the VM Hub and your router? The router web admin interface should tell you.

Also, this cat 5e cable, can you see how many wires are going into each plug? Some manufacturers scrimp and use 2 pairs whereas gigabit etherent needs 4 pairs. If you've only got 2 pairs then you'll only get 100Mbps between the Hub and router.
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Thanks for the reply :)

think I found my answer though. The cable connecting my pc to the router has 'cat5' not 'cat5e' printed on it. Should have checked all the cables before asking :o
 
Have you tried resetting the Virgin Hub, plugging your PC straight into the hub and then doing a speed test? Seems that there's a lot to rule out before swapping out all the cabling.
 
Cat5 and Cat5e both have a cable bandwidth of 100Mhz so can both do 1Gbps.

It is incredibly unlikely that you actually have Cat5 cable as opposed to badly marked up Cat5e.
 
TheAceOfSpades said:
I'm currently on a networking MTA course and the tutor insisted that Cat 5 could only support up to 100mb/s. For some reason I though it could handle Gigabit speeds, but couldn't find any information on it. Could you elaborate?
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Your tutor is an idiot...

Although Cat5 was essentially used for 100Mbps, it can support 1Gbps.
 
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It can only support gigabit if all the pairs are used - so the query above is correct. Cat6 is pointless but if it's the same price no real issue.
 
flowrider99 said:
Have you tested the VM hub in router mode?
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Be careful doing this ... when VM upgraded me to the SH2 a while back we put it into router mode and it stopped working. The engineer couldn't get it going again and swapped out for another SH2. We left that in modem mode !

As others have said, eliminate everything else first. Plug your PC direct to the hub with the new cables and go from there.

I found the speed upgrade kept bumping up over a week, so keep trying for a little while. I don't know why, but it seems to need to settle in.

Also, I had to upgrade my switches as they were old and only supported 100 mb - and a couple of old laptops can't get above that either. So double-check your gear will actually go over 100mb.
 
SC0TTRS said:
You're all idiots!, cat5 is 'capable' of gigabit speeds, it's never supported the claim. :p
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The difference between cat5 and cat5e is slightly tighter specs, otherwise it's the same. I have 8 desks at work running happily on cat5 at gigabit level without transmission error.
 
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