Hello mighty gods of information, I'm in need.
I recently had a dedicated circuit installed (Level3) and then had a networking services company (BlackBox) run a cable drop for the ISPs equipment to my server room. The issue is that we're paying for a dedicated 100 mbps UP and 100 mbps DOWN, but I'm getting ranges between 30-75 mbps UP and 6-18 DOWN.
Here's the layout:
- CAT6 cable (straight-through) was run about 10 meters from the ISP's equipment to my room (because that's the standard they use for drops)
- ISP set their equipment at 100 mbps & Full-Duplex
- My router (I know it's odd, but it's what I had) is an Asus RT-AC3200 gigabit wireless router
- My speed tests were done while only 1 device (the testing device) was connected
Results:
From the first moment that I plugged into my router, the internet connection worked, but the speed tests showed me this issue. (mind you, this was stilll a straight-through cable)
Next, the ISP told me that we needed to use a cross-over cable, as they told me other customers have had issues similar when not using a cross-over cable. So I changed the cable to a cross-over cable and it also "worked", but I still got the same (unacceptable) speeds as when it was a straight-through cable.
Other Tests I Tried:
- I attempted to plug the cable (both as a straigh-throug & cross-over) into a server running Win2k12, set the static IP, and it also "worked" and could connect to the internet, etc.. It still got the same bad speeds (both cable types). Possibly could be due to needing to set 100 mbps and Full-Duplex???
- Silly as it is, I tried plugging it into one of my over-kill 48-port 10G SFP+ L3 managed switch, and plugging my router into the switch (router's WAN port) and again, it "worked", but still got the same bad speeds. The switch apparently doesn't support hard-coding the speed at 100 mbps (1000 mbps was the minimum it would let me, and 10G max)
My Thoughts:
I feel that the issue is one of 3 things.
- (most likely) My router uses MDI-X and auto-negotiation, and doesn't have an option to hard-code the speed at 100 mbps (like my ISP did on their end). My router runs Full-Duplex, so that (I think) is a no-brainer and probably is less likely to be the issue than hard-coding the speed.
- Maybe it's an issue with the cable drop? The distance is only 10 meters, so probably not the issue. The cable type (CAT6) could maybe be an issue??? Lastly, maybe the cable is damaged somewhere, but that seems less likely.
- Maybe the ISP configured something wrong, but again, this seems unlikely (as I already asked them to verify things on there end)
Any thoughts, ideas, or simple solutions that I could implement? I know I'm a bit inexperienced with networking and some of this likely sounds laughable, but I greatly appreciate y'alls help!!!
I recently had a dedicated circuit installed (Level3) and then had a networking services company (BlackBox) run a cable drop for the ISPs equipment to my server room. The issue is that we're paying for a dedicated 100 mbps UP and 100 mbps DOWN, but I'm getting ranges between 30-75 mbps UP and 6-18 DOWN.
Here's the layout:
- CAT6 cable (straight-through) was run about 10 meters from the ISP's equipment to my room (because that's the standard they use for drops)
- ISP set their equipment at 100 mbps & Full-Duplex
- My router (I know it's odd, but it's what I had) is an Asus RT-AC3200 gigabit wireless router
- My speed tests were done while only 1 device (the testing device) was connected
Results:
From the first moment that I plugged into my router, the internet connection worked, but the speed tests showed me this issue. (mind you, this was stilll a straight-through cable)
Next, the ISP told me that we needed to use a cross-over cable, as they told me other customers have had issues similar when not using a cross-over cable. So I changed the cable to a cross-over cable and it also "worked", but I still got the same (unacceptable) speeds as when it was a straight-through cable.
Other Tests I Tried:
- I attempted to plug the cable (both as a straigh-throug & cross-over) into a server running Win2k12, set the static IP, and it also "worked" and could connect to the internet, etc.. It still got the same bad speeds (both cable types). Possibly could be due to needing to set 100 mbps and Full-Duplex???
- Silly as it is, I tried plugging it into one of my over-kill 48-port 10G SFP+ L3 managed switch, and plugging my router into the switch (router's WAN port) and again, it "worked", but still got the same bad speeds. The switch apparently doesn't support hard-coding the speed at 100 mbps (1000 mbps was the minimum it would let me, and 10G max)
My Thoughts:
I feel that the issue is one of 3 things.
- (most likely) My router uses MDI-X and auto-negotiation, and doesn't have an option to hard-code the speed at 100 mbps (like my ISP did on their end). My router runs Full-Duplex, so that (I think) is a no-brainer and probably is less likely to be the issue than hard-coding the speed.
- Maybe it's an issue with the cable drop? The distance is only 10 meters, so probably not the issue. The cable type (CAT6) could maybe be an issue??? Lastly, maybe the cable is damaged somewhere, but that seems less likely.
- Maybe the ISP configured something wrong, but again, this seems unlikely (as I already asked them to verify things on there end)
Any thoughts, ideas, or simple solutions that I could implement? I know I'm a bit inexperienced with networking and some of this likely sounds laughable, but I greatly appreciate y'alls help!!!