Network: No 1Gbit as promised

[Luca ANgelo]

Dear ladies and gents of the internet,

 

I hope everything is fine.

 

Recently i stumbled upon a mind-bending issue in our home network.

We are the "lucky" owners of a 1 Gbit Fiber Internet connection.

 

However, for some reason, the devices inside our network all receive different Download and Upload speeds.

1. Desktop - Download ~120/120 Mbit   Upload 900/900 Mbit (tested with different Speediest Ookla & fast.com)

2. Desktop - Download ~ 300/750 Mbit  Upload 150/300 Mbit (tested with different Speedtest Ookla & fast.com + Major difference when I connected a completely new 7590 Fritz)

3. Desktop - Download ~ 50/150 Mbit   Upload 150/100 Mbit  (tested with different Speedtest Ookla & fast.com)

 

As for Connections 1. Desktop is directly connected to the Router with a 20 m CAT7 LAN-cable (there is also a NETGEAR GS108GE Switch in the connection, however it did not make a difference when i removed it).

Desktop 2. + 3. are both connected to a NETGEAR GS105GE Switch and CAT 5e cables.

 

Standing in front ob the Router with a phone gives me 700Mbit Download.

 

Steps I already took:

1. change the Router for a new one of the same model

2. Remove all devices from the Network and directly connect Desktop 1. with a 5 m LAN to the Router (gave me 300Mbit download)

3. Checked settings in the Router so all LAN Ports are in Power mode

4. Having a mental breakdown

5. Reset Router to factory settings

6. Checked Desktop settings and Hardware specification

7. Second Mental breakdown

8. used iperf to check bandwidth according to the software, it only has 500Mbit in our Network

 

I did not get my hands on a cable tester yet, but I will do that in the future

 

My question:

What the F*** should I do now? The bandwidth should be there as per the speedtest

I really want to skip the third mental breakdown if possible.

 

Thank you in advance, and hopefully I didn't bore you with this topic.

[BiotechBen]

*up to. Be very aware of the * on the speeds. Unless you have a commercial connection, and lay for guaranteed uptime and speeds, it is always "up to X speed". 

[Guest]

The only way that you'll get the 1G is if from the connector outside to your computer is all fiber.

Any copper - you'll loose speed.

You will need to install a fiber internet card in every device as the standard network card is incapable of receiving or transmitting at that speed.

 

Also, every site that you download from must also have the same type of hardware - most don't.

 

TL/DR Yes, theoretically you CAN get 1G but in reality, you AIN'T..

[ninjitsu]

Are you using an IPS? What router are you using?

[Blue4130]

5 minutes ago, Thomas4 said:

The only way that you'll get the 1G is if from the connector outside to your computer is all fiber.

Any copper - you'll loose speed.

You will need to install a fiber internet card in every device as the standard network card is incapable of receiving or transmitting at that speed.

 

Also, every site that you download from must also have the same type of hardware - most don't.

 

TL/DR Yes, theoretically you CAN get 1G but in reality, you ain't.

Well that is just not true. 2.5g nic and 10g nics exist in copper and they easily pass 1gbe.

 

30 minutes ago, Luca ANgelo said:

 

My question:

What the F*** should I do now? The bandwidth should be there as per the speedtest

I really want to skip the third mental breakdown if possible.

 

Thank you in advance, and hopefully I didn't bore you with this topic.

Have you tried to do a file transfer/speed test from machine to machine? This should rule out or narrow down local network/machine issues.

[Electronics Wizardy]

7 minutes ago, Thomas4 said:

The only way that you'll get the 1G is if from the connector outside to your computer is all fiber.

Any copper - you'll loose speed.

You will need to install a fiber internet card in every device as the standard network card is incapable of receiving or transmitting at that speed.

 

Also, every site that you download from must also have the same type of hardware - most don't.

 

TL/DR Yes, theoretically you CAN get 1G but in reality, you AIN'T..

You don't need fibre into your speed to get 1g. copper can easily deliver 1g within the house, and much more with compatible hardware. You should get 900+ mb/s most of the time on a residential 1g connection over cat5e 1gbe.

 

That iperf result is weird to me. Makes me think its a config issue. Id try a linux live disk to rule out the software in windows.

[Guest]

Actually it does matter.

 

Look at it this way, each bit of data is like an automobile capable of 100MPH.

This feat can only be done when the surface is both smooth and wide, a freeway, due to the lack of, shall we say friction.

But when the same automobile tries this on this on a normal highway, the lanes are narrower and have, generally rougher pavement, the car is limited to a lower speed, due mostly to the rougher road surface.

And when freeway meets highway,speed slows.

 

Fiber is the freeway while copper wiring is the highway.

 

And the difference between Cat5 and Cat7 is the number of lanes on the highway.

Cat7 can have 7 cars traveling side by side while Cat5 only allows for 5 and when you have 35 cars... figure out which is faster

 

Not a really good analogy I know, but most of the people I worked with in IT at least understood what I was trying to say..

 

[Luca ANgelo]

49 minutes ago, BiotechBen said:

*up to. Be very aware of the * on the speeds. Unless you have a commercial connection, and lay for guaranteed uptime and speeds, it is always "up to X speed". 

So the company builds fiber into the house, meaning we have a small box in our basement where the fiber arrives, the fiber then runs into a converter and finally into the router. What is weird, is that the Upload never wavers so even when i do a speedtest at like 18:00 on saturdays it alway shows me the 900Mbit - 1Gbit Upload same goes for teh download sadly its at the above mentioned speeds.

48 minutes ago, Thomas4 said:

The only way that you'll get the 1G is if from the connector outside to your computer is all fiber.

Any copper - you'll loose speed.

You will need to install a fiber internet card in every device as the standard network card is incapable of receiving or transmitting at that speed.

 

Also, every site that you download from must also have the same type of hardware - most don't.

 

TL/DR Yes, theoretically you CAN get 1G but in reality, you AIN'T..

The question then is why do some devices receive up to 750Mbit and other only 150 Mbit even though connected to the Router directly

46 minutes ago, ninjitsu said:

Are you using an IPS? What router are you using?

I dont have any IPS, the Router is a Fritzbox 7590 so the falgship from last year if i remember correctly

40 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Well that is just not true. 2.5g nic and 10g nics exist in copper and they easily pass 1gbe.

 

Have you tried to do a file transfer/speed test from machine to machine? This should rule out or narrow down local network/machine issues.

Ok, so I do have a NAS which is connected via the 8 Port Switch when transferring it I reached a speed 100Mbit, however I think maybe the HDD inside are bottlenecking the process. Please do keep in mind, that I can also directly connect the Desktop to the Router, however this doesnt change anything. The file I transferred was 42Gigs big.

39 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You don't need fibre into your speed to get 1g. copper can easily deliver 1g within the house, and much more with compatible hardware. You should get 900+ mb/s most of the time on a residential 1g connection over cat5e 1gbe.

 

That iperf result is weird to me. Makes me think its a config issue. Id try a linux live disk to rule out the software in windows.

I will try the Linux approach tomorrow

[Blue4130]

22 minutes ago, Thomas4 said:

Actually it does matter.

 

Look at it this way, each bit of data is like an automobile capable of 100MPH.

This feat can only be done when the surface is both smooth and wide, a freeway, due to the lack of, shall we say friction.

But when the same automobile tries this on this on a normal highway, the lanes are narrower and have, generally rougher pavement, the car is limited to a lower speed, due mostly to the rougher road surface.

And when freeway meets highway,speed slows.

 

Fiber is the freeway while copper wiring is the highway.

 

And the difference between Cat5 and Cat7 is the number of lanes on the highway.

Cat7 can have 7 cars traveling side by side while Cat5 only allows for 5 and when you have 35 cars... figure out which is faster

 

Not a really good analogy I know, but most of the people I worked with in IT at least understood what I was trying to say..

 

Sure, but you realize that your car analogy falls apart when the copper highway speed limit is literally ten times faster than the car... 

 

Cat 6a can do ten times what this op's internet speed is. Copper is not the limiting factor. There are plenty of people here who do 10gbe over copper. 

[ninjitsu]

With your internet connection, are you able to directly connect a computer to the modem, bypassing the router? It would be nice to test without anything between the modem and the computer doing the test. Do you also have telephone service going through your router? I've never worked with Fritz before, they are not common in North America. I did some quick googling and it looks like it has a lot of features. Maybe too many features for a little router?

 

Another test you can do with your switch, manually assign IP's to devices and connect them to only the switch. Then try the file transfer. Being connected to only the switch can rule out other network traffic.

 

I've run cat5e to easily hundreds of devices and achieved gigabit speeds. It's been a thing for like 20 years.

[Middcore]

2 hours ago, BiotechBen said:

*up to. Be very aware of the * on the speeds. Unless you have a commercial connection, and lay for guaranteed uptime and speeds, it is always "up to X speed". 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 hours ago, Thomas4 said:

Actually it does matter.

 

Look at it this way, each bit of data is like an automobile capable of 100MPH.

This feat can only be done when the surface is both smooth and wide, a freeway, due to the lack of, shall we say friction.

But when the same automobile tries this on this on a normal highway, the lanes are narrower and have, generally rougher pavement, the car is limited to a lower speed, due mostly to the rougher road surface.

And when freeway meets highway,speed slows.

 

Fiber is the freeway while copper wiring is the highway.

 

And the difference between Cat5 and Cat7 is the number of lanes on the highway.

Cat7 can have 7 cars traveling side by side while Cat5 only allows for 5 and when you have 35 cars... figure out which is faster

 

Not a really good analogy I know, but most of the people I worked with in IT at least understood what I was trying to say..

 

But this doesn't work here. cat 5 can do 1gbe just fine normally, and upgrading to cat 7 won't affect speeds at all as its running at the same link speed.

 

And 1gbe in homes is more than enough to get 900+ mb/s. I have seen this at many homes and networks before. And most of the time fibre will be same speed as copper running at the same link speed. So upgrading to 1gbe fiber in the house won't make anything faster.

[Chiyawa]

2 hours ago, Thomas4 said:

Fiber is the freeway while copper wiring is the highway.

In a sense, you are right, but I may want to add a few things:

 

Fibre can only transmit 1 bit at a time as far as I know right now. There may be newer technology, but for typical consumer and industrial, mostly just 1 bit at a time.

 

Copper on the other hand, can be modulated a few bits (using QFDM or PSK) so it can transmit a few bits at a time. That's why even if copper generally transmit about 200 to 400MHz signal (I think for 1Gbits connection, but not sure of other), they can cram in more data. There will be some slight delay for modulator and demodulator process, but with current technology, it is very well negligible.

[Luca ANgelo]

16 hours ago, ninjitsu said:

With your internet connection, are you able to directly connect a computer to the modem, bypassing the router? It would be nice to test without anything between the modem and the computer doing the test. Do you also have telephone service going through your router? I've never worked with Fritz before, they are not common in North America. I did some quick googling and it looks like it has a lot of features. Maybe too many features for a little router?

 

Another test you can do with your switch, manually assign IP's to devices and connect them to only the switch. Then try the file transfer. Being connected to only the switch can rule out other network traffic.

 

I've run cat5e to easily hundreds of devices and achieved gigabit speeds. It's been a thing for like 20 years.

Fritz is pretty huge here in my Region of Germany and it provides a lot of powerful hardware

It might seem that the Hardware might be overwhelmed, however we only have one Dect device which also runs on the Router.

Sadly the connecting to the WAN did not work, but I tried.

 

Cables are fine I tested them today.

 

Rant starts here:

So quick update guys, DO NOT trust the internet tool Ookla provides or at least if you live further away from cities like me.

So I downloaded the Ookla tool to my desktop and run A LOT of Tests with all sorts of Servers. 

Guess what? I reached 600Mbit on one of them and about 500Mbit average. Upload was always in the upper 900s.

 

I am assuming that the WAN network here in Germany is mostly poor when your living in a village, which makes sense because there are a lot of cooper cables still in use.

Als the sevrers are not likely configured to host a lot of download bandwidth.

Download speeds in Steam reached 70 Mbit which is pretty amazing considering the distance to the next Steam Server.

 

TL:DR Germnay internet is pretty shit not even comparable to North America or South Korea and Ooklas Desktop software work more reliable.

But Im still missing those juicy 900 Mbit's download speeds which I had at the very start of out contract

 

I will keep testing and give you guys an update when I find something.

 

Also big shout out to you guys who overwhelmed me with Support