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Network degradation due to network switch usage.

morpheus_lord
By morpheus_lord
in Networking
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Go to solution Solved by Needfuldoer,

A Gigabit switch should solve your problem.

 

They're tempting because they're cheap, but there's no good reason to buy a 10/100 switch in the year 2024. Even though your Internet connection is less than 100 megabits, it also limits communication between local network devices to 100 megabits. If both your NAS and your laptop have Gigabit Ethernet, that switch is knocking the potential speed between them to 1/10th of what it could be.

Posted

I’m working on setting up a simple home server and need an unmanaged switch for plug-and-play connectivity. It needs to connect two systems: a laptop and a low-powered backup NAS.

I have a 100 Mbps internet connection (not the fastest, but I use AirFiber). When directly connected to my router using a Cat6 Ethernet cable, I get over 100 Mbps download and around 70-80 Mbps upload speeds.

For the switch, I bought a TP-Link LS1005 5-port unmanaged switch, which is rated for up to 100 Mbps. It seemed like a good fit initially, but after setting it up, I noticed a massive drop in performance. My download speed dropped from 100 Mbps to just 5 Mbps, although the upload speed remained unaffected.

I tried several troubleshooting steps:

  • Changing the Ethernet cables.
  • Testing different ports on the switch.
  • Adjusting network adapter settings, including speed and power options.

Unfortunately, none of these solutions worked.

Does anyone have suggestions for resolving this issue or ideas on what might be causing such a drastic speed reduction?

 

Without_Switch.png

with_switch.png

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A Gigabit switch should solve your problem.

 

They're tempting because they're cheap, but there's no good reason to buy a 10/100 switch in the year 2024. Even though your Internet connection is less than 100 megabits, it also limits communication between local network devices to 100 megabits. If both your NAS and your laptop have Gigabit Ethernet, that switch is knocking the potential speed between them to 1/10th of what it could be.

I sold my soul for ProSupport.

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Posted

Welcome (back) to the forums!
Yeah, I'm gonna guess that it's just that you're using a cheapo switch. I love whatever TPlink 5 port unmanged *gigabit* switch is cheap at the time. 

5950X/4090FE primary rig  |  1920X/1070Ti Unraid for dockers  |  200TB TrueNAS w/ 1:1 backup

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10 hours ago, OddOod said:

Welcome (back) to the forums!
Yeah, I'm gonna guess that it's just that you're using a cheapo switch. I love whatever TPlink 5 port unmanged *gigabit* switch is cheap at the time. 

I mean ya budget constraints is a bi**h but I talked to the people, and they have accepted it for a refund I have ordered a gigabit switch instead and also some good quality cables so that I can mitigate this issue.

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11 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

A Gigabit switch should solve your problem.

 

They're tempting because they're cheap, but there's no good reason to buy a 10/100 switch in the year 2024. Even though your Internet connection is less than 100 megabits, it also limits communication between local network devices to 100 megabits. If both your NAS and your laptop have Gigabit Ethernet, that switch is knocking the potential speed between them to 1/10th of what it could be.

I think I was having a collective number of issues, starting with my switch which was hot garbage, my cables which were also not so great, and my ISP-provided router was also not helping. 

I bought this switch instead https://www.amazon.in/dp/B00N0OHEMA?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

Hope this works properly.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
On 12/6/2024 at 12:45 PM, morpheus_lord said:

and the speed is great,

If you have another 10/100 switch, try it again to test performance.

 

Also, disconnect ethernet / wi-fi on systems not currently in use, and consider a setup like pi-hole running locally, or NextDNS online service to login and block any websites that you don't want to load.

: JRE #1914 Siddarth Kara

How bad is e-waste?  Listen to that Joe Rogan episode.

 

"Now you get what you want, but do you want more?
- Bob Marley, Rastaman Vibration album 1976

 

Windows 11 will just force business to "recycle" "obscolete" hardware.  Microsoft definitely isn't bothered by this at all, and seems to want hardware produced just a few years ago to be considered obsolete.  They have also not shown any interest nor has any other company in a similar financial position, to help increase tech recycling whatsoever.  Windows 12 might be cloud-based and be a monthly or yearly fee.

 

Software suggestions


Just get f.lux [Link removed due to forum rules] so your screen isn't bright white at night, a golden orange in place of stark 6500K bluish white.

released in 2008 and still being improved.

 

Dark Reader addon for webpages.  Pick any color you want for both background and text (background and foreground page elements).  Enable the preview mode on desktop for Firefox and Chrome addon, by clicking the dark reader addon settings, Choose dev tools amd click preview mode.

 

NoScript or EFF's privacy badger addons can block many scripts and websites that would load and track you, possibly halving page load time!

 

F-droid is a place to install open-source software for android, Antennapod, RethinkDNS, Fennec which is Firefox with about:config, lots of performance and other changes available, mozilla KB has a huge database of what most of the settings do.  Most software in the repository only requires Android 5 and 6!

 

I recommend firewall apps (blocks apps) and dns filters (redirect all dns requests on android, to your choice of dns, even if overridden).  RethinkDNS is my pick and I set it to use pi-hole, installed inside Ubuntu/Debian, which is inside Virtualbox, until I go to a website, nothing at all connects to any other server.  I also use NextDNS.io to do the same when away from home wi-fi or even cellular!  I can even tether from cellular to any device sharing via wi-fi, and block anything with dns set to NextDNS, regardless if the device allows changing dns.  This style of network filtration is being overridden by software updates on some devices, forcing a backup dns provuder, such as google dns, when built in dns requests are not connecting.  Without a complete firewall setup, dns redirection itself is no longer always effective.

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20 hours ago, E-waste said:

If you have another 10/100 switch, try it again to test performance.

 

Also, disconnect ethernet / wi-fi on systems not currently in use, and consider a setup like pi-hole running locally, or NextDNS online service to login and block any websites that you don't want to load.

I tested this after I got my new switch, I had a 100 Mbps switch deployed in my building so I "borrowed" it for testing and yes it performed the same as my other 100 Mbps tp-link switch, btw the new gigabit switch is working great I can maintain a steady connection with my test home server at all times and there are no high latency situations so I think that helped.

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2 hours ago, morpheus_lord said:

so I think that helped

I would still be interested in what is saturating a 10 mbyte/s link.  I think it would benefit looking into what is hogging the network.  Not even Netflix 1080p needs more than 3-4 megaBITS for a stream, and 1.5 or 2 megaBYTES/s for a 4K stream so maybe something is using an abnormal amount of network resources.

: JRE #1914 Siddarth Kara

How bad is e-waste?  Listen to that Joe Rogan episode.

 

"Now you get what you want, but do you want more?
- Bob Marley, Rastaman Vibration album 1976

 

Windows 11 will just force business to "recycle" "obscolete" hardware.  Microsoft definitely isn't bothered by this at all, and seems to want hardware produced just a few years ago to be considered obsolete.  They have also not shown any interest nor has any other company in a similar financial position, to help increase tech recycling whatsoever.  Windows 12 might be cloud-based and be a monthly or yearly fee.

 

Software suggestions


Just get f.lux [Link removed due to forum rules] so your screen isn't bright white at night, a golden orange in place of stark 6500K bluish white.

released in 2008 and still being improved.

 

Dark Reader addon for webpages.  Pick any color you want for both background and text (background and foreground page elements).  Enable the preview mode on desktop for Firefox and Chrome addon, by clicking the dark reader addon settings, Choose dev tools amd click preview mode.

 

NoScript or EFF's privacy badger addons can block many scripts and websites that would load and track you, possibly halving page load time!

 

F-droid is a place to install open-source software for android, Antennapod, RethinkDNS, Fennec which is Firefox with about:config, lots of performance and other changes available, mozilla KB has a huge database of what most of the settings do.  Most software in the repository only requires Android 5 and 6!

 

I recommend firewall apps (blocks apps) and dns filters (redirect all dns requests on android, to your choice of dns, even if overridden).  RethinkDNS is my pick and I set it to use pi-hole, installed inside Ubuntu/Debian, which is inside Virtualbox, until I go to a website, nothing at all connects to any other server.  I also use NextDNS.io to do the same when away from home wi-fi or even cellular!  I can even tether from cellular to any device sharing via wi-fi, and block anything with dns set to NextDNS, regardless if the device allows changing dns.  This style of network filtration is being overridden by software updates on some devices, forcing a backup dns provuder, such as google dns, when built in dns requests are not connecting.  Without a complete firewall setup, dns redirection itself is no longer always effective.

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9 hours ago, E-waste said:

I would still be interested in what is saturating a 10 mbyte/s link.  I think it would benefit looking into what is hogging the network.  Not even Netflix 1080p needs more than 3-4 megaBITS for a stream, and 1.5 or 2 megaBYTES/s for a 4K stream so maybe something is using an abnormal amount of network resources.

I wanted a faster link for my home labs' remote connections and stuff and faster Steam downloads.

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