Router Only Outputs 10Mbps on 100Mbps Input

[Pretorious]

I've got a really strange problem with the internet in my apartment and after weeks of troubleshooting I'm pretty much at a loss and hoping someone on here has some new ideas for me.

 

Basically, I live in a small apartment building where the landlord has set up a small business grade router in the basement, which has cables that run to each of the three apartment units (<20ft in every case). My cable is connected to an ethernet port in the wall of my apartment, and the idea of this setup was that each unit could have their own routers and credentials branched off of this central router. When I cable directly from the ethernet port in the wall to my PC, I get around 95-100Mbps both up and down on speedtest.net (I've also verified this with other speedtests including my ISP's). However, when I connect the wall port directly to my router (using the same Cat6e cable that I just used to connect my PC) BOTH wired and wireless connections from my ROUTER to my PC are capped at 10Mbps.

 

Here's my router: TP-Link Archer C7 V2.

 

Now here's what I've tried/tested:

• Updating firmware
• Changing firmware to DD-WRT
• Changing Wireless Adapter settings on my PC for potential issues with auto-negotiation
• Tested with other PCs/devices to verify it's not just my PC
• Tested with a separate router (Linksys AC1750)
• Tested different cables
• Played with different wireless channels/frequencies
• Different router modes including bridge modes and access point configurations
• A whole laundry list of other things I found randomly on the interwebs that did nothing

 

And the real kicker: My landlord has no idea what it could be and his el cheapo Cisco router in his apartment with the same setup as mine is getting full speeds.

 

Any ideas? Anyone seen something like this before?

 

Thanks,

-Pretorious

[comicsansms]

Have you looked at the cable. Maybe it isn't CAT6a or it is shitty cable. 

[Pretorious]

2 minutes ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

Have you looked at the cable. Maybe it isn't CAT6a or it is shitty cable. 

Yep, it's definitely good and I've even tested other cables to verify.

[Fraser Cow]

The cable could have a poor/broken connection.

[comicsansms]

4 minutes ago, Pretorious said:

Yep, it's definitely good and I've even tested other cables to verify.

Have you tried other computers, phones and over devices? 

[Pretorious]

2 minutes ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

Have you tried other computers, phones and over devices? 

5 minutes ago, Fraser Cow said:

The cable could have a poor/broken connection.

Please read my first post fully, I listed all the things I've tried which includes both testing cables and testing other devices.

 

I'm getting full speeds from the wall (meaning the cable from the basement is working, and my own cables are working), it's only through the router that my speeds are limited.

 

[SuperShermanTanker]

You could just be reading them wrong because the router is capible of 100 megaBITS ber second and you are getting 10 megaBYTES per second they are 2 different mesurements and a 100megabit router is only capible of 10megabytes per second so it's the router not your wiring or computer just get a gigabit router and you'll be transfering at 100megabytes per second

[comicsansms]

1 minute ago, Pretorious said:

Please read my first post fully, I listed all the things I've tried which includes both testing cables and testing other devices.

 

I'm getting full speeds from the wall (meaning the cable from the basement is working, and my own cables are working), it's only through the router that my speeds are limited.

 

I have read your post but I didn't see that. 

 

2 minutes ago, SuperShermanTanker said:

You could just be reading them wrong because the router is capible of 100 megaBITS ber second and you are getting 10 megaBYTES per second they are 2 different mesurements and a 100megabit router is only capible of 10megabytes per second so it's the router not your wiring or computer just get a gigabit router and you'll be transfering at 100megabytes per second

Mb = MB * 8,  =/= MB * 10

 

 

[Windows7ge]

You listed that you already tried a different router and it came to the same result? I'd try buying a dummy automatically programmed network switch. One capable of 10/100/1000mbps then plug the wall into the switch & router into the switch with your wired devices plugged into the switch. This may result in a security risk because any wired device will be discoverable on the network from other apartments but it should fix your issue.

[Pretorious]

14 minutes ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

I have read your post but I didn't see that. 

 

Mb = MB * 8,  =/= MB * 10

 

 

I wish it were that simple, but unfortunately no. Using the same test with the same measurements plugged into the wall and via the router give me the readings I listed, 95-100Mbps download and upload from the wall, and 9-10Mbps download and upload from the router. This is regardless of what the router is listed at being capable of, I'm talking straight reading from speedtest.net as they are displayed there, only being compared to other runs from that same site.

 

I do understand the difference, but in this case I'm just looking at internet download/upload speeds as measured by standard speed test like speedtest.net, and it is from these readings that I know I'm being bottlenecked by the router.

 

8 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

You listed that you already tried a different router and it came to the same result? I'd try buying a dummy automatically programmed network switch. One capable of 10/100/1000mbps then plug the wall into the switch & router into the switch with your wired devices plugged into the switch. This may result in a security risk because any wired device will be discoverable on the network from other apartments but it should fix your issue.

I did, and it gave me the same result. Interesting, I might give that a try, in theory the switch is just another extension of the wired connection to the downstairs router. But if the issue is somewhere in the transfer between the business router and mine, I'm thinking my router would still only be outputting 10Mbps over wifi instead of the 40-50Mbps that I would expect from a 100Mbps source...and unfortunately I don't really use wired connections, the wifi speeds are the most important. I only tested both wired and wireless to prove to myself that it wasn't just severe interference from other wifi sources.

 

[Windows7ge]

7 minutes ago, Pretorious said:

I wish it were that simple, but unfortunately no. Using the same test with the same measurements plugged into the wall and via the router give me the readings I listed, 95-100Mbps download and upload from the wall, and 9-10Mbps download and upload from the router. This is regardless of what the router is listed at being capable of, I'm talking straight reading from speedtest.net as they are displayed there, only being compared to other runs from that same site.

 

I do understand the difference, but in this case I'm just looking at internet download/upload speeds as measured by standard speed test like speedtest.net, and it is from these readings that I know I'm being bottlenecked by the router.

 

I did, and it gave me the same result. Interesting, I might give that a try, in theory the switch is just another extension of the wired connection to the downstairs router. But if the issue is somewhere in the transfer between the business router and mine, I'm thinking my router would still only be outputting 10Mbps over wifi instead of the 40-50Mbps that I would expect from a 100Mbps source...and unfortunately I don't really use wired connections, the wifi speeds are the most important. I only tested both wired and wireless to prove to myself that it wasn't just severe interference from other wifi sources.

 

In theory it's possible the switch would act as a booster and increase the signal strength going along the cable. By using it as a medium it might give the router a 100/1000mbps bandwidth and allow for higher wireless throughput. Kind of like a signal booster. If it doesn't help I'd ask the landlord to let you go look at the router. Maybe it has a big spool of Cat5e sitting on top of a spool of extension cable and your router doesn't have enough electrical power to overcome the interference. Alternatively maybe the cable is terminated with T-568A on one end and T-568B on the other and both router aren't configured with Auto-MDIX resulting in huge unexplainable bottle-necking.

[Pretorious]

3 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

In theory it's possible the switch would act as a booster and increase the signal strength going along the cable. By using it as a medium it might give the router a 100/1000mbps bandwidth and allow for higher wireless throughput. Kind of like a signal booster. If it doesn't help I'd ask the landlord to let you go look at the router. Maybe it has a big spool of Cat5e sitting on top of a spool of extension cable and your router doesn't have enough electrical power to overcome the interference. Alternatively maybe the cable is terminated with T-568A on one end and T-568B on the other and both router aren't configured with Auto-MDIX resulting in huge unexplainable bottle-necking.

I'll definitely give that a try, do you have a recommendation for a switch that you think would do the trick? And if it is an issue with Auto-MDIX, what really can I do? I'm not sure about my landlord's business router, but I'm not aware of having any control over that feature on my personal router's end. Are some routers pre-configured with that feature behind the scenes?

[Windows7ge]

In terms of cost effectiveness I'd go with something like this: TP-LINK TL-SG108E

Personally I wired up my parents home with this: TP-LINK TL-SG1016DE

 

I'd talk to the landlord first before spending any money.

 

Most if not all modern network compatible devices are suppose to support AUTO-MDIX but under rare circumstances something might not. If the issue is improper termination of the cable you can try terminating the cable again yourself. Look at the cable by the building router that goes to your room, mimic the wires. Most cables today are terminated in T-568B which goes OW-O-WG-B-BW-G-WB-B left to right if you're looking at the underside of the connector. Alternatively buy a crossover cable, if the outlet is wired as a crossover cable it'll turn it into a strait-through again. You have a number of viable tests you can conduct to try and get the internet working how it's suppose to be. 

[Pretorious]

1 hour ago, Windows7ge said:

In terms of cost effectiveness I'd go with something like this: TP-LINK TL-SG108E

Personally I wired up my parents home with this: TP-LINK TL-SG1016DE

 

I'd talk to the landlord first before spending any money.

 

Most if not all modern network compatible devices are suppose to support AUTO-MDIX but under rare circumstances something might not. If the issue is improper termination of the cable you can try terminating the cable again yourself. Look at the cable by the building router that goes to your room, mimic the wires. Most cables today are terminated in T-568B which goes OW-O-WG-B-BW-G-WB-B left to right if you're looking at the underside of the connector. Alternatively buy a crossover cable, if the outlet is wired as a crossover cable it'll turn it into a strait-through again. You have a number of viable tests you can conduct to try and get the internet working how it's suppose to be. 

Thanks for the suggestions, glad to have some fresh ideas on this. And yeah, I've already filled him in on the whole deal and he and I both ran out of ideas, so I'll probably end up trying the switch and if not then I'll start messing around the cable suggestions you had, as I'm not as familiar with how that works and what my options are to properly troubleshoot.

[Windows7ge]

33 minutes ago, Pretorious said:

Thanks for the suggestions, glad to have some fresh ideas on this. And yeah, I've already filled him in on the whole deal and he and I both ran out of ideas, so I'll probably end up trying the switch and if not then I'll start messing around the cable suggestions you had, as I'm not as familiar with how that works and what my options are to properly troubleshoot.

Good luck, if none of that helps come back to the forum and maybe we can come up with something else that might be a variable.

[Pretorious]

On 6/28/2016 at 3:35 PM, Windows7ge said:

Good luck, if none of that helps come back to the forum and maybe we can come up with something else that might be a variable.

Hi again, just wanted to update you on the situation. Got myself a similar switch to the one you showed me (Netgear GS105) and still couldn't solve it. Tried connecting directly from the port to the switch, and it wouldn't show any signs of a signal. The only way I could get anything out of the switch was to go from the wall to my router, and from the router through the switch, which obviously had the same limited speeds as before since it was output from my router. No idea why the signal from the wall wouldn't go through the switch...

And as far as wiring goes, there's not much I can do. I took off the wall socket to see what my landlord had set up, and it's a female end of a Cat6 cable that runs from the basement business router up to the attic and down to my wall. Definitely not something I can easily swap out and see if there's something wrong there.

 

Any other ideas?

[Windows7ge]

I'm being led to believe the buildings new router isn't configured correctly. It seems to only want to communicate with end devices not switches or routers. It's hard to say where to go from here without seeing the building router. Did everything work fine prior to the installation of them new building router?

[Pretorious]

2 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

I'm being led to believe the buildings new router isn't configured correctly. It seems to only want to communicate with end devices not switches or routers. It's hard to say where to go from here without seeing the building router. Did everything work fine prior to the installation of them new building router?

I'm starting to think the same thing, however I went through all the settings in the business router with my landlord a few weeks back and nothing seemed to work. The router was in place when I moved in, so I've never been able to test anything without it. Are there any settings/options to look out for that are likely to be the culprit in something like this? If I were to suggest some changes in his setup, what would you recommend/how would you go about configuring a network in which a central modem allows 3 separate apartments use their own routers with DHCP? 

[dalekphalm]

On 2016-06-28 at 0:51 PM, SuperShermanTanker said:

You could just be reading them wrong because the router is capible of 100 megaBITS ber second and you are getting 10 megaBYTES per second they are 2 different mesurements and a 100megabit router is only capible of 10megabytes per second so it's the router not your wiring or computer just get a gigabit router and you'll be transfering at 100megabytes per second

Just so everyone knows, the TP-Link Archer C7 has Gigabit ports on both the 1x WAN port, and the 4x LAN ports. The issue is NOT caused by a 100 Mbps port being translated into MB/s. Also, FYI, it's 12.5 MB/s, not 10. 8 bits per byte, and all that...

[Pretorious]

17 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Just so everyone knows, the TP-Link Archer C7 has Gigabit ports on both the 1x WAN port, and the 4x LAN ports. The issue is NOT caused by a 100 Mbps port being translated into MB/s. Also, FYI, it's 12.5 MB/s, not 10. 8 bits per byte, and all that...

Thank you, yes, it is certainly not an issue so simple as that. The Archer C7 is a very capable router, all the more reason why this strange issue is all the more frustrating.

[dalekphalm]

1 minute ago, Pretorious said:

Thank you, yes, it is certainly not an issue so simple as that. The Archer C7 is a very capable router, all the more reason why this strange issue is all the more frustrating.

It damn well better be a capable router... I just made my fiancees mother buy one... If it's not good, I'm sure I'll hear all about it

[dzonidev]

That's strange really strange. Have you tested the throughput of the Archer?

 

Spoiler

Plug your PC into the WAN port and configure it to a static IP. On the PC setup the network to an IP on the same subnet as the WAN of the router and setup a web server (NGINX) put some files into the folder. Then connect a device your LAN segment of the router and try to access the PC which hosts the web server. It would be best if you can keep your router configuration the same except the WAN IP. What you want to do here is test the throughput of the router. 

 

If I would have to guess, I'd say that Cisco and Archer are having trouble negotiating a higher link speed. Either way I think it's best if you buy a switch because the owners Cisco is already doing NAT, and so is your Archer which makes it a double NAT and possibly the ISP which then makes that a triple NAT and you really don't want that.

Things to try:
 - Enable DMZ on Cisco to Archer
 - Offer to swap out the Cisco router for the Archer

 - Go Mikrotik

[Cryptonite]

On 6/28/2016 at 6:35 PM, Pretorious said:

I've got a really strange problem with the internet in my apartment and after weeks of troubleshooting I'm pretty much at a loss and hoping someone on here has some new ideas for me.

 

Basically, I live in a small apartment building where the landlord has set up a small business grade router in the basement, which has cables that run to each of the three apartment units (<20ft in every case). My cable is connected to an ethernet port in the wall of my apartment, and the idea of this setup was that each unit could have their own routers and credentials branched off of this central router. When I cable directly from the ethernet port in the wall to my PC, I get around 95-100Mbps both up and down on speedtest.net (I've also verified this with other speedtests including my ISP's). However, when I connect the wall port directly to my router (using the same Cat6e cable that I just used to connect my PC) BOTH wired and wireless connections from my ROUTER to my PC are capped at 10Mbps.

 

Here's my router: TP-Link Archer C7 V2.

 

Now here's what I've tried/tested:

• Updating firmware
• Changing firmware to DD-WRT
• Changing Wireless Adapter settings on my PC for potential issues with auto-negotiation
• Tested with other PCs/devices to verify it's not just my PC
• Tested with a separate router (Linksys AC1750)
• Tested different cables
• Played with different wireless channels/frequencies
• Different router modes including bridge modes and access point configurations
• A whole laundry list of other things I found randomly on the interwebs that did nothing

 

And the real kicker: My landlord has no idea what it could be and his el cheapo Cisco router in his apartment with the same setup as mine is getting full speeds.

 

Any ideas? Anyone seen something like this before?

 

Thanks,

-Pretorious

ok I didn't read all of the comments etc. but you do know that if you buy a 100 mbps router it only outputs 10 MB/s on the computer. if you have gigabit internet (100 MB/s) you need a gigabit router (1000 mbps) for it not to bottleneck.

[Windows7ge]

If plugging the switch into the wall jack results in nothing the issue is somewhere in between the wall jack and the building network. It could be something firewall related if he has one or is using the built in functionality of the business router. Something you could do is you mentioned that plugging strait into your computer works fine. If you have more than one Ethernet port on your computer you could share the internet connection through the computer to the router. The downside to this is your computer would have to remain turned on whenever you want to use the wireless.

[jagdtigger]

2 hours ago, Cryptonite said:

ok I didn't read all of the comments etc. but you do know that if you buy a 100 mbps router it only outputs 10 MB/s on the computer. if you have gigabit internet (100 MB/s) you need a gigabit router (1000 mbps) for it not to bottleneck.

He has an Archer C7, all of its ports are 1Gbps...

 

@Pretorious

If your router has an option for it set the WAN link speed to 100Mbps manually...