LAN clamped at 100Mbps on Smart Hub Plus

[adrianmay]

When I plug my linux laptop into a cheap gigabit switch it shows 1Gbps in ethtool. When I plug it into the Smart Hub Plus it shows 100Mbps.

This router is advertised as having 1Gbps LAN ports. If that's physically true but the firmware clamps them at a tenth of that speed, the router should be advertised accordingly.

100Mbps is slower than fibre broadband and people want to use ethernet for its stability, so this undermines the speed claims of the higher-priced broadband deals.

Is there a workaround or setting to fix this, or can I look forward to a firmware update?

[JimM11]

@adrianmay Glad you found out and managed to get something potentially sorted before the big switch on, it takes only ONE bad connection on Ethernet cable to kick back to the 100Mb/s speed, so just be aware of that.👍

The help on the forum has been doing it for a long time, so we do know what we are talking about, thanks @XRaySpeX for jumping in!

[XRaySpeX]

@JimM11 : What do you mean "jumping in"? I was in for the start. I was dubious of some of the OP's assertions all along & later saw a way with a diff router to disprove them.

[JimM11]

@XRaySpeX Well let me thank you for helping me, at least i learned what the old router has port wise. Jim

[XRaySpeX]

@JimM11 : Yes, it was useful to have a mixture in this instance. Almost as good as having a 1 Gig LAN & a 1.8'ish Gig WLAN 😉.

[JimM11]

@XRaySpeX Do care about the internal network, external not fussed about it, but heads up 7 day's on FF zero issue's and Smarthub+ is behaving itself which i never doubted for a single moment. 

[alechb]

Did you find a way around the 100mbps LAN ports problem?

I have the same EE Smarthub+, Wifi and WAN seem to deliver over 500mbps, but the LAN ports are 100% restricted the moment the switch is attached. I have the SH+ plugged direct to a new Netgear 1G switch, cables are all perfect, CAT6A actually, and tested to over 10gbps, but the connection negotiates to 100mbps, max speeds are around 95mbps for anything from the switch. I run a xMacMini server and a few 1Gig computers from the switch, so this is a problem as file transfer is now shockingly slow, 1250mb on the old setup was possible via my old Apple Router, may put it back but the SH+ this has much better WiFi.

[JimM11]

@alechb The EE Smarthub+ 1Gb/s NIC ports negotiate fine to 1G using the TP-Link switch also computer direct, port problem is the 20 second plus wait for connection that the switch takes care off, if you plug the PC in or you Know that all your cables are good, then think that the Router just does not like your Netgear switch... 

[DanBD1]

That's just the speed of your NIC card in that device, it has nothing to do with network speeds at all.

On our corporate firewall we have 10GB main and 5GB backup bearers, but we will only see that speed directly on the trunk in, we're bottlenecked down to 1Gb at the switches and only 100mb on the POE switches.

On the PCs most have a 1Gb NIC card it's not relevant to the speeds claimed 

[XRaySpeX]

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@DanBD1 wrote:

That's just the speed of your NIC card in that device, it has nothing to do with network speeds at all.

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No, the raw speed of the NIC card in the 1 PC is 1 Gig, but the Ethernet Status reported by that PC's Network Connection only shows the currently negotiated speed of whatever device is connected to it at the time. The proof of the pudding!

[alechb]

Thank you for putting that right! if I direct plug the Mac mini or my laptop (both have 1Gig ports) direct to the SH+, it negotiates to 1Gig, so it’s only via a switch that it throttles to 100mbps. Thank you for your clear support above, as we know it’s not the NIC card. 
I would suggest that the SH+ hub has some mechanism that throttles for cable length or perhaps when a switch is added. Either way it’s a pain for me as I have a 10Gig Mac mini media server that via the SH+ hub is now very slow to push data to other computers, as I said before, the old Apple Router always did 1Gig no matter what random 1Gig switch was attached.