Switch to Switch

[Sephias]

Hi. I have a rather strange problem. I recently installed a pretty big home network at my place, It's a quite normal network looking like this: [Cable Modem] -> [Gigabit Router] -> [Gigabit switch] -> [Computers]. One cable goes from the switch about 70 meters to a wireless accesspoint in a house across the yard, and one cable goes about 45-50 meters upstairs to my office. It works like a charm for everyone and I get full speed when I plug in the cable directly to my computer, but when I plug the cable to an 10/100 switch upstairs in my office (I wanted to connect my laptop and fileserver) I only get 10mbps (Yes the switch runs on Full Duplex) and when I change back to plug the cable directly in my computer it still only gives me 10mbps untill I go downstairs and change port on the first switch and wait for like 5 minutes, it goes back to full speed. All the equipment is brand new and top of the line hardware (For home and small buissness networking) Anyone have any idea what the problem can be?

Thanks!

 

[riser]

Sounds like an auto-negotiation issue.

Set your NIC on your computer to 100/Full and see if it accepts that connection. Being that you have a 10/100 switch, you will never realize the 1000mbps connection.

 

[Sephias]

Ok, I'll try that and see if it works

Thanks

 

[Kewlx25]

Are you using cat6? Cat5 and Cat5e are not rated for 1000 over 100m, and those long distances may be picking up enough noise to make cat6 needed.

But yes, cheaper to try to force gig first before other options.

This is when a line tester would be nice, but even cheap ones run for $600.

 

[Sephias]

Hmm.. Yeah. I run Cat5e. But since no cable is over ca 70m it should not be a problem, but do you mean that since all the long cables are over 100m together they create enough noise to disturb the signal?

However, now i have another problem.. Suddenly when i was fixing with the cables (I switched some old patches with new connectors) and turned the switch back on all previous 1000mbit connections (The one to the accesspoint and the one to my place) had turned into 100mbit, but i know that the switch is configured right because the connection between the router and switch still shows 1000mbit. So i was wondering if i might have wired the connectors wrong (i.e putting green as pin 6 instead of 3) and if that could somehow limited the connection to 100mbit. And if so, could anyone link me to a good RJ45 connector map or something like that that shows witch colour that goes with pins 1 thru 8 etc, if u see what i mean That would be awesome

 

[retellect]

Here's the pinout:
http://www.datalinkcom.net/rj45_pinout_wiring.html

I don't think its the wiring Sephias, you should use an uplink cable between switches rather than patching them from a normal port to another.

 

[Sephias]

Hmm.. ok.

But you think that the 100mbit problem can be caused by bad wiring?

Thanks

 

[Sephias]

I am running win 7 on all machines. Tho the problems is not on the laptops, its the accesspoint and all stationary computers (that is, all devices that are connected with a cable to the switch) that only has 10 or 100 mbps connection, which is strange when all hardware is gigabit. The thing is, with the accesspoint for example, that it had a gigabit connection at first, but both ends of the cable was badly patched, the person who putted the network together before I came around had no tools so he simply took a cable, cut it in two and patched both ends of the 70m cable (Which we had on a big roll with no connectors in the ends) mcyver-style. And when I removed the ugly patches and putted on two proper connectors instead, I only get 10 or 100mbit. Thats where I came to the conclusion that it had to do with my wiring, but when I go back and check both ends it all looks right.

Thanks

God.. I sometimes really want a diagnostic tool that you can start, press analyze, and it just tells you whats wrong hehe