Nighthawk R7000 WAN capped at 100MBps in AP mode

[DB027]

Hi, hope someone here can offer some assistance.

I have looked through all the similar threads I can find but have been unable to resolve this issue.

I have an HFC nbn 250/20 connection set up like this :

nbn -> Arris nbn modem -> Linksys EA6900 router (DHCP server) -> tplink Gigabit switch

-> Netgear R7000 (#1 rear living) in AP mode

-> Netgear R7000 (#2 upstairs) in AP mode

Latest firmware on both.  QoS is off

WAN link for AP#1 is at 1000M and anything that connects to that AP achieves ~240M download.  All good there.

Issue that I have is that WAN link for AP#2 is at 100M and anything that connects to that AP is capped at ~95M

So far I have restarted everything multiple times, checked (all pairs working fine) and replaced all patch cables, cleaned all RJ45 ports, reterminated the hard wiring and replaced RJ45 wall socket and factory reset and reconfigured AP#2.  No joy

Next step will be to swap positions of the 2 APs but that is a bit of a pain because of where they’re positioned so trying to avoid that.

Open to suggestions.

Thanks,

David

[plemans]

couple things to try. 

Grab the one with slower speeds. Move it and direct connect it to the linksys with a known good 6ft cable. 

Maybe you have a damaged ethenet connection on the router. 

I think the r7000 had an wan port mirror option in the debug menu. Try going to the routers ip address with debug.htm at the end.

for example: 192.168.1.1/debug.htm

I believe you can mirror the wan port to lan port 1. If the port was damaged,this might get it back to full speeds. 

[DB027]

Thanks for that - I'll give it a try

[plemans]

let me know how it goes

[DB027]

No joy mirroring WAN port to LAN port 1 - functionality is there but it didn't make any difference, still 100MB.  Thanks for that tip though - was worth a try.

I also tried connecting to a different (wall) port I have up in this room, also no difference.

Tried both of the above with a different cable, with restarts in between, no difference.

I still need to try connecting directly to the Linksys router with a short cable.  Will report back.

[DB027]

So took the R7000 and plugged into the tplink switch directly. Ah voila!  1000M on the WAN port.

A problem somewhere with the cabling from my patch panel to the wall port.  All tests ok but won't carry Gigabit traffic.  Hmm

I reterminated both ends again just to be sure but no difference.  Considering my next steps.  I think I have an unused wall port upstairs I can divert (cable in the roofspace) to this problematic one.  Bit of a job though.  I'll wait 'til a cool day comes around.

[plemans]

Its unfortunate to find when its a cabling issue because its challenging to fix. 

Glad to hear it wasn't the router though!

Good luck!

[DB027]

So finally resolved this issue. Nothing whatsoever wrong with the router. When I started looking properly at the cabling I noticed that there are 2 different brands of cable running all over the place. Both marked as Cat6 BUT I repurposed one of the fixed cables running upstairs to a spare wall port which was using the other type of cable compared to the problematic port and what do you know- 1000M on the WAN port and everything working as it should.
I don’t recall skimping on the cable but clearly it pays to buy better quality. I never had any issues up to 100M but as soon as I wanted to go beyond that the inferior cable couldn’t handle it. Hmm
I guess it was lucky that I had the option to repurpose one of the superior cables as running some more up through wall cavity into roofspace down into walls etc. again didn’t hold much appeal ! 😬
Getting 260M wireless plus pumping from that router now - happy camper...
Thanks for the tips

[antinode]

> I don't recall skimping on the cable but clearly it pays to buy better
> quality. I never had any issues up to 100M but as soon as I wanted to go
> beyond that the inferior cable couldn't handle it. Hmm

   The actual cable could be fine, but one bad termination could spoil
it.  You need all eight conductors to get 1000MHz, but only (the right)
four to get 100MHz,  One badly crimped connector is all it takes to cut
the speed.

[Kitsap]

Ethernet cable testers are not too hard to come by.  If you wanted to add one to your tool kit, Amazon is a good place to start.  You might be able to borrow one from a friend.

[DB027]

I did actually test the cables with a simple tester. All tested ok for continuity but couldn’t handle the speed. Any suggestions for a tester that will check throughput?
Thanks

[plemans]

You basically did the testing.

you might have cat 5 cable and not cat 5e. 

They both have 8 wires in them but cat5e has more tightly twisted wires which reduce the crosstalk between them. This allows them to operate at the gigabit speeds. You might have just grabbed a cat5 cable instead. that'd explain why you showed connection on all 4 pairs but are only operating at 100mbps speeds and not gigabit. 

[Kitsap]

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@DB027 wrote:
I did actually test the cables with a simple tester. All tested ok for continuity but couldn’t handle the speed. Any suggestions for a tester that will check throughput?
Thanks

The only throughput testers I have seen were commercial benchtop units.  They were setup for testing right after the rj45 connections were installed.  Definitely not portable.

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[antinode]

> you might have cat 5 cable and not cat 5e.

   Sadly, it's possible that only one of us can see what's printed on
the jacket of any of these cables.  I know that my psychic powers are
too weak to let me do it.

[DB027]

Both cable types are labelled as Cat6 - not happy.....

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@plemans wrote:

You basically did the testing.

you might have cat 5 cable and not cat 5e. 

They both have 8 wires in them but cat5e has more tightly twisted wires which reduce the crosstalk between them. This allows them to operate at the gigabit speeds. You might have just grabbed a cat5 cable instead. that'd explain why you showed connection on all 4 pairs but are only operating at 100mbps speeds and not gigabit. 

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