[Sussex] Wired Network Talk...

[Antony]

Long ago I wrote:
> I got a D-Link Gigabit switch and gave it time to train to my mac
> addresses, but it ran at about 20% the speed of a crossover cable.
> So I returned it and forked out the extra for a Netgear equivalent
> (DG834G), and guess what?  8-(
> 
> The concensus seems to be that Consumer Networking Kit Is C**p, but I
> can't help wondering if there's a way to give it a helping hand.....

Jacqui caren wrote:
> John Crowhurst wrote:
> > Are you attempting to do gigabit on Cat5 or Cat5E? Cat5 is not rated for
> > gigabit. My suggestion would be an upgrade to Cat6.
> 
> Also GbE needs *very* carefull cable layout. 100Mm's will cope with 
> small cable bends but Giga requires miniimun curves of around 18 inches
> which makes some of my "around the architrave" cabling *dead*.
> Reneber that cat5e does not cope wih being crushed - but copes will
> with being eaten by german shepherds :-)

Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:
> Also, a lot of casual setups turn off auto-negotiation, or turn it off, 
> and wind up with the other end of the connection set the other way. This 
> causes *BOTH* ends to drop to the lower speed

Thanks for these replies which have probably nailed at least one culprit
- I've been using a temporary 20m run of Cat5e round the door etc.

When the NIC and switch status lights both show 1000 rather than 100 can
this be trusted, or is it only showing steady carrier frequency rather
than the usable or negotiated data rate?

Is wireshark, 'time' and a 1m test cable the way to go next?  (Surely
not 'time'??)

Anthony

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