10G not working properly

[DaveB]

Hello all!!

I have been a happy Bell internet customer for a while now (15+ years).  I just upgraded to the 3GB plan and the tech just came and installed the modem.  My desktop computer has a build in 2.5GB NIC, and I have a CAT6 cable from the 10GB port on the modem, and plugged directly into my 2.5GB card.  I am getting unexpectedly low download rates.  Ookla says my download is 140.07 Mb/s and upload is 881.22.14 Mb/s.

When I plug into one of the 1G ports I get better results.  When I plug my laptop into the 10GB port (it only has a 1G NIC) I get similar results as my desktop.

I have firmware version  1.16.5

I have tried removing the NIC from the device manager & updating the drivers.  

While the tech was here we were not able to get it working.  The really weird thing is he even went and got another modem from his truck and it had the same result.  I have tested sppeds to the modem in the modem console page and the modem is getting 3GB+ speeds.

Are there any known problems with these ports? is there something I can do to fix this?

TIA

David

[clipper]

Strictly speaking I don't need the router either. I just did not want to change my basic setup that I did more than two decades ago*. Old habit, I guess. Over the years, the computers, switches, routers, providers got changed, but the home network setup has remained largely the same.

Now, hopefully PPPoE works at properly once I have a 10GbE switch.

Thanks!

----

*Originally Rogers Wave, 5Mb, late 1990's? The modem from Rogers was a hub, on a bus, if I remember correctly. I could see the traffic from the other connections in the neighbourhood. A router was absolutely necessary for that.

Never knew I would be thinking about buying a 10Gb switch. We just switched to 10GbE two years ago at the data centre for the company. Now, at home? Amazing.

[Vanadiel]

Does your network card on your computer support 2.5 Gbps speeds?

It sounds based on what you listed, that it might be a 1 Gbps network card.

[clipper]

Oh, this is my set up:

Giga Hub <-> Router (two 2.5G ports, WAN and LAN) <-> 2.5G switch <-> my computer, 2.5G network card.

I tested the speed within my home network, and it is more or less 2.5G. Later on, I put a 2.5G switch with a 10G SFP uplink port in between the Giga Hub and the router, so it became:

Giga Hub <-> 2.5G (10G SFP+) switch <-> router <-> switch <-> compter

And the router detected the 2.5G switch. The 10G SFP did negotiate correctly with the Giga Hub, but only 1G. So, after isolated each segment, the only connection that was not 2.5G is between the Giga Hub and the router or the switch, whichever was connected to the 10G port on the Giga Hub. The Giga Hub and the router have always been next to each other, connected with a CAT 6 cable. All network cards showed 2.5G speed, except when the router was connected to the Giga Hub, then it would show 1GbE.

Just in case the laptop I used to test the speed had a bad 2.5G network card, I used another computer, a desktop with a 2.5G network card to check the speed. Still 1GbE.

When I was connecting the 2.5G switch with the 10G port on the Giga Hub, I could see the switch trying to negotiate with the 10G port multiple times with 2.5G, but the LED on the Giga Hub 10G port would not light up. When the switch then dropped down to 1Gb, the LED would then light up and the speed is always 1Gb.

My computers are Linux machines. On Linux machines, they show you the maximum effective connection speed of the NIC interfaces you have when they are actually connected. It shows the effective speed, not the maximum native speed of the NIC interface. So, if the cable is bad, it will show the max speed the cable can handle. If the other side can handle less than the max speed of the NIC interface, it will show the max speed of the other side, not the native max speed of the interface. And all of them show 2500 M/s through my network (my house is wired with CAT6 when it was built). Again, the only time that it is not that is on the router (which runs OpenWrt, a Linux variant) when it was connected to the 10G port of the Giga Hub. When it was connected to the 2.5G switch, it would show 2.5GbE.

So, I think it has to be the 10G port not liking all the 2.5G switches I have, and the router. And it does not like the 10G SFP+ module. I have ordered a 10GbE switch. It should be interesting to see if that switch will be able to negotiate successfully with the 10G port and provide a 3Gb connection. If not, I guess I might build a Linux router myself with a minPC or something with two 10G network cards.

Ok, this is becoming a very long post. Anyhow, thanks!

[clipper]

Ok. I bought a 10G switch and three 10G SFP+ to RJ45 transceivers. The 2.5G router and my 2.5G network adapter take the SFP+ RJ45 quite nicely. So, I plugged in the 10G port of the Giga Hub to the switch. Well, it is running gigabits. The only link that is not running 2.5G is the link between the 10G port of Giga Hub and the switch. That link is supposed to be running 10G/s. And it turns out to be the slowest link of the three that I have connected.

Is having the port directly connected to a 10G RJ45 network card on a computer the only way to get the 10G port to transmit 3G/s? If so, can someone provide the make/model of a 10G network card that has shown to work with this 10G port on the Giga Hub?

I might get two of the cards and put them in a computer I have lying around and build a firewall out of the computer, and then have my router connecting to the 10G switch that I have now, and have the firewall talking to the 10G switch. At least in that way, I will be able to take advantage of the 3G/s speed that I am paying for. Of course, the other option is to forget about it and just switch back to the gigiabit link and save some dollars.

On the positive side, I now have a 10G switch. I will be able to take advantage of it even if I can't get the Giga Hub to talk 3G/s.

[Vanadiel]

Not sure what switch is used, but if the switch has an up/down link port you should be using that one.

Also, if it's a managed switch try forcing the connection to a link speed of 10 Gbps between the switch and the home hub. Also make sure to use a 10 Gbps capable cable. Also make sure it's not a crossover cable but a regular cable.

10G/10G should work unless the 10G switch is not compatible with the home hub port for some reason.

[clipper]

Yes, I made sure the cable is CAT6 and is a regular cable. I actually tried three different CAT6 cables among the cables I have. Some say CAT6, some CAT6A, and one CAT6E. All the same behaviour with the Giga Hub. The switch does not have a up.down link, so I tried three different ports on the switch. Same result. I have two different brands of the SFP+ transceivers on the switch. Same result.

I am going to get two ASUS 10G network cards. Even if they are not Giga Hub compatible, I will have use for them, so I am fine paying another ~$200 to try to get this to work. I have a computer that I can use to connect to the Giga Hub for testing. Meanwhile, since I am getting gigabits only with the 10G port, I will connect my 2.5G router to a gigabit port on the Giga Hub. I should be able to experiment with the 10G to my heart's content, without disrupting  people working at home. We still have more than one person working from home, so it is crucial I have a switch to allow them to connect to the Internet. That is also another reason that I need a switch or a router behind the Giga Hub, if I want to get to 2.5G/10G speed on my home network.

[dks]

Asus 10Gb network cards work perfectly with the Gigahub. I have them in two computers for two years through a separate hub and get full speed. 

[clipper]

Ok. So, I got two 10G ASUS network cards. I put one in my spare computer. I connected the cable directly to Giga Hub 10G port. 1000M/s. Okay, maybe the cable is the problem. So, I connected the 10G card to a 2.5G switch, and it reported 2.5G. Okay, maybe it can only go up to 2.5G. So, I connected the 10G card to the 10G switch I have. And it reported 10G.

Fine, let me try it again, and connected the network card directly to the 10G port on the Giga Hub. 1000M.

So, the cable is not the problem. The network card talks to everything else in over 1Gps.

Maybe I actually have a Giga Hub that does not talk 10G?

My ASUS network card is this one: ASUS XG-C100C 10G.

I am a bit lost for what to do next. Too bad I don't have a spare CISCO 10G switch. We are using all of them in the data centre. If I did, I would check to see if Giga Hub would talk to the CISCO switch. Maybe even the CISCO switch is not worthy, that would be funny.

The firmware version of the Giga Hub is 2.13. Is it the most recent version?

Any suggestions? 

[dks]

Thanks for your diligent troubleshooting. I have the exact same network card in one of my computers and a Cat 6 cable plugged into a TRENDNet TEG-S750 unmanaged switch and then to the 10 Gb port on the Giga Hub. The latest firmware is 2.13. I get my full profile speed at all times. It may well be that the issue is your Cisco switch. The Giga Hub seems to have issues with 2.5 and 5 Gb network cards. It may also have issues with switches that are not 1 Gb (I have 1 Gb Netgear switches as well) or 10 Gb. 10 Gb switches are readily available on Amazon. Off brands can be cheaper. 

[clipper]

I am not using a CISCO switch. Actually, if it was a CISCO switch and Giga Hub did not connect to it, that would be very funny.

I actually have my computer connected to the 10G directly. No dice. I bought a 10G switch just to see if Giga Hub would connect to it. Nope.

So, let me look into TEG-S750. Very curious about what combination would get the Giga Hub to connect any switch/NIC over 1Gps.

It is wonderful you got it working. I need some of that magic and skill of yours.

[Vanadiel]

Well, did you by any chance force the port in the hub menu to only connect at 1 Gbps?

There's only 1 port that is 10 Gbps capable, so you have to use that one only. You could force both ends to connect at 10 Gbps and see if it works or not, but it should auto negotiate unless you have it set to only connect at Gbps speeds.

Pending that, you might have a defective port. I had it recently where I actually had a defective cable and it would only work at 100 Mbps. It took me forever to figure out it was the cable as that was the last thing I figured it would be...

[clipper]

Yes, I did check every time whether I was using the right port. I am actually using one of the gigabit ports for my regular Internet use (there is no speed difference in any case, right?). So, the 10G port is always available for me to test.

I also checked my cables. I used multiple Cat6, Cat6A, Cat6E cables. Long, short, whatever lengths I have in hand. None of them works with that 10G port to get over the 1G speed. But, I will have a certified Cat8 cable arriving tomorrow. If that cable does not work, it just can't be the cable. That cable is designed for up to 40G switches. Unless Giga Hub does  not like anything not 10G exact cable either. I will find out.

Oh, I also used the cables to connect between the 10G switch that I have, the multiple 2.5G switches that I have, RJ45, SFP+, all showing the right speed. It was quite nice to see the computer connecting to the 10G switch and showing 10G speed. I mean, I was going to switch to 10G perhaps in two or three years' time. Well, I am switching over to it sooner than I thought.

I tried every options for the "Ethernet" tab: 10G Full Duplex, 10G Half Duplex, AUTO Full Duplex, AUTO Half Duplex. All the same result.

I am thinking of buying yet another 10G switch, this time with RJ45 connectors, not the SFP+ switch I have, even though I bought SFP+ to RJ45 transceivers for the switch. Maybe the Giga Hub does not like transceivers? But then, direct connection from my computer's 10G NIC to the 10G port shows the same result of 1G in any case.

Yup, frustrating? Yes. Expensive? Yeah. Fortunately, moving to 10G is on my improvement plan for the home network; so, the equipment I bought is useful for my home network of the near future. 

[clipper]

So, I bought the TrendNet TEG-S750, a certified CAT8 cable, what do you know, still 1Gps.

I did see the switch trying to negotiate with the 10G port. Eventually, only the 1Gps speed can be established.

I think this is time to throw in the towel with my quite expensive troubleshooting to prove it is not my equipment that is the problem.

Anything else that I can do before I call Bell to replace the Giga Hub, and failing that, to switch plan?

[dks]

You may well have a bad port. Call in and see what they say. 

[clipper]

Yeah, I am going to call them. I am going to write down how many menus I have to get through to get to wait for a person to take the call, and how long I have to wait to talk to a person. Wish me luck.