Andy - a15cro Posted February 15, 2021 Author Share Posted February 15, 2021 Next update, I’ve not looked at the set up yet, however, got a cat6 from the Virgin hub3 to the switch, and plugged my existing Ethernet cable in to my pc, checked speed and it’s dropped by 100meg! That’s unexpected, however I’m having issues with the hub at the minute, plus here’s one for the network guys - when the router to switch was only plugged in, both leds lit (Fastest) when the pc was added that went to two leds and the feed went to one? apologies for the rubbish description Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blatman Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 I'd have to look up the LED meanings for the switch... A Netgear switch LED sequence is probably not the same as a Cisco switch. That said... Usually the left LED indicates a physical connection and is permanently illuminated. the right LED flashes as data passes. I'm betting the right hand LED's on the switch blink once or twice every two seconds, irrespective of anything else. The switch should not drop the speed by 100Mb! Is the CAT6 cable adjacent to an electrical cable, electrical device or power supply somewhwere along its path? If so, try putting a physical barrier (bit of card or something) between the CAT6 and the power source. If speed improves then you have EM (electro-magnetic) interference from the electrical device. OR... is there a very tight bend radius on it somewhere, like round the corner of a wall or similar? Try and increase the radius a bit. If not you may have a bad cable. Swap it out and try again. If you want a bit of geek insight... strip back a spare bit of CAT5/CAT6 and have a look at the 4 pairs. You'll notice that the number of twists per inch is different for each pair. This is specifically to avoid "cross-talk" (EM interference) between the pairs. Unshielded CAT cables can be very susceptible to electrical interference and I have had at least two instances on ships where an incorrectly run cable has caused an internet connection to fail intermittently due to EM. The user reports "the internet is slow" but what is actually happening is packet loss which causes the packets to be re-requested and re-sent (TCP) meaning it takes longer to download whatever is being downloaded. To the user it looks like "the internet is slow" with the spinning wheel of death being the visible result... and again, I digress... And I'm afraid to say in my experience, Virgin cable modems are very average, quality wise. Been out to lods of them and they're... let's say... inconsistent... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy - a15cro Posted February 15, 2021 Author Share Posted February 15, 2021 Managed to get into the switch and took a pic of this. Port one is the games room running at 1000m but when I speed check it’s showing 100 instead of the 200+ it usually gets. Port 1 is the PC Port 16 is the hub in. just a learning curve I think, but will take me a bit of puzzling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blatman Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 I'm betting the yellow ports on the Virgin Modem are 100Mb... Can you log in to the Virgin modem web interface and (on the assumption it's available) go to Help > About at the top. It would be handy to have a model number for the modem so we can see if we can find the specs. Not so long ago the Virgin modem was in fact a Netgear router up-ended and put in a black Virgin box, and they were definitely 100Mb only. I hope things have moved on and they're gigabit now, but we need to be sure. I have a feeling if a 100Mb device is connected to the Netgear switch one of the LED's will be yellow. Do you have an Apple TV or a Sky+ HD (not Sky Q) box that you could connect to the switch? They're 10/100. Or is there an ethernet port on your TV? I bet that's 10/100. And I think Sky Q Mini's are 10/100 as well although the main Sky Q box is gigabit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corsechris Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 @a15cro did say he had seen 200Mbps rates so that would demand at least one Gb modem port, no? It’s been a while, but I do recall having to force both switch and device ports to specific speeds to avoid this sort of auto negotiation downwards. Didn’t happen often, but did happen. Try setting the switch port feeding the modem to manual 1000M Tended to have more weirdness with Netgear than anything else too. Did use them for the odd small task in unmanaged mode but much preferred HP managed switches myself when working to a budget. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy - a15cro Posted February 16, 2021 Author Share Posted February 16, 2021 I can log in to the hub on the ip as an admin and also on the app, however I can’t see a help option or the model of the router. On digging about it appears that Netgear no longer makes them. What I can tell you is I had a small unmanaged 5 port switch previously connected with faster speeds than this new one. The forums all seem to point at a issue with the Hub and the switch! Typical, I buy the one with the issues. some have said to put an unmanaged in line to add as a gap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy - a15cro Posted February 16, 2021 Author Share Posted February 16, 2021 2 minutes ago, corsechris said: @a15cro did say he had seen 200Mbps rates so that would demand at least one Gb modem port, no? It’s been a while, but I do recall having to force both switch and device ports to specific speeds to avoid this sort of auto negotiation downwards. Didn’t happen often, but did happen. Try setting the switch port feeding the modem to manual 1000M Tended to have more weirdness with Netgear than anything else too. Did use them for the odd small task in unmanaged mode but much preferred HP managed switches myself when working to a budget. I don’t get the option to force 1000, the drop down only goes to 100 ive swapped the port to the one I used with the small unmanaged switch that was performing, and it’s made no difference. I think it’s a Netgear vs Virgins hardwear issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy - a15cro Posted February 16, 2021 Author Share Posted February 16, 2021 Also on a side note and the reason I started this adventure.......😬 is because the WiFi signal has become unstable and poor lately. It’s also been suggested that turning the hub3 into modem mode and adding an aftermarket router in the mix may also unlock the Ethernet speed to the switch (taking the line from then new unit)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen_I Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 Just now, a15cro said: Also on a side note and the reason I started this adventure.......😬 is because the WiFi signal has become unstable and poor lately. It’s also been suggested that turning the hub3 into modem mode and adding an aftermarket router in the mix may also unlock the Ethernet speed to the switch (taking the line from then new unit)? This was the reason I added the TP link 'deco's' as the WiFi signal from our hub3 could barely reach any further than the study. I am no expert but I did change the settings in the hub to change it to modem mode (switching wireless off), and we get 100mb (actually seems to be approx 109mb) everywhere in the house now which is only what we pay for. But i did find it was a little temperamental to any changes, I would have to reboot it each time I had made a change, but this may be normal for anything like this? Regarding @Blatman mentioning what type of "mesh" system, I am not sure. I have the main unit hardwired into the router (in modem mode) then the other "satellites" are placed around the house and they look for the strongest signal, I have one unit in the garage which is approx 60ft away and I have Internet down there, not as high as the rest of the house but around 30mb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy - a15cro Posted February 16, 2021 Author Share Posted February 16, 2021 Guys, I appreciate this crash course and Im fining it all very interesting and Im sure we will get to the bottom of it! The small 5 port switch i was using originally was a cheap Tenda Gigabit unmanaged item, it was throwing out the speed no problem. Im thinking of picking another up as this one is still ini use at the minute, popping it infant of the big switch and seeing it it unblocks the clog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen_I Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 I have a ethernet cable coming out of the main 'deco' (which is hardwired to modem) and this ethernet cable is routed up into the loft which is the kids play room and I have small 5 port switch which the PS4, Xbox and TV are connected too and they are are achieving approx 80-90mb, so a small loss but nothing significant. Not sure if this is correct in how I have done it but it works. Unfortunately that's as far as my knowledge goes, so long as don't keep hearing "Dad!!!! Youtube is buffering, Dad!!!!!! I can't speak to my friends on Zoom, Glen!!!!!...Eastenders is buffering on iplayer....then I am a happy bunny! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy - a15cro Posted February 16, 2021 Author Share Posted February 16, 2021 1 minute ago, Glen_I said: I have a ethernet cable coming out of the main 'deco' (which is hardwired to modem) and this ethernet cable is routed up into the loft which is the kids play room and I have small 5 port switch which the PS4, Xbox and TV are connected too and they are are achieving approx 80-90mb, so a small loss but nothing significant. Not sure if this is correct in how I have done it but it works. Unfortunately that's as far as my knowledge goes, so long as don't keep hearing "Dad!!!! Youtube is buffering, Dad!!!!!! I can't speak to my friends on Zoom, Glen!!!!!...Eastenders is buffering on iplayer....then I am a happy bunny! So this system may solve my unstable wifi. Question - does it flood the house with one signal. So the passcode only needs to be entered once? Ive had an old BT reporter set up as a kind of extender but had to select that one when out in the garden, Ive tried TP Power line's and again its another separate network to choose! Sorry for the real bad explanation. I ended up with 4 or 5 options when searching for wifi - varying on quality of connection. Ive now deleted all of these to try and start from scratch. The ethernet will sort itself, but Im having the 'Netflix won't stream' etc conversations with the two girls in the house and I need a quiet life! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen_I Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 Yes, one signal. So it doesn't matter where in the house or garage I am my phone or any other device will still be connected to the same network as the Virgin router details. I know what you mean with different networks as this is something I didn't want. Basically it's all seemless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen_I Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/deco/deco-m4/ This what I used and this works in our house (1930's with brick internal walls and a loft conversion), approx 2000sq ft. I added a extra one (M5 I think?) to use in garage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhett Turner - Black Country AO Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 I was fed up with the stability of my virgin router and wireless network so I ended up switching it to modem mode and using my own router (firewall/VPN ...) and then installing my own wireless access points. I also use wired networks as much as I can, I've managed to lay cable to some key locations and I've used ethernet over the ring main for some of the others. So I've ended up with unmanaged switches behind TVs, in cupboards or in the loft. Generally we now got a more stable network. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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