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**ugimports** · 08-28-2023, 3:21 PM

Basic wiring check: https://amzn.to/47Onhfw

This looks like it does more, but I've never used it: https://amzn.to/3Pf6WJl
It looks like it'll help identify shorts if they exist .. maybe some critter chewed through the cable in attic/basement/wall?

The first test tool is the only one I've ever needed... assuming all light/connectivity is good I've never had problems with cables.

**67Cuda** · 08-28-2023, 5:01 PM

I have this and it works. Does more than one type of cabling. $15

Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NDWBGHS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

**high_revs** · 08-28-2023, 6:08 PM

thanks ugimports and 67cuda.. i'll do some reading on those and how to use those to check the wall socket ports that have the cables behind. that's one immediately thing i'm not seeing but i figure just using the entire patch cable connect already could do the test after testing just the patch cable first.

i thought there'd be tests that have something that goes into the ethernet port plug.

**ibanezfoo** · 08-29-2023, 6:39 AM

Originally posted by high_revs

thanks ugimports and 67cuda.. i'll do some reading on those and how to use those to check the wall socket ports that have the cables behind. that's one immediately thing i'm not seeing but i figure just using the entire patch cable connect already could do the test after testing just the patch cable first.

i thought there'd be tests that have something that goes into the ethernet port plug.

They usually come with small tail patch cables. Hook the small remote end of the tester into the small cable and then that cable into the wall jack. Then go to the other end wall jack and to the same but with the main unit. Mash the button and wait for a result. Unless you have super long runs I wouldn't worry about a tester that measures electrical stats, unless you really want to know them.

Check that your cables are not right next to AC power cables, and if they are make sure they are not parallel.

**ldsnet** · 08-29-2023, 7:09 AM

You have 3 components that could be causing speed issues
Cable modem, router, or the switch.

How are the network speeds specifically on your local network between the PC's (not to the internet and back, just Local network between them?)

I have never had a switch just fail (they always looked like they were working), I have had an individual port drop off line, but dropping packets and extreme slowdowns were common when the switch begins to fail.

Next question has to do with the router itself ... I assume it is acting as our network firewall as well? Can you see what it is doing beyond a health page? Is it being hammered from the outside world? Not necessarily a DDOS attack, but something trying to brute force its way in?

I assume the router is also a wifi router and you have wifi services also running on the network? The network slowdown could also be an issue created from the wifi. The next time you are experiencing the slow-down, turn off the wifi portion of the router (through software on the wifi page) and see if that clears up the problem. It won't tell you which device is causing your problem but it will help isolate which part of the network is the problem (wired or wireless)

Lastly, if the hardware is older than 4 years, I would start upgrading until the problem goes away.

**ugimports** · 08-29-2023, 9:03 AM

Another test you can do before using test gear (assuming a Windows box) go to a command line:
ping -t router.ip.address
in another window
ping -t 8.8.8.8 (this is a google DNS server)
in another window
ping -t gateway.ip.of.router

Your router.ip.address should be 1ms all day everyday for 24 hours
The google DNS server depending where you are should be <100ms all day eveyday for 24 hours
The gateway ip of your router (next hop to your ISP) should be <20ms

While those are running...do your testing... if you see those latencies numbers change or packet loss occur during your tests, depending which number you see fluctuate can also help you determine what piece of kit or what leg may be your issue.

For example, if your router IP never falters from 1ms and 0% packet loss for 24-48 hours through all of your testing where you see issues.... your cabling is fine all the way to your router and the problem is external to you.

If you see internal packet loss on your network to your router then you know something between you and your router is problematic.. if you think it's cabling..move your PC right next to your router and plug it directly into it...do the same test..

**high_revs** · 09-05-2023, 6:59 PM

Originally posted by ibanezfoo

They usually come with small tail patch cables. Hook the small remote end of the tester into the small cable and then that cable into the wall jack. Then go to the other end wall jack and to the same but with the main unit. Mash the button and wait for a result. Unless you have super long runs I wouldn't worry about a tester that measures electrical stats, unless you really want to know them.

Check that your cables are not right next to AC power cables, and if they are make sure they are not parallel.

no changes in setup. it's been the way it was since 2011. no new power cables anywhere and when i had it wired. it's odd things just started going slow but goes away with direct hardwire to router. (i tried all other ports in the wall going to the switch).

i figure to test the cables behind the wall ports, i'd be using 2 patch cables - one going to tester and one going to remote? at least based on videos, there's no direct remote to port other than helping identify the port number (klein tools). i thought there'd be a remote like the fluke on cheaper brands w/o using a patch cable on both sides to test wall ports.

Originally posted by ldsnet

You have 3 components that could be causing speed issues
Cable modem, router, or the switch.

How are the network speeds specifically on your local network between the PC's (not to the internet and back, just Local network between them?)

I have never had a switch just fail (they always looked like they were working), I have had an individual port drop off line, but dropping packets and extreme slowdowns were common when the switch begins to fail.

Next question has to do with the router itself ... I assume it is acting as our network firewall as well? Can you see what it is doing beyond a health page? Is it being hammered from the outside world? Not necessarily a DDOS attack, but something trying to brute force its way in?

I assume the router is also a wifi router and you have wifi services also running on the network? The network slowdown could also be an issue created from the wifi. The next time you are experiencing the slow-down, turn off the wifi portion of the router (through software on the wifi page) and see if that clears up the problem. It won't tell you which device is causing your problem but it will help isolate which part of the network is the problem (wired or wireless)

Lastly, if the hardware is older than 4 years, I would start upgrading until the problem goes away.

the switch is a hp gigabit procurve router bought in 2012. i originally was trying to put the cable modem from where the entry point is, run patch cables to the wall port in office -> central room -. router thinking i'll get stronger and balance wifi signals with the mesh. but and given i prefered to hardwire the tv, bluray, etc. i decided to move the router to same place as modem to direct connect it, and have one of the router's ethernet port go the wall going to the switch in central room. i ethernet backhauled one of the mesh satellites in the farthest room (line coming from switch -> wall port in central room -> wall port in farthest room). it seemed to make the satellite in the garage going faster.

i only really ethernet one pc though i have an older desktop for media streaming in the farthest room. but i don't really do much of that anymore so frankly, only 1 machine is really key to me. the rokus i used to ethernet wire but oddly ethernet seems to break first and when i moved them to wifi, it was better. rokus seems to last only 2.5-3 yrs for me on ethernet.

the router is also a wifi (mesh network) and acting as a firewall too. it also has vpn service that i only use when Calguns is blocked which is less than 1 % of my CG browsing? again, all of this seems to be the episode of 2 or 3 yrs ago and all i did was change the cable from the pc to the wall port.

i do have a new mesh router bought. hate to open that up and find out it's not the problem. (not quite the returner type just because it didn't work for me and no problem with equipment, or at least i want to make that as rare as possible). there's really no device that can take advantage of faster wifi speeds either,, maybe the xbox for the kid though he'll consume more of the network bandwidth then!

Originally posted by ugimports

Another test you can do before using test gear (assuming a Windows box) go to a command line:
ping -t router.ip.address
in another window
ping -t 8.8.8.8 (this is a google DNS server)
in another window
ping -t gateway.ip.of.router

Your router.ip.address should be 1ms all day everyday for 24 hours
The google DNS server depending where you are should be <100ms all day eveyday for 24 hours
The gateway ip of your router (next hop to your ISP) should be <20ms

While those are running...do your testing... if you see those latencies numbers change or packet loss occur during your tests, depending which number you see fluctuate can also help you determine what piece of kit or what leg may be your issue.

For example, if your router IP never falters from 1ms and 0% packet loss for 24-48 hours through all of your testing where you see issues.... your cabling is fine all the way to your router and the problem is external to you.

If you see internal packet loss on your network to your router then you know something between you and your router is problematic.. if you think it's cabling..move your PC right next to your router and plug it directly into it...do the same test..

i'll do these tests. i figure my baseline would be straight to modem w/o any interference. will have to matrix this.

overall question and sorry got buried with work i didn't even get notifications (or missed it) over email

Questions
* how would one test for cable speed? i see fluke actcually is able to test by cable speed too. 10base-t, 10090base-t, etc. https://youtu.be/z8v9YNMfYyE?si=PMf8nDZG6iL7ZcFp
* how about testing the switch. i moved ports around since i had excess from a 16port unused and that didn't do much. is there a way to test problems for the switch? i mean i did get 11.5 yrs off it. just want to avoid replacing it if the symptoms don't show it.

**high_revs** · 09-05-2023, 11:54 PM

Originally posted by ugimports

Another test you can do before using test gear (assuming a Windows box) go to a command line:
ping -t router.ip.address
in another window
ping -t 8.8.8.8 (this is a google DNS server)
in another window
ping -t gateway.ip.of.router

Your router.ip.address should be 1ms all day everyday for 24 hours
The google DNS server depending where you are should be <100ms all day eveyday for 24 hours
The gateway ip of your router (next hop to your ISP) should be <20ms

While those are running...do your testing... if you see those latencies numbers change or packet loss occur during your tests, depending which number you see fluctuate can also help you determine what piece of kit or what leg may be your issue.

For example, if your router IP never falters from 1ms and 0% packet loss for 24-48 hours through all of your testing where you see issues.... your cabling is fine all the way to your router and the problem is external to you.

If you see internal packet loss on your network to your router then you know something between you and your router is problematic.. if you think it's cabling..move your PC right next to your router and plug it directly into it...do the same test..

i removed ethernet from router and plugged into another port. so doing this while figuring out which test tool to use.

ping -t to router - consistent <1ms first test showed 7 out 102 > 1 ms. 2 15s, 1 14s, 1 10, 1 7 1 27 or so. 102 sent. 102 received. max was 27.
ping -t to google - consistent low teens ms. avg 12ms.. longest 37ms.. minimum 10ms
ping -t to gateway - guess comping cast doesn't like me pinging gateway ip #? LOL request kept timing out. so i did a reverse dns lookup and tried to ping the dns instead. comcast doesn't like me pinging them

so far with this port and a layman's way of testing i managed to find a port consistent on speedtests and pings. i guess i do either have two bad cable or bad ports. this was a great suggestion and thanks ugimports. it helps at least isolate or let me run iwth this for now to see if it'll hold. been a while i do this stuff.

will still get cable testers but still reading reviews. probably also go to practically networked site and read there too.

[edit at almost 2am] freaking gremlin came back. i wasn't doing much of anything other than use a citrix session on one monitor to do some work while listening to youtube on the other. then one more speedtest, thing was responding down to high 90's mpbs. ping -t were still good to router and to google. i did a modem restart and while that was happening, i changed the wifi password in case there's a gremlin / vampiric wifi device. i checked all wifi connected devices - nothing out of the unusual (most i attach mac address to ip#). changing wifi password restarted router and then speeds were all good again. driving me batty.
how does one test the switch thru pings? is that possible? still goes back to question above - how would one test a switch with cable tester?

**ugimports** · 09-06-2023, 9:20 AM

Originally posted by high_revs

...
how does one test the switch thru pings? is that possible? still goes back to question above - how would one test a switch with cable tester?

Indirectly you are testing the switch. If it is/was bad you will see packet loss or packet errors. I don't recall how you can see packet errors in windows.

In Linux (or mac) you can use ifconfig or similar tools to see errors on network device (wireless/ethernet). If you have access to your router CLI you may have access to something similar to this as well:

Code:

admin@router:/tmp/home/root# ifconfig br0
br0       Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 40:B0:76:AD:E1:18
          inet addr:172.16.69.1  Bcast:172.16.69.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING ALLMULTI MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:46845149 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1311964 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:59723766301 (55.6 GiB)  TX bytes:544209785 (518.9 MiB)

You should not see any errors when looking at your interface this way. If you have managed switch you might be able to see that info on your ports as well.

Oh! Something I just thought of that I see from time to time on my Netgear managed switch is that the GB port doesn't auto negotiate properly..sometimes it thinks it's a 100Mb connection vs GB and my machine thinks it should be GB. That could cause you issues if that is happening. Double check the lights on the switch to insure everything is what you expect (100 or 1000 depending on device).

If you have a managed procurve then log into it and see what stats it offers. If the UI/CLI sucks then turn on SNMP if it's available and see if you can query to get the stats you need. This may also help to identify problem ports.

Outside of these types of tests I don't know how to specifically test a switch without specialized equipment. In your scenario...I would eliminate the switch altogether and spend $36 on a new 16 port GB switch: https://amzn.to/45ENzzn (this is by no means a quality switch, but will probably at least help you narrow down your switch being the issue for cheap).

If you wanted to replace with something you might keep then go up from price there or get a smaller port switch and do several tests across the different ports/runs you're testing.

**high_revs** · 09-07-2023, 9:41 PM

thanks ugimports . i might just try the $36 switch then. and if that doesn't still work, i might just suck it up and bite the bullet opening the new router next weekend. i have a couple more weeks to return to costco (staying with the 30 return, though they probably will take it if it's longer and unopened.. maybe.. i've not really return anything in costco electronic for very long time).

either there's a routing problem kind of going thru the switch and then going back to router on internet speedtests, or the router is going bad against an unmanaged procurve gigabit switch. btw, i tried to find firmware upgrade but it looks like there aren't any for this unmanaged switch.or the router is going bad because after a reboot, the speeds go back up.

i used my work laptop today and connected the original wall port that went slow, even with router reboot it 80-90 mpbs. so at least that may isolate i have no real problem with my desktop's NIC.

**Subotai** · 09-08-2023, 5:20 PM

FYI, here is a free online packet tool - https://packetlosstest.com/

**67Cuda** · 09-10-2023, 3:42 PM

Originally posted by high_revs

even with router reboot it 80-90 mpbs.

Are you sure your using the correct CAT cable? I inadvertently use a CAT5 cable and the most I got was 85mbps. Changed it back to a CAT5e and all was well with 850mbps

**high_revs** · 09-12-2023, 9:27 PM

yes.. they're cat5. i bought them last time i was having ethernet issues in 2021. plus i opened cat5 i didn't open from previous purchase (bought a few since didn't want to terminate anymore).

i originally ordered ugimports but decided not to open it yet. and i got a tp link 5port unmanaged gigaport switch - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A128S24...roduct_details - and basically this is to put all devices in the one room that are ethernet based devices (my desktop, work laptop, nas). i then use one port out of 5 going to the router . and another port to the wall plate that goes to the other switch. this is to get to the other pc in the other room if needed.

this way, i isolate pretty all the hardwired traffic to the 5 port and lessen the hops (hopefully) and if any of these 3 need to go to internet, then it goes straight to router.

granted i realized i did have 1 roku, eufy video doorbell and the xbox hardwired in the other room. so those go to the hp procurve switch then to my 5port tp link and then to router.

part of me feels maybe there's some routing issues between the old hP switch and the router suddenly so before i replace the hp switch with the 8port one recommended above, i'll keep testing and monitor this setup. the tp link 5port unmanaged switch was only $15.

if stable, i'll temporarily move the 5-port to the other room to connect the other hardwired devices, plug as it was before the pc and nas to the wall port. basically just replace for select devices the to new switch if old hp procurve is issue. then i'll decide if i want to keep the 8port switch or return.

yeah, lots of work but can't think of better way to isolate methodically. at least so far for 2 hrs, the speed tests aren't dropping via the 5 port switch vs. before to the wall plate. i have everything running too - all wifi all devices but i did try earlier disabling all wifi by changing the password.

ethernet tester coming tomorrow also to check the cables behind the port. hopefully all ok because i'll have to buy a punch tool if i need to replace the port suddenly.

**Buymoreguns** · 09-13-2023, 5:29 AM

Sounds like lots of knowledgeable folks here so let me see if I can add much to the conversation.

I assume you have this going on, pc1 - wall plate to wall plate - switch and nas -wall plate to wall plate - switch. That means you can test two wall cables at once by doing file transfers to the NAS and check the speed. Do a big movie file transfer and see if it reaches gigabit speeds. If so, then the switch is not the problem. Switch up wall plate jacks and repeat test to check all 4 cable combos to rule out those cables being the culprit and switch being the culprit.
If it never reaches gigabit speeds on any of the combos, then the speed issue is not the router and just within those PCs, nas, switch, and cables between.
If it never reaches gigabit speeds, then direct cable the wall plate together to make the nas and PCs talk directly to rule out the switch. Just plug a cat5e cable on the wall plate by the switch end and connect it to the other wall plate jacks to form a direct link between pc and nas. Retest speeds and cable combos to rule out the switch or cables.
If this test always show gigabit speeds, but does not when using the switch, then it's the switch issue.
If this never shows gigabit speeds, then these cables are the issue.

Are the wall plate to wall plate cables Cat5e? Or just Cat5?

Are there bends in the cable that has a tight radius? You can ruin a cable by having knots or tight radius bends (like 90 degree sharp bend). It's possible over time some critter may have caused such a bend or chewed it up.
Does the cable run by, parallel next to or cross over any electrical cables? This could cause noise on the cable leading to errors. These error stats are hard to find on windows 11, not even sure where but it's probably available.
Is the switch ports configured for full duplex operation? If half duplex, it's possible it's creating collisions even though it's not really colliding.

Are the ports configured for 1000mbps? Maybe its configuration messed up? Hacked?

Have you also just considered that the speed test at the time of testing was just slow?

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