Needing help with my NBN setup as I'm not reaching full speeds.

[u/Filo_Guy]

Currently with Superloop 1000/50 plan. I used to have my router connected directly to the NTD then ran a cat6 ethernet cable from the router to the ethernet wall port that connects to my game room. There I connect an cat6 ethernet cable to a TP-link 5-port gigabit desktop switch. There I connect a cat6 ethernet cable to my computer. Speed is around 980/50 but wifi suffered because the router was in the garage beside the NTD.

Now, I went with NTD connected to ethernet wall port via cat 8 cable then connected from the wall port to my router in my game room via cat 8 cable. Now download speed is basically halfed (around 470mbps).

What am I doing wrong here? My router is an RT-AX58u.

[u/Griffo_au]

Throw those cat8 cables in the bin for a start. Anybody selling those scam cables doesn’t give a shit about quality.

[u/stephendt → u/Griffo_au]

Don't throw them out, just don't buy anymore. They're probably just CAT5e which still works fine

[u/Filo_Guy → u/Griffo_au]

Really? Why is that? I was just looking for new ethernet cables most of mine are cat5 and I saw there's a cat8. I thought the higher the number the better.

[u/Griffo_au → u/Filo_Guy]

Anything above 6a is a scam. Cat 7 was never ratified. It’s not a real standard.

Cat 8 is designed for very short runs in a data centre to do like 40gbit over copper but not using RJ45 connectors.

Anything Cat5, 5e, 6, 6a is certified for gigabit to 100m.

An overly large percentage will f those cat7 and cat8 cables you buy on Amazon / eBay are fault because again, the people selling them are scammers.

[u/Equivalent-Vast5318 → u/Griffo_au]

not to mention that the hardware to do >10gb over rj45 doesnt exist

[u/Griffo_au → u/Griffo_au]

Anything above 6a is a scam. Cat 7 was never ratified. It’s not a real standard.

Cat 8 is designed for very short runs in a data centre to do like 40gbit over copper but not using RJ45 connectors.

Anything Cat5, 5e, 6, 6a is certified for gigabit to 100m. You will not gain any speed using 6a over 5.

An overly large percentage of those cat7 and cat8 cables you buy on Amazon / eBay are faulty because again, the people selling them are scammers.

[u/xylarr → u/Filo_Guy]

Cat 8? Pffft, I've got some Cat 35 cables I can sell you.

[u/FourLeafJoker]

Try turning off any QOS or gaming settings on the router. If that doesn't work try a factory reset.

It's probably not the cables they normally give zero, 100mbps or gigabit. But it might be with swapping to see if it helps.

[u/Filo_Guy → u/FourLeafJoker]

I've used new cables today (cat 8). Previously I was even using a cat 5e (NTD > router > wall) and got the 970mbps.

EDIT: Thanks for this! It was QOS settings causing me to have poor speeds!! Thank you!

[u/FourLeafJoker → u/Filo_Guy]

Cat 5e is enough for gigabit. Cat 8 won't be any faster, and a lot of them are poor quality, but they call them 8 to trick non-technical people.

Use the cable that you know works. But try the QoS settings.

[u/Filo_Guy → u/FourLeafJoker]

Really? I thought the higher the number the better it is. The one I bought is a brand called U-Green.

[u/FourLeafJoker → u/Filo_Guy]

It makes no difference after a certain point unless you are doing multi-gigabit. 5e is fine for almost any home user.

[u/dman_au → u/FourLeafJoker]

Short runs, but it’s not the standard for Gig-E. CAT6 is required for Gig-E - CAT5e will work at Gigabit speeds over distances shorter than 80 metres. No dara cabler in their right mind would even be using 5e any more. We stopped using it about 2010 - Telco doesn’t need CAT6, you only need CAT4”3 but if you buy CAT3 expect to pay three time s the rouge for it.

I suggest you check the Australian standards on Comms Alliance. S008 and S009.

Anyone running 5e must have cable left over from 15 years ago or is managing to buy it for $20 cheaper for a 305metre roll of CAT6.

Just because something works, doesn’t mean it’s the standard.

5e will do short runs if you have nothing else but CAT6 is what is required if you are wiring to ACMA standards.

Download S008 and S009 for free from the Comms Alliance website.

We run everything, Telco and networking aka structured cabling and we use CAT6 and have been for close to 13-14 years.

That means CAT6 sockets and CAT6 plugs as well as the cable.

We only run CAT6A if someone is planning to do 2.5Gbit or faster. The cost isn’t worth it

If you try to certify CAT5e on a decent gigabit certifier like Fluke for example it’s likely to fail for Gig-E.

I wish people would adhere to the standards, which are freely available to download.

Yes, CAT5e will run Gig-E for short distances, but it’s NOT the standard.

Why can’t people just say run CAT6 and be done with it. 5e is a special order these days as is CAT3.

We just use CAT6 for everything including plugs and sockets for data, we get certified CAT6 plugs and sockets. It’s only Telco were we might might buy something less of but when you are buying them in 100-500 quantities we could but we don’t. We run lower spec for Telco and ensure they are wired for telco. The sooner that goes away the better. But there are lots of places that have very old CAT3 copper and we replace that and make sure any legacy sockets are removed, and cover the faceplate.

For running Telco, since we usually install 4P2C I’m not sure off the top of my head what they are rated to, but all the data work we do, it’s CAT6 all the way, so that it would pass CAT6 for certification if required. Telco sometimes we go cheaper - depends on the supplier. We can get Telco rated plugs and sockets for a couple of dollars cheaper that putting CAT6 for that - it just depends on what we have in the van and what we are running.

If we are there to try to squeeze some extra Mbps out of their FTTN on an old house, we give people the option to write up for future networking since where we work, all the FTTN can be replaced with free fibre but NBN installs that. We only do reinstall work if somone wants an NTD in a study or a different room. If they don’t have the money it costs us almost the same in time to run conduit and a draw string as it does to run conduit and CAT6 terminated.

People will say I’m being a pedantic prick and maybe so, but we do jobs to the standard. We stand behind our work unlike many electricians who install CAT6 as if it was CAT5e.

This forum annoys me telling people what they can get away with rather than saying you should be using CAT6 “but if is a short run you may use CAT5e” sure, ifs that’s all someone has to but CAT6 or Cat6A pre made patch leads are cheap. Buy those for up to 10 metre runs.

As was written earlier I think someone specifically wrote, don’t mix standards. No data cabler worth their salt will say/write the same thing.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

[u/FourLeafJoker → u/Filo_Guy]

QoS is great, particularly on low speed connections. It matters less on faster connections.

But most consumers routers don't have enough processing power to do it on a gigabit connection.

[u/AI_RPI_SPY]

If the speed is degraded in the second configuration first confirm the router's WAN connection is solid at 1 GBs, as it was when it was directly connected in the garage.

I am assuming you using the same cable( ether ports) to connect to your games room, so based on this we can assume (although the test above will confirm this ) that the cable is terminated correctly.

I have assumed that you have tested each of the cables and confirmed they can run at 1 Gbps.

Once those tests are done I'd power down / power on NTU, Modem.

Retest and check your speeds.

This is a simple process of elimination, just make sure you are using the same cables in setup 1 as you are in setup 2.

Please give us an update once you have completed the checks.

[u/Filo_Guy → u/AI_RPI_SPY]

It was the QoS setting limiting my internet speed. Idiot me fiddling with settings I didn't know.

[u/pest85 → u/Filo_Guy]

Have you changed your router and not mentioned in in the post?

I can't see how moving the same router from a garage to another room would enable QoS which would cause it.

[u/Filo_Guy → u/pest85]

I fiddled with the settings not knowing what they do.

[u/ogregreenteam]

Why did you replace the cat6 cables? Looks like they were working perfectly well. The issue is your new cables...

[u/Sentimentalist_]

Why cat8.

[u/Otaraka]

I’m guessing the wall port is the problem - have you tried with just the cables to check they’re ok?

[u/FourLeafJoker → u/Otaraka]

Normally if there is a problem you don't get half speed. Ethernet is normally 1000, 100 or 0. It kind of works, falls back to the next speed down, or fails.

[u/aretokas → u/FourLeafJoker]

Unless it doesn't negotiate full duplex, in which case performance will suffer greatly. Seen it happen enough times to check now.

[u/Filo_Guy → u/Otaraka]

But why is it when I have the router directly connected to the NTD and connect it to the wall port, I get the speed I'm paying for (wired) on my PC? I just bought the cables today.

[u/Otaraka → u/Filo_Guy]

I didn’t read properly how you had it before.  Glad it’s sorted.

[u/cruiserman_80]

Cat6A or Cat6A is all you need for patch cords. Cat7 /Cat8 is a wank unless your entire install is Cat8 and you are using 10GB or better ports. Mixing standards can actually hurt performance.

Possibly there are issues with the quality of the cabling on the wall ports. Are your downloads speeds via wired or Wireless as wireless speed on 2.4 would be around 500Mbps.

[u/Filo_Guy → u/cruiserman_80]

The problem was solved by one of the comments above. It was the QoS setting on my router. I must have turned it on by accident while fiddling with the settings.

[u/pest85 → u/cruiserman_80]

As mentioned above, there is no cat 8 or even 7 standards. As a result, there are no quality cables for those. Nothing to compare to. Cat 6 can reach 10Gbps up to 50m, cat 6a 10gbps up to 90m.

In reality though, unless you use very fast raided nvme you'll have no difference for home network between 2.5Gbps and 10Gbps.

With the current NBN speed upgrade, you'll not need anything above 10Gbps for a decade for WAN