1000gbps network card problem

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Hi,

We’ve just got proper high speed fibre broadband in our village in rural Somerset UK. 3 devices hard-wired (2 by ethernet powerlines) to the router. 250Mbps.

My office PC, just two years old already had a 1000gbps capable NIC, and is getting speeds in the mid to high 100s.

My wife’s ancient laptop high 90s. She’s happy with that, and the cost of a new NIC not worth it.

Our media server, a trust Shuttle machine some 10 years old, had  100Mpbs max NIC. So I got a gigabit. Intel l210 Gigabit Network Connection card. 100Mbps works fine, slightly faster the existing MOBO NIC. However, when I flip the card to 1000gbps (device manager/advanced/speed) I lose my internet connection.

 

Have trawled the internet trying to find pointers, with no luck. Have emailed the guy who sold me the machine way back (and my current one), to see if he has any ideas?

 

I’m assuming that there is already something else in the build/bios (no obvious entry there) that is causing this.

 

Anyone any ideas? It’s annoying, as while the speeds are much better than our old fibre to the cabinet link, it’s the PC we stream on, so the faster the better.

 

Thanks in advance

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Welcome to the madhouse

Jeremy Poynton wrote:

However, when I flip the card to 1000gbps (device manager/advanced/speed) I lose my internet connection.

Firstly I’d check over the transfer capability of that particular ethernet cable
If you want higher transfers, Cat5e or Cat6 (both 1000mbps) should replace Cat5 (100mbps). Try swappping with a known Cat5e/ Cat6 cable to find out would be your best option to start with.
sometimes the simplest things get overlooked..

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Thanks – but I installed CAT7 cables for all connections to the router, and from the two powerline adaptors, to the three PCs, so that’s not the problem.

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Here’s a good article on what to check for in this situation:

https://dfarq.homeip.net/gigabit-card-only-connecting-at-100mbps/

I would also check your cable by trying a Cat 7 or 6 cable tested on another PC at gig speed. You could also try another port on your router, as well as using the latest driver for the card.

If you’ve hard set the speed at 1000, then that may be the problem. Some cards don’t respond well to hard set, they prefer auto negotiate.

As far as streaming goes, you may want to look at your DNS settings. Using the default ISP dns can result in lower speeds, so you may want to look at Cloudflare, Google or OpenDNS to see if you get faster results. Here’s a couple of articles:

https://1gbits.com/blog/list-of-best-dns-servers/

https://www.wikihow.com/Change-Your-Windows-DNS

The last option would be to research which NIC cards work well with your PC. Computers can be weird and particular at times!

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Thanks. I installed CAT7 cables for all 3 PCs. The one that was already gigabit enabled is fine, I get speeds of up to c130Mbps over an ethernet powerline. Auto-negotiate pulls up 100Mbps, and indeed, the problem is not the connection, it is that using gigabit, the card does NOT connect. No internet  whatsoever.

DNS – always set my DNS servers on all machines to OPENDNS.

Drivers are the latest version, the card was only installed a few days ago, and I have checked the drivers.

All very odd!

 

 

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Jeremy Poynton wrote:

1000gbps capable NIC

I think you mean 1Gbps or 1000Mbps

The usual reason for not connecting is the connected device is not capable of higher speeds.
What is the device at the other end of the cable?

cheers, Paul

p.s. CAT5e is all you need in a home/SOHO environment. CAT6 for an office, maybe, and CAT 7 for major infrastructure.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Microfix

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A gigabit enabled router! Cat7 works on the other two PCs, and I have gigabit enabled and working on the PC I am writing this on (the newest of all 3 by a few years), and at 100mbps on the problem PC. Whether I need Cat7 or not, it works!

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Have you tried another port on the router? Swap with one from another PC.

If it still doesn’t work then it’s likely to be the card. Send it back and stick to the 100Mbps card in the PC – plenty of speed for media streaming.

cheers, Paul

p.s. if you log on your posts won’t need moderating and will show up immediately.

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johnf

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As an aside, you probably can’t get CAT7 cables as it’s not an open standard. Your supplier may call CAT6A cable CAT7 to make it sound better.

cheers, Paul

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Well if Cat6 is fine then no problem! It does say Cat7 on them. I’m sure it’s not the cabling. That it works at 100mbps but won’t connect at 1000 is the real problem.

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maybe install/try a different LAN card from another manufacturer instead

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EP wrote:

maybe install/try a different LAN card from another manufacturer instead

Indeed, however, they all cost money. I think an Intel NIC really should work! May replace the powerline first

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Here is a link to a generic intel troubleshooting guide:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000058908/ethernet-products/intel-killer-ethernet-products.html

TLDR; Intel is pretty much in line with this being a cable problem.

Here’s what I would do…

1. Disconnect cable from the card on the PC.
2. Shut down the pc, and then remove the network card
3. Power on the PC, but do not connect the cable.
4. Uninstall any intel network driver and intel network control panel
5. Disable the native motherboard network card. Make sure you have the driver for that card as well saved to your PC, if it’s an Intel, it may get removed from the uninstall. You should have a copy of the new card install file saved as well.
6. Shutdown the PC
7. Put the network card back in
8. Turn the PC on
9. See if the machine installs the card
10. If the machine installs the card, connect the cord, then see if hard set to 1Gbps works.
11. If it still disconnects, click on the new driver you saved and install.
12. If nothing works, and you’re sure the cable you are using is good, then try and borrow another Gig card to test. Your card may be defective, or just not work with that machine.  You can try the original  problem NIC card on another PC if you have one around to test.

 

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Stick to 100Mbps for a week and see if there are speed issues. Let us know how it goes.

cheers, Paul

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Gigabit powerline adapters on the way, think that will fix it  – thanks

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Nope. 10 year old PC, new network card. a combination I suspect isn’t fully compatible.

Why do you think you need more than 100Mbps?

cheers, Paul

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Because it’s available 

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Not on that machine!

cheers, Paul

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The one 5g wifi connection I got to “that machine” ran at over 150Mbps Sadly, wifi is flaky in our house and the connection kept dropping

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Jeremy Poynton wrote:

100Mbps works fine, slightly faster the existing MOBO NIC. However, when I flip the card to 1000gbps (device manager/advanced/speed) I lose my internet connection.

It not enough to install a new 1Gb NIC. Your BIOS (responsible for hardware communications) and motherboard should be compatible as well.

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Also posted at TenForums.com:

New NIC works at 100Mbps – drops internet connection at 1000gbps

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