Network performance seems unusually sluggish.
Network performance seems unusually sluggish.
Cat5e and Cat6 are likely using Gigabit speeds since the router’s ports probably support that. You don’t really have extra bandwidth left. I think the problem isn’t the cable itself—Ethernet needs all eight wires for speeds over 100 Mbps, so a broken wire will cut your connection to that rate. Are you running heavy, continuous transfers? Also, could your gear be overheating? WiFi devices can sometimes get hot and slow down or stop completely.
I didn’t realize this until I saw it, it was just a test upload with a big file—same as the other two measurements. My PC usually handles about 200mb/s, so even when locally I see this slow speed, there’s no issue on my server either. That’s what bothers me the most. My router is a Freebox Revolution; I couldn’t find an English spec sheet but it has four Gigabit ports and we use all of them. I don’t think overheating is the problem because my speed was 13mb/s during a hot French day (40°C inside) and now it’s around 20°C.
I identified the issue easily at the end. I mentioned my server ran Ubuntu, so I thought connecting an Ethernet cable would automatically disable Wi-Fi like it does in Windows—but it didn’t. I suspect the router simply didn’t change its settings and kept the connection via Wi-Fi. To resolve it, I just turned off Wi-Fi on the server, and suddenly the speed jumped to 40 Mbps locally instead of the 3 Mbps I was experiencing!