Need Small Network Help

[jbell77]

Hi, Tim and All: I have a home network with, among other things, a media storage computer upstairs and a media computer downstairs connected to the TV. The two boxes are connected by router with cat 6 cable into a Realtek PCIe GBE card; the setup has been producing 1.0Gbps performance for over a year (Realtek card is just about 1 yr old); all of a sudden the Realtek card only shows 100Mbps, with notable drop in results. I've tried the usual reboot everything, install the latest driver on the Realtek, etc. with no luck. I switched the ethernet cables at the router end, and still same result: upstairs computer 1.0Gbps, downstairs, 100Mbps. Has the Realtek card gone bad, is there some setting that has gotten gummed up (there seems to be a whole lot of settings), or are there other possibilities I don't have a clue about? And if it is the card, shouldn't these things last more than a year? Your thoughts would be very welcome. Thanks in advance.

 

[moosport]

try swapping the cards and recheck

 

[stevech]

I'd suspect the switch inside the router.
You could try using a gibabit switch ($30). Connect all PCs to the switch and connect the switch to the router. Making sure all link LEDs on PC cables show gigabit.

 

[jbell77]

Apparent Solution

Thanks stevech & moosport for your suggestions. The gigabit LAN is now working, but I don't know exactly why. It seems to be the cable. I could'nt test it because it runs out through an upstairs window, then back into the living room. We just had our house painted and, of all things, they painted the upstairs window shut. I couldn't get the cable out of the window to test in another computer until the painters came back today. In the other computer it still ran 100 Mbps. When I put it back in the living room, gigabit was back. Go figure!

 

[jbell77]

Final Update

Update (final, I hope): The painters came back and mashed the ethernet cable (flat cable), and it's back to 100 Mbps. I bought a new cat6 flat cable, plugged it in, and I have gigabit again.