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Gigabit issues?

G

gerrynjr

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 16, 2007
59
28
Brand new imac is unable to reach gig speeds on a gig capable switch.
(need it to connect to my NAS)

Seems apple went with a new NIC this time around... made by nvidia.


Is anyone else experiencing this?

(using a netgear gigabit switch)
 
gerrynjr said:
Brand new imac is unable to reach gig speeds on a gig capable switch.
(need it to connect to my NAS)

Seems apple went with a new NIC this time around... made by nvidia.


Is anyone else experiencing this?

(using a netgear gigabit switch)
Click to expand...

What's the output of ifconfig -a from terminal?
 
After bootcamping, I was able to get a reliable 100mb connection (not gig yet... dont know why) by turning off the "Low Power state link speed" option. If this option was on in vista, I was able to reproduce the 100mb light blinking for abour 4 times, then defaulting a 10mb link.
Very interesting indeed. So interesting, that I called up apple and placed a request for engineering support. I will post my experiences here.

As for ifconfig, the device is up, with link state being inactive when under auto negotiate mode.

(Going to install linux to a "bootcamp" partition later today to try another driver source.... why do I feel like I'm doing Apple's QA?)
 
gerrynjr said:
After bootcamping, I was able to get a reliable 100mb connection (not gig yet... dont know why) by turning off the "Low Power state link speed" option. If this option was on in vista, I was able to reproduce the 100mb light blinking for abour 4 times, then defaulting a 10mb link.
Very interesting indeed. So interesting, that I called up apple and placed a request for engineering support. I will post my experiences here.

As for ifconfig, the device is up, with link state being inactive when under auto negotiate mode.

(Going to install linux to a "bootcamp" partition later today to try another driver source.... why do I feel like I'm doing Apple's QA?)
Click to expand...

Are you using an actual CAT5E or CAT6 cable? I've "fixed" plenty of problems like this by changing out cables and/or ports on network switches.
 
I have tried several cat5, 5e, and 6 cables, all produce the same result.

I'm going to try a different brand switch monday after work. (going to see if I can borrow a gig HP procurve switch)
 
Same thing with macmini (1.8Ghz Core Duo)

Hi I have the very same problem with a macmini purchased late Jan '09 (5 weeks before they updated them to the current version....anyways....)

I'm using a Prosafe netgear GS108 gigabit switch which happily negotiates gigabit speeds with my NAS however the mini will only connect at 100Mbps which aint fast enough to stream 720p movies.....

I have tried connecting the mac to the switch with a couple of different cables (eg cables that my NAS uses to obtain Giga speed...nothing makes any difference, stubbornly sticks to 100Mbps). The connection is solid at 100Mbps but if you try and up the speed to 1Gbps (manually since auto always defaults to 100Mbps) you get the "cable unplugged" message. I have also posted my issue here ( http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1956940&tstart=0 )

I called apple support, and hilariously the woman who spoke to me didn't actually know what a switch was...she said "to me a switch is something you use to put a light on..." anyway she suggested I make an appointment at a genuis bar or something......if I can't get it resolved I'm going to insist a refund or a credit note...

Tony - Glasgow UK
Jan '09 - Macmini 1.8Ghz - Leopard (10.6.xx or thereabouts!)
 
gerrynjr said:
Brand new imac is unable to reach gig speeds on a gig capable switch.
(need it to connect to my NAS)

Seems apple went with a new NIC this time around... made by nvidia.


Is anyone else experiencing this?

(using a netgear gigabit switch)
Click to expand...

I have a Netgear GS608 v2 and it works perfectly. ifconfig indicates good 1000baseT connection.

en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet 192.168.0.101 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.0.255
inet6 fe80::223:dfff:fe7f:9710%en0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
ether 00:23:df:7f:97:10
media: autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control>) status: active

Cheers,
 
Is this a current gen mac mini with nvidia graphics?

Only the current gen models use the nforce integrated NIC.


Thanks!
 
Hi there not sure if you're asking me or panzer, however my macmini is a Mac￿mini,￿1.83GHz￿Intel￿Core￿Duo which is not the latest version, it was the latest version until about 2 weeks ago . . . .

Tony

PS Panzer your macmini - does it deffo get a 1Gigabit connection and is it the latest macmini or the pre Feb 2009 version?
 
my old(1.66) and new mini connected at gig speeds with no problem. I have a dlink gigabit gaming router, AEBS (802.11n), and two netgear gigabit switches.
 
I have the new dual-band AEBS and my desktops connect at gigabit, but my 09 nvidia mini is defaulting to 100 too.. Very weird..

Tonymacprods: If you can't stream 720p over 100 you have other network issues to deal with... I can stream 1080p to plex on the new mini without issue and it's at 100..
 
throughput required for 720p

Hi Bugout, thanks for your comment, I'd rather not hijack this guy's thread but since I can't message you directly I'm afraid I'll need to post a reply here.

Generally my network connection to the mini seems pretty rock solid even if it will only go up to 100Mpbs....but I would be keen to know if I'm missing something....

For example a feature length movie in MPEG4 24fps 720p (mkv container) is generally about 8Gb in size. If I try to play it with front row or VLC from the NAS (terastation live) I get frequent frame freezes...if I copy it locally it plays fine..with about 30% CPU utilization.

To copy an 8Gb video file from my NAS to my mini takes about 25mins, which by my calculation is about as fast as a 100Mbps connection will allow you to go. I have never knowingly seen any issue with the macmini connection.. I regularly copy big files back and fourth. Is there anything I should be looking for to indicate other network issues? Should I tweak anything in VLC or frontrow??

(PS i can stream uncompressed DVD video backups ie VIDEO_TS/AUDIO_TS ) to my mini from my NAS without any problems..)
 
I think there is come confusion with how you guys define 1 gig speeds. If configured properly, you should have no problem getting a message that says you are connected at 1 Gbps, however actually getting throughput at this speed is another story. You generally need many many small simultaneous transfers to hit the peak. Also, your hard drive may be the bottle neck.
 
Please do not insult myself, or anyone else in the forum that way. I am going on link speed detection only. If you lose a link state upon enabling gigabit... that is a problem... this is not related to data transfer speeds.
 
Back to the original problem

Hi gerrynjr sorry I've probably distracted people from your original post...Did you manage to get an alternative switch to try? Any success?

Here's hoping you've got some good news....

TC
 
Work did not have a spare gigabit switch that costs less than $1k, so that isnt an option, I ordered one from newegg, should be here thursday...
 
It could be something fixable with a driver update. I actually have an FS108 so if things get slow I will connect my 09 Mini to it and report on the speed I am getting on the NIC.
 
Have you guys tried to go into the network section of system preferences, select the ethernet adapter, go into the Advanced section, then the ethernet tab and try to force it to 1000MB?

It could simply be an autonegotiation problem and locking down the speed would address it.
 
I connected my 09 mini to a cheapo netgear gigabit switch that I got today and it is in fact connecting at 1000bt.

en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::223:dfff:fe85:eb7a%en0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
inet 10.0.1.10 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.0.1.255
ether 00:23:df:85:eb:7a
media: autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control>) status: active
supported media: none autoselect 10baseT/UTP <half-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <
Click to expand...

It connected back directly to the AEBS and it dropped to 100bt.. wtf?
 
An update:

trying to connect via crossover cable to eliminate the switch from the equation, I am able to connect at gig speeds to my macbook, receive error rates are not terribly high, but are there at about 6%, regardless of cable. If I use a "Trendnet" switch from newegg, I am able to detect a gig links speed, but no traffic goes through as the packet loss is too great.

Any further help is welcome
 
gerrynjr said:
An update:

trying to connect via crossover cable to eliminate the switch from the equation, I am able to connect at gig speeds to my macbook, receive error rates are not terribly high, but are there at about 6%, regardless of cable. If I use a "Trendnet" switch from newegg, I am able to detect a gig links speed, but no traffic goes through as the packet loss is too great.

Any further help is welcome
Click to expand...

If you are seeing packet loss, even when connected via crossover to another gigabit device like your macbook, I would be suspicious that the NIC on the Mini is faulty.

You might be able to detect this by running a protocol analyzer that can dump header errors, etc, directly from the NIC, something like Wireshark might do the trick.
 
I'm wondering if this is a driver problem, to be honest, as 100mb connections show zero packets dropped
 
gerrynjr said:
I'm wondering if this is a driver problem, to be honest, as 100mb connections show zero packets dropped
Click to expand...

Well, myself and probably others are enjoying gigabit ethernet speeds with no errors, so I suppose it could be a driver problem, but it could also be the NIC itself that's the culprit.
 
Have you guys tried to go into the network section of system preferences, select the ethernet adapter, go into the Advanced section, then the ethernet tab and try to force it to 1000MB?
Click to expand...

Yip tried that, it loses the connection and you get a "cable disconnected" message. I have posted a console log of that activity here ( http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1956940&tstart=0 )

I will try a crossover cable between my macmini and my NAS (the only other computer on my LAN with a gigabit card is my tera NAS) and post back.

Last question, how do I measure packet loss? is there an executable I can run from the terminal command line or something?

Appreciate all your help guys

TC

(PS running PLEX instead of VLC allows me to stream 720p movies over a 100Mbs connection without stutter but I'd still like to solve this issue of not being able to connect at Gigabit)
 
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