Airport Extreme - link speed 100Mbit/s

[shorn]

Hi all,

I have a mac mini that I use as a media server, and a MBA both connected (wired) to a Airport Extreme Base station.

I use screen sharing from the MBA to the mini as the mini runs headless.

Performance has always been poor, so did a bit of checking today, and have seen that both the MBA and Mini are connected at 100Mbit/s. Should be getting Gigabit. Ethernet cables I'm using are CAT5e.

Any idea on what I can try?

 

[Weaselboy]

I assume you are using the Apple USB ethernet adaptor for the MBA? That only supports 100Mbps. Unless the Mini is old, it should support GB though.

 

[shorn]

Sorry, forgot to mention that the MBA is hooked up to a Thunderbolt display. The display is connected via ethernet.

 

[Weaselboy]

Sorry, forgot to mention that the MBA is hooked up to a Thunderbolt display. The display is connected via ethernet.

Hmmm... that should work. I have a 2012 MBA connected wired through a TB display and it is GB. Are you looking in this screen under "advanced" in "Display Ethernet" in the network panel of System Prefs?

Do you have the Display Ethernet connection at the top of the list like this so it takes priority over the wifi connection?

 

[shorn]

No, I've been looking in the Network Utility,

However, when I checked where you said, I see this...

But, I have just tried swapping the ethernet cable to the Mac Mini, and it's now connecting in at 1Gbit/s. Maybe a dodgy cable? (Which will be a PITA, as its chased into the wall!)

 

[shorn]

Right, just swapped back to my old cables, and back to 100Mbit/s.

The cable going to my Thunderbolt display actually runs outside the house, and is external Cat6, so shoudl be plenty good enough. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the connectors. (I crimped them myself,) maybe I've not put them together correctly?

EDIT, just looking at the cable that connects to the thunderbolt display and it looks as if my individuals cables are not in the right order. Will have a go at changing as soon as I find my crimper and connectors.

 

[skorpien]

I highly recommend a cable tester as well to make sure you've crimped them properly and to make sure there are no breaks within the cable itself.

 

[shorn]

Yep, defo my cables, just replaced the thunderbolt with an old 20m Cat5e cable I had lying around, and its connecting up at 1Gbit/s. Looks like its time to change them cables up!

 

[shorn]

Just to follow this up. Ended up definitely being my cables, or more accurately, my connections.

Have just gone through and replaced the CAT6 with proper CAT6 connectors and new connectors on the Cat5e cable.

Getting a nice 1GBit/s on both the Mac Mini, and the Thunderbolt/MBA.

Also got 16GB RAM on order for the Mini, so hopefully the Screen Sharing will be a tad more fluid!

ADDED: and it certainly makes a difference! Happily streaming 1080p from my Mini to my MBA/Thunderbolt. Smooth as butter!