LAN throughput limited to 100mbps

[sharkpunch]

Hi All,

This issue has got me scratching my head!

For some reason the LAN interface from my opnsense router is limiting itself to 100mbps however it is a 2.5gbps port.

I have tested my wan link which is fine and pulling at 1gbit (internet speed), when i test transfers between devices on the switch they are performing at 1gbit speeds however as soon as I run a speedtest on a device connected to the switch, speeds max out at 100mbit

When I look at the LAN interface in settings it shows the connection for some reason as 10gbit (as below), I'm not exactly sure where I can see the negotiated connection speed in the OPNsense webui however when I look at the switch the light would indicate the connection has been negotiated at 1gbit.

I have replaced the patch cable just in case, so from here I need to assume its a software issue.

For context, I'm running opnsense virtualised on a proxmox host on a N100 device with 4x 2.5gbit ports

Media   10Gbase-T <full-duplex>

Any ideas on what I can test/check next?

[shade_ch]

Hi,

When you say that you have tested wan link, I guess that it was without the opnsense box, i.e. conecting a computer directly into your ISP router. If that's the case:

• Check the negociated speed of your WAN interface. You can check negociated speeds on opnsense dashboard in "interfaces" widget
• If the speed is negociated to 100Mbps, check that the cable is plugged correctly on both ends / replace wan cable to a cable which is at least CAT5e, if it doesn't work try forcing to 1Gbps full duplex on both ends (isp router/opnsense)
• Check if there is no traffic shaping: type "pipe" without quotes in the opnsense search box and check if any pipe is limiting to 100Mbps. If there is one check in the rules tab to which interface it applies
• Last but not least, sorry to ask, but are you sure that it's 100 Mbps and not 100 MBps ? (easy to confuse, and 100MBps is 800Mbps, and depending on your hardware / configuration the difference might be related to the firewall's overhead)

Good luck

[sharkpunch]

Thanks - the issue is on my LAN interface not my WAN, I just was saying that I verified that the limitation is not my WAN link (if that makes sense) I tested WAN speed using speedtest-cli in the console on my router to verify that was not the bottleneck.

Yes I can confirm i mean 100Mbps and the cable supports 1gbit.
Also can confirm there are no shaping rules/pipes in place.

[CJ]

Almost every time I've seen a 100m or 10m connection issue it's due to some sort of hardware problem.  Usually bad cable but sometimes it's a bad jack or switch.  It could even be a bad interface.

IME it's pretty rare for something that ends up at 100m or 10m to be a software issue.

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Most significant difference is that 100 Mbit/s used 2 pairs of the patch cable while 1 Gbit/s uses all 4.

[Maurice]

OPNsense won't report the actual link speed when running in a VM connected to a virtual switch. That's why you're seeing 10Gbase-T. You have to check the actual link speed in Proxmox.

Cheers
Maurice

[CJ]

Most significant difference is that 100 Mbit/s used 2 pairs of the patch cable while 1 Gbit/s uses all 4.

Which can lead to the fun experience where an installer used one cat5 cable to wire up two jacks, each using 2 pairs.

[meyergru]

I would also assume that the actual link speed of the hardware is 100 Base-TX, but apart from bad cabling, it might be the Intel NICs: early models of the 2.5 Gbps variants (I225 and I226) had known problems with certain counterparts. Even the last revision (3) of I225 does not correctly connect at 2.5 Gbps sometimes.

I have one machine that happens to sometimes connect at 100 Base-TX with a Nokia ONT. There are firmware upgrades available for I225 variants from www.station-drivers.com which might help, but I have not tried them yet.

[Maurice]

Which can lead to the fun experience where an installer used one cat5 cable to wire up two jacks, each using 2 pairs.

I used to "fix" such installations with Y-type adapters combining two 2-pair RJ45 jacks into one 4-pair jack, because no-one could be bothered with ripping out and rewiring the patch panels. Fun times. [/off topic]

[sharkpunch]

Thanks guys, you were right!
Even though I tried a couple of cables, I found switching a 3rd time did the trick.

Using ethtool on the proxmox host did highlight the issue that it was negotiating at 100Mbps so lesson learned there.

Appreciate the help 

[CJ]

I would also assume that the actual link speed of the hardware is 100 Base-TX, but apart from bad cabling, it might be the Intel NICs: early models of the 2.5 Gbps variants (I225 and I226) had known problems with certain counterparts. Even the last revision (3) of I225 does not correctly connect at 2.5 Gbps sometimes.

I have one machine that happens to sometimes connect at 100 Base-TX with a Nokia ONT. There are firmware upgrades available for I225 variants from www.station-drivers.com which might help, but I have not tried them yet.

This seems to only really occur with integrated versions of the 2.5g NICs from what I can tell.

Which can lead to the fun experience where an installer used one cat5 cable to wire up two jacks, each using 2 pairs.

I used to "fix" such installations with Y-type adapters combining two 2-pair RJ45 jacks into one 4-pair jack, because no-one could be bothered with ripping out and rewiring the patch panels. Fun times. [/off topic]

Thanks guys, you were right!
Even though I tried a couple of cables, I found switching a 3rd time did the trick.

Using ethtool on the proxmox host did highlight the issue that it was negotiating at 100Mbps so lesson learned there.

Appreciate the help 

Glad to hear it.  The hard part with 100m speed is just figuring out what hardware failed.