Does a Patch Panel reduce FTTH speeds dramatically?

swoofer

I'm thinking of putting all my kit in one place, more as a hobby than anything else, but I have 500mb FTTH and was wondering if I split signal will I get say 90mb at most points instead of the 500MB?

Spear

Patch panels should have no impact on speeds at all. What do you mean by split signal?

swoofer

I'm only just looking say box on wall in living room and I plug in TV, sat box and IPTV box? If that makes sense

sundodger5

In theory if you put in a switch, which it sounds like you are doing and it is wired then 500meg should be available to them all. Obviously that speed is shared between the devices.

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122153109#Comment_122153109

That's not how networks work, there's no signal to split. As sungdodger5 already said, the full bandwidth is available to all.

swoofer

but they wont all get top speed if used at same time?

sundodger5

The speed is 500meg that is always what is available to all devices. Thry cant all have 500meg at the same time. That bandwidth should be plenty though?

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122153521#Comment_122153521

The limit of the incoming connection can't be exceeded, there's still a max of 500 mbps, that's the bottleneck. But that isn't related to the rest of the network. So each of your internal devices will be contending for part of that 500mbps. But each will get whatever they're requesting, it's not split equally per device. Any of the devices can claim the full 500mbps if they're doing something that warrants it.

Capt'n Midnight

If you are getting 90Mb/s on a device then it may be due to a 100Mb card in that device instead of Gigabit.

WiFi is an "up to" technology, speeds can be a lot lower due to lots of things.

swoofer

Thanks all, I have a long lan cable going to an 8 way netgear 1GB switch in front room and when checking a sat box it shows 80 - 90 but with another sat box in same room as router it shows 444mb!! There are 4 devices attached to the gigabit switch. I was assuming a patch panel would give faster speeds.

dam099

A lot of satellite boxes only have 100Mbps network cards so 80/90 might be in line if that’s the case. Some do have 1Gbps which is why the other may be better unless both are the same model?

Alternatively a marginal quality cable might negotiate a connection at a lower speed

swoofer

A little update, I ran a long lan cable from router to distant box, about 30 feet, cable is a bit longer and got 487mb. Its 1gb port. So the netgear switch does split the speed. Lan cables are plugged in but not in use if you know what I mean. A box with 100mb port on the switch has 66mb.

Damien360

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122162956#Comment_122162956

From my limited knowledge of my own home setup, I'm not sure of speed loss over cable types at that relatively short distance. Long runs are never good without something to boost it. Did you use Cat5, Cat5e or Cat6 cable ? If the cable is old and any way damaged it can also limit your speed.

dam099

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122162956#Comment_122162956

There must be a fault somewhere if speed is reduced with other devices plugged in but not in use.

As others have pointed out switches just don’t split the speed.

I have multiple devices plugged into the same switch and any of them that are gigabit capable can pull down full speed when other devices are idle. If fact I have devices that go through 2 switches and a router and still get gigabit.

kippy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122161873#Comment_122161873

Is there any chance any of the 4 devices connected to the Netgear switch(or any other part of your network) were downloading (either in the foreground or the background) at the same time as you were running the speed test?

Did you try a different cable? (Perhaps the 30m one) To rule the cable in or out as the cause?

Consumer switches generally don't have any type of traffic or bandwidth management functionality on them.

swoofer

Just an update, I connected the long lan cable to wrong box!! Once rectified I got over 440. I then put back in short lead

IMG_5904.PNG

cable to switch and here is a pic!