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Well, I was waiting until I was up and running at 1000Mb, but still working on it, so I'll post a small update. Over the weekend I flashed a second RT-N66U with Victek's build. As the demo on his site had the ability to select 1000M (full & half) from the WAN Port Speed drop down, the actual version I flashed (the latest) didn't actually have that option (once again, it was limited to 10M, 100M and AUTO).
So, after a bunch of searching/reading, I came to the following "conclusions" (or, better..."assumptions"):
- I'm unable to hard-set the WAN port speed to 1000M, though the hardware/software does support 1000M connections (confirmed this by testingmore, below).
- Apparently, the option to hard-set the speed is not available because hard-setting breaks 802.3ab spec (in that 1000M needs to be auto-negotiated).
- So, to get running 1000M connection, both the switch (you) and the router (me) need to be set to auto-negotiate with the advertised rate on the port (on the switch-level) allowing for the full 1000M.
To test to see if the above "works" with my hardware/software, I did the following:
- I plugged the router into my gigabit switch, logged into the router and set the WAN port speed to AUTO and the port immediately lit up at 1000M Full-Duplex (which is what I had the port on the switch advertising).
- I then logged into the switch and, keeping negotiation set to AUTO, I lowered the advertised rate on the port the router is connected to to 100M. Checking back on the router, the WAN port matched the switch and dropped to 100M Full-Duplex (after about 10-15 seconds).
- I did the same, again, but this time, dropped the advertised speed down to 10M. Again, within 10-15 seconds, the WAN port reported 10M Full-Duplex.
- Back to the switch, I set the advertised speed back to "max capacity" (1000M, in my case), and back on the router, WAN reported 1000M Full-Duplex.
At no point, in the above, did I need to hard-set any values. Auto-negotiating handled everything (with a minor delay). Also, at not point did the WAN port, on the router, report being "unplugged"it just jumped from 1000M > 100M > 10M > 1000M.
So, both hardware/software are capable of 1000M, but, for whatever reason, you just can't hard set 1000M in the WAN Port Speed settings.
Also, as an additional note, I tested on both RT-N66U and RT-AC66U hardware, using Victek, Shibby and Toastman builds (and all combinations seemed to work the same).
At this point, I'm going to run another test with the ISP on Friday, and if that doesn't work, then they're going to send in a technical to run some tests on their hardware and lines (pre-demarc).
Alsoas a further noteI'm not expecting the hardware to be able to push through full 1000M speeds. I'll be happy if I can get 500M and anything beyond that will be a bonus. Thing is, our ISP just began offering 1000M packages (with unlimited transfers) for $100 less than the current 100M (1TB transfers) we currently have. So, I figured, *any* speed increase + unlimited transfers (for $100 less) is a good deal. And, eventually, I'll switch out the router to higher end hardware that can handle the full 1000M, down the road.
Anyway, I'll update again once everything is resolved. k. |
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Yea, like I said, I was just guessing with the 500M. But, even if I get 300M, that's 200M more than the 100M I'm currently getting (and I'll be paying $100 less/month and will be getting unlimited transfers).
And then, over time, I can switch back to a SonicWALL commercial-grade device to get the full speeds. But, for now, I have a couple RT-N66U devices doing the job (primary & backup) with the 100M line, so they *should* do the job with the 1000M line (even if they're only able to get 300M) until I have budget for router upgrades (which I'll have via the $100/month savings I get from upgrading from my 100M package to the 1000M package. 8) |