full fibre - seem to have an Ethernet restriction

[#1]

recently upgraded to full fibre

computer is windows 7 has  2.8 ghz 4 gig of ram 

tests show ok between modem and internet ..done by the engineers installers on the day
but not between pc and modem and internet ...tests max out at about 95 mbps ..when it should be 150  to 160 or so

note : im using an Ethernet cable

could it be that my device : ethernet nvidea n/force 10/100 mbps is not capable ?
or needs drivers to upgrade ?

sketchy info found on the net , 

if i had the correct one for today ..it would be called a ethernet nvidea n/force 10/100 / 1000 mbps ...note the 1000

or need complete ethernet board module to upgrade ?

note my computer is over 10 years old but still quite powerful (note 10 years ago ..maybe 1000 mps not thought possible )

This is what its showing..see picture below set to "auto negotiations" ..no idea what the autoneg settings mean

note : i phoned 2 plus net techs up ..who had not a clue what i was talking about.

all the best.mark

[#2]

@markinwales  Your ethernet connection is limited to 100Mbps which explains your speeds. Is the ethernet adaptor built into the motherboard? If it is you either replace the motherboard with one that has 1000Mbps (Gigabit ethernet) or get a gigabit ethernet card and plug that into a spare slot in the PC.

[#3]

looks to be built in .. see picture ./..yes i know it due for a clean gets like that every 6 months (coal fired house) and gets a lot of use, HD'S have 78,000 hours on them!

have to look into it ...what would the new one plug into, would it have a lead that plugs into something on the motherboard ..or use something else 

what with the end of support for 7 coming ..im wondering what to do . buy a new pc?

ive never used  windows 10 ..am i going to be disappointed! ..as i have all these "full" programs on it office word etc.

was going for the record of 100,000 hours .....like getting rid of a cherished car .

decisions decisions 

there is also another part of me that is saying 96 is ok ..and is plenty fast enough ..i dont do gaming ...or streaming...and i should let this pc go onto the end ...i only moved to full fibre ..after been given the ..you are paying £52 now ......well give it to you for £27 ..you loose your phone ?

speed was about 55 before ...so....

[#4]

@markinwales 

Looks like a no brainer to me. What’s the point of having an Internet speed that’s faster than your pc can handle? Either downgrade your connection speed or move into the 21st century.

[#5]

well its cheaper deal than before ......and have had the full fibre put in and agreed to contract ..had no idea that my pc would restrict me .

Gives me plenty of time to get the best deal on a new PC i suppose  (well jan 14th support ends)..cause i cant continue using this one with card transactions and banking with no windows 7 support.

[#6]

@markinwales 

I'm a Win7 man through and through.

Several years ago I did a dual install with Win10 purely because it was offered for free. I've never used it but it's on my machine just in case.  I boot up once a month to update things. Due to this I know my current machine will not accept Win11.

As a back up (and because I had the time) I bought a NEC box (I think that's what they're called) and installed Linux. I then installed a VM program and loaded Win7. Took a while (over 200 odd updates for one thing) but got all my main Win7 programs installed. I think there's a how to thread somewhere on the Forum

So long as browsers support Win7 I'll not move. Chrome is moving on but FireFox is hanging on.

Brian

[#7]

Windows 7 is end of life and hasn't received security updates for years. No admiration for an operating system would see me running it on my own machines.

[#8]

@markinwales 

Just to add to this thread, whilst clearing out my "Useful Cables Box" a while back, I found a number of ethernet cables that would only connect at 100Mb/s - not 1000.

These were all commercially made cables - some of the offending ones I am sure were supplied with BT Vision and BT TV boxes from when I was with them. Not a problem for those applications obviously, but not when you want to use them on a PC with a fast connection!

I assume that only 6 of the 8 pins on the plugs were wired, to save costs? Having made up a few ethernet cables myself, I know that all 8 have to be connected to achieve a 1000Mb/s link.

[#9]

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@Mr_Paul wrote:

I assume that only 6 of the 8 pins on the plugs were wired, to save costs? Having made up a few ethernet cables myself, I know that all 8 have to be connected to achieve a 1000Mb/s link.

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Agreed, and another good use for a basic Network Cable Tester which needn't be expensive as they can often be found for under a tenner.  

e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Network-Cable-Tester/s?k=Network+Cable+Tester

[#10]

its a 10 metre one so its not cheap to just go and replace it ...actually need a 15 metre one as its stretched out going diagonal instead of into corners.

i dont know its the cable .......as the pictures ive uploaded..are they showing that this computer only supports 100mbs  or is it showing what its decided it supports?

is there a way to use the nvidea program to test the line then ...maybe it makes its own changes ...as its set to auto

..again the other settings other than auto and mbs  are :

autoneg 100fd

autoneg 100hd

autoneg 10fd

autoneg 10hd

Ive no idea what these values are or mean.

BTW ..computing is not really my hobby ....i prefer to spend my money on other things...fair enough ..run out and buy this run out and buy that ..all in the interest of computing ..if that interests you ....well yes ......

but i have tens of other things going on ......with no real income coming in .

all the best..mark

[#11]

does the motherboard have a make & model identification ?

It ought to be possible from that to establish what is the spec of the onboard NIC and also whather there are suitable expansion slots to support adding a gigabit NIC

[#12]

This is just going off the number on the Ethernet module showing in the picture 

leads to believe its called a BIOSTAR N68S3+ AM3 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

two slots ..one is occupied by the graphics board ...which has a  fanless cooler underneath of it .......that needs to be kept clear

it could be moved to other slot ........i don't know this card may overcrowd the graphics board and lead to cooling issues...

the graphics board has on it a cooler ...which does not have as fan ...so i have a cooling fan set on lumps of blue tack on the floor of the computer directing air up at it..........if that fan wasn't there ..the the graphics card runs at 55+c and beyond when i watch a video.

so bit of a hotch potch to keep things going.....been like that for a very long time

 

[#13]

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@Baldrick1 wrote:

@markinwales 

Looks like a no brainer to me. What’s the point of having an Internet speed that’s faster than your pc can handle? Either downgrade your connection speed or move into the 21st century.

---

That would all depend on what CONCURRENT use a user wants to make over the connection.  A PC doing sub 100mbps plus a number of other devices concurrently shipping data, might make sensible use of a speed capacity not capable of being saturated by a single device.

That said I doubt that many normal users are going to saturate the high end of FTTC, let alone FTTP.  Somewhat like other things in life, it is not raw speed which matters, but how you use it.

[#14]

leads to believe its called a BIOSTAR N68S3+ AM3 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

According to the specs for that , the onboard NIC is definitely only 10/100.

The specs say it has 1 x PCIe x 16 and 2 x PCI slots

I would guess that the graphics card is in the PCIe x 16 slot and needs to stay there

That means that any new card must be PCI which is quite an old standard, the current is PCI express(PCIe).

The chances of being able to source a Gigabit PCI NIC card, I would guess, are limited. Most cards available would be PCIe and they wont fit your motherboard

All in all, thats quite a low spec system, I would suggest its new computer time !! ( and with a supported OS )

[#15]

I found a PCI Gigabit Network Card on one of my preferred PC bits suppliers.