Ethernet port not working with a Gigabit switch

for those of you using in wall wiring. There is quite a difference between 100Mb and Gigabit. 100Mb will run over cat 5 connections even with a wire in the wrong location. (i.e. the A configuration vs the B configuration) 1000 is a different story. It uses all 8 wires and they all have to be in the right connection. After we wired my house I bought a cable tester and found several wires not punched down or switched.
We have also seen several issues with cheap patch cords. About a year ago I went out a bought a,, new good quality patch cables.
hope this might help.
This may be stupid info, but remember when you are looking at the light indicator, it indicates the signal at the other end of the cable. so if you see a wrong LED config on switch A, it is switch B that has the issue. Same is true for a systems ethernet connection if not a switch.

Thanks to those posting in this thread. It is good to know that it is being looked at by the community.

I have to say that this problem is odd as when I 1st got my Mini, I was able to go 1Gbits... then it stopped connecting via Ethernet. That is when I switched to wireless to just surf. With it turning into my main media PC in the home theater, I have to go wired and believe I need 1Gbit.

To test my in wall cabling, I got a $10 (i.e. CHEEEEAP)cat5 tester that will check for line breakage and if the lines are crossed, and all is good there. For the price of the tester, it does not test for the quality of the connection... It is better than nothing tho.

For this particular Mini issue (still fighting a color static from time to time) and to get get things ready for putting media PC's around the house, I decided to up the network infrastructure a bit. With this being said, I got an HP Procurve 1800-24G, and my Mini is directly connected to it... Still 100Mbits.
*I made sure the switch was at factory defaults... Still 100Mbits
*I updated the firmware on the switch... Still 100Mbits

My next step is to start from scratch on my cables and go overboard and get Cat6 cables from monoprice. They are on order, and will post the results when they come in.

Another thing I could try is go back to the original OS and see what happens, but I really do not want to do that.

I have a feeling that I will end up having to buy a $200 Acer Aspire Revo and run XBMC to do the work that the Mini is struggling with. Ugh.. So disappointed with this situation.

-D

I got my new 10' cat6 cables from monoprice and plugged it directly from my Mac Mini to my HP Procurve 1800 series switch, and the same results as before. If I force the ethernet configuration to 100mbits it connects, but if I go auto or manually configure it to gigabit, it will not connect.

I have all kinds of devices that are connecting to this switch at gigabit without any issues.

I really want to use my mac mini as my media pc using PLEX, but I want to have gigabit for that. If I cannot get this to work, I will switch to my Windows 7 PC and use XBMC as it connects gigabit without any hitches.

I find it hard to believe that I have to resort to a Microsoft Windows 7 box for this application as I would have thought it would have been easier to get going with Apple.

Can anyone provide any other reasoning why this could be happening? I find it hard to believe that it is anything but the hardware or the OS of my Mac Mini.

Thanks,

-Dave

Hi
I met same problem with Cisco 3560E.
I use Mac Mini(Early2009) with 10.6.2.
Now I setup 100Base-TX/Full. It works fine.
However when set autonegotiation or 1000Base-T, ethernet link is not stable.

Regards,
Toshihiko

I contacted Apple Support and was not able to get a resolution to this problem.

I could tell they were searching their system and there were several entries with very similar or the same symptoms and each were not resolved.

Seems to me there is a problem here that needs to be addressed.

-Dave

Same problem here. Both my older Mac Mini 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo and my MacBook Pro connect just fine on the same cable to the same Cisco/Linksys SD2005 5-port Gigabit switch. But my brand new 2009 Mac Mini will not work at gigabit speed. I had to manually configure for 100Base-T.

The Apple Store was no help.

Hello everyone,

Same issue here with my Mac Mini Server Late 2009. I had to force it to go 100/Full Duplex. Then it worked fine. NO GIGABIT!!!! This is surprisingly bad. VERY DISAPPOINTED!!!!

I'm wondering what switch you are using. I am connected to a Linksys (Cisco) SD2005 5-port Gigabit switch. I even swapped the cable from a Cat-5 to a Cat-6e cable with the same results. My other Macs connect at 1000Base-T. But not this Mini.

I don't believe it is switch or cat5e/cat6 cable related as I have tried multiple switches (dlink and HP Procurve) and have tried both cat5e and cat6 cables. It seems to be a problem on the hardware side.

Anyone with this issue still with the original memory, hard drive, or even original operating system? I have upgraded all 3 of these.

-Dave

Dave,
I tried this "out of the box" before I did my updates. It failed. I even returned the unit to the Apple Store as non-operational. They gave me a new Mac Mini - still in the shrink wrap. I brought it home and it immediately failed. So it is not a "mod" issue.

I just had a great experience with Apple Expert support. We tried everything and the port will still not work at GigE speeds. He sent me an app that built a "view" of my system and I emailed it to him. He said he would get back to me after escalating. VERY NICE EXPERIENCE, APPLE.

Thanks for posting this! Absolutely exactly what we needed. It keeps me from having to reverting all my hardware and updates back.

Did you happen to point Apple support to this thread as it shows that this is not a one off issue?

I cannot wait to hear what is happening and how they resolve this issue.

Thanks again,

-Dave

I did give them the thread number and he told me he recorded it in the notes.

Good deal! When I called support, I also referred to this thread as well. Hopefully, they will fix this soon. I am 90% complete with my project where I am now using a Windows 7 box to do the job for a 1/3rd of the price.

I am very disappointed that I had to resort to that. 😟 Maybe I can repurpose the mini for a different room.

-Dave

I have an AT&T U-verse 2Wire router in front of an Airport Extreme router which then is connected to an 8 port Cisco Gigabit switch. (I have 3 different Gigabit switches connected to the Air Port Extreme plus the connection from the U-Verse 2Wire Router fills all 4 ports) My Mac Mini is connected via ethernet to the Gigabit switch. My problem is that my Mac Mini will be connected to the internet and then I get dropped without warning. It is a random thing. I can go for a couple of days or less than a day without being dropped. Rebooting the computer doesn't fix the connection. It says my wired connection is unplugged which it is not. The computer then wants to connect through Airport. The Airport connection through the Mini remains the only way I can stay connected to the Internet. This is very frustrating.

I had hardwired my home with ethernet and everything worked fine before I got U-Verse 2Wire Router and Gigabit switches (had 10/100 switch before). I have tried connecting the Mac Mini ethernet cable directly into the back of the AirPort Extreme (skipping the Gigabit Switch) with no change to the problem. If I connect it directly into the U-Verse 2Wire Router I can't see the Airport Extreme or other AirPort Express devices connected to my stereo.

This seems to be a Mac Mini issue since my Mac (+1 Dell) laptops and original iMac computers don't have this problem. Does anyone have any ideas as to why my Mac Mini keeps getting dropped from the Internet while using the ethernet connection from a Gigabit switch?

Bass PoP,
There are several of us who have this problem. We have reported it to Apple. Please read the whole thread.

A "hopefully" temporary workaround is to go into System Preferences->Ethernet->Advanced->Ethernet and manually set it to "Manual, 100BaseT, Full Duplex.