Not getting gigabit speeds for mac pro

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Not getting gigabit speeds for mac pro

My home network is connected through a Motorola Surfboard (http://tinyurl.com/3xsxtrs) and a netgear GS608 switch, both of which support gigabit speeds. When transferring a 2 GB movie from my 2006 mac pro to a brand new imac, my peak bandwith is only 9.6 MB/s, so for some reason it seems as though I'm still getting only fast ethernet speeds. I believe my mac pro is the problem, as it is connected directly to the netgear switch, and the port it is connected to is lighting up amber, whereas the port that the ethernet coming for the surfboard is green. In researching this I believe that green means gigabit speeds are enabled on that port, but amber means only fast ethernet. Any idea why my mac pro would not have gigabit speeds?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Jan 22, 2011 8:22 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 22, 2011 8:47 PM in response to hoover4040

The most common reason is using a cable that does not have all four pairs, or they are not wired correctly. A two-pair cable will test and work fine for 100 Base-T, but not operate at full speed on Gigabit.

Network Utility will tell you your attained speed for each active interface. It also has error counters. You should not be seeing error counts increasing. They should generally be zero, but you may have a handful of errors at Startup.

Message was edited by: Grant Bennet-Alder

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Answer 2

Kappy

Level 10

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Jan 22, 2011 8:48 PM in response to hoover4040

Green just means it's connected. Modems and routers use different colored lights that have nothing specific to do with connection speed. 9.6 MB/s is 80 Mbps which is an awful fast service speed in the US. I have a 5120 Surfboard that has a rated maximum of 30 Mbps. My ISP's service speed is 15 Mbps. Their maximum is 40 Mbps. Gigabit speed is only achievable in your network between the router and your computer or to other Gigabit enabled devices connected to your network.

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Answer 3

lunar77

Level 1

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Mar 8, 2011 6:52 AM in response to hoover4040

I was having the same problem with my Mac Pro too. Turns out the cable was not compatible with gigabit, only 100

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