Gigabit connection to Airport Extreme

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Level 1

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Gigabit connection to Airport Extreme

Here's a nice one to try and explain: Connecting my Mac Pro 1.1 to my new Airport Extreme (leaving the ethernet settings on "auto") results in both cards connecting at 100mb only. Setting either card to gigabit and the Mac completely loses the connection. It just keeps fluttering between active and inactive in network utility with only packets going out and none coming in.
P.S. All cabling used is cat6 so let's not bring that up 🙂

Now for the heck of it I connected the Mac to the Airport Extreme through a Cisco gigabit switch and low and behold: gigabit connections all the way.
There seems to be no way to achieve that without the switch between the two Apple gems.. PRAM has been reset, networking plists have been deleted and freshly remade, etc etc.

Anybody have thoughts on this? Thanks!

Mac Pro 1.1, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Mar 16, 2011 10:31 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 16, 2011 1:59 PM in response to mwille

I would connect them together using the switch.

P.S. All cabling used is cat6 so let's not bring that up

Note: just because the cables are designed to Cat 6 specs doesn't mean they couldn't have been damaged in some way between manufacture and installation.

It could be the cable, the Mac Pro or the Airport Extreme (obviously 😉 ). I assume you tried a different cable and used both ports on the Mac Pro and various ports on the Airport Extreme.

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Answer 2

mwille Author

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Mar 16, 2011 3:08 PM in response to Martin Pace

Unfortunately I can't keep the switch, I borrowed it from work to do some testing on this issue and I doubt they would appreciate it very much if I kept it 😉

Yes, I have switched cables and tried all ports on the Mac as well as the Airport. The only way to get a gigabit connection between the two is through the switch..

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Answer 3

mooblie

Level 4

1,954 points

Mar 16, 2011 4:27 PM in response to mwille

mwille wrote:
Unfortunately I can't keep the switch, I borrowed it from work to do some testing on this issue and I doubt they would appreciate it very much if I kept it 😉

Then try a cheap gigabit switch for $26:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NETGEAR-GS105-GIGABIT-SWITCH-5-PORT-/250788581070

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Answer 4

mwille Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 17, 2011 2:29 AM in response to mooblie

That would of course be a "solution", but there is absolutely no reason why this shouldn't be working without an extra device between the two.

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Answer 5

Mar 17, 2011 10:02 AM in response to mwille

there is absolutely no reason why this shouldn't be working without an extra device between the two.

If you have methodically ruled out all else, including configuration in the Airport Extreme. the Problem must be in that unit.

Do you, in fact, have the version of the Airport Extreme that supports Gigabit Ethernet connection on its Ethernet ports? Does it have the latest Firmware?

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Answer 6

mwille Author

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1 points

Mar 17, 2011 11:42 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Yep, it's the latest release with the latest firmware.
I'm all out of options. Seriously considering buying a switch to remedy this, even though that's really a ridiculous solution.

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Answer 7

Mar 17, 2011 5:22 PM in response to mwille

Are there any other devices connected to the Airport Extreme and if there is have you tried disconnecting everything but the Mac Pro? Maybe another device is slowing down the AE, I'm not sure that the AE acts as a switch.

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Answer 8

mwille Author

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1 points

Mar 18, 2011 2:07 AM in response to Martin Pace

There are no other wired clients connected to the Airport Extreme and there won't be. Only other devices connecting are my iDevices, wirelessly.

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Answer 9

mwille Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 18, 2011 10:27 AM in response to mwille

Okay, now this is starting to freak me out. I brought home another switch for the weekend, this time a cheap *** 3com Baseline gigabit switch. No difference! Still no gig connections possible from the Mac Pro. The Airport however connects to the switch on gigabit without any problem..
Forced the switchports to 1000Base-T: nothing. Forced the mac's cards to 1000Base-T aswell: nothing. Tried all portsettings on the switch, duplex, flowcontrol, even MDI: nothing.

So, there should be no doubt that the ethernetcards in the Mac are causing this. Is there any configuration setting or file that survived the PRAM reset and deletion of all the networking plist files in <root> ▸ Library ▸ Preferences ▸ SystemConfiguration?
Is there anyway to update or re-install the drivers for the ethernet cards only?

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Answer 10

Mar 18, 2011 11:03 AM in response to mwille

Could you humor me and verify that all your Ethernet cables have eight conductors in them, and eight contacts at each end? You can peer through the clear connector and see the tiny wires inside. Also, the color code should be the same at each end, not swapped around.

Cables that run great at 100Base-T with four conductors will not work at Gigabit speed.

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Answer 11

mwille Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 18, 2011 12:58 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

As mentioned in my first post all cables are cat6 (and brandnew I might add)
Can't yet wrap my head around why switch number one (Cisco, expensive, no config) made the Mac connect on gigabit in an instant and Airport Extreme and switch number simply won't..

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