Half duplex on bridge in roaming setup?

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Half duplex on bridge in roaming setup?

I set up a roaming network following this somewhat outdated apple guide. However, I plugged the Ethernet into a LAN port on the bridged AE - because the WAN port has a little lug on it and the cable wouldn't lock into place. This shouldn't matter as bridged mode turns all ports into a switch. I noticed when looking at airport utility on my phone it showed the bridge as half duplex? The base station and the bridge are connected but Cat 5e. What gives with the half duplex? Equipment is new and firmware current.

THe he setup guide I refer to is:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204616

Posted on Jul 26, 2015 8:31 PM

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Answer 1

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Bob Timmons

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Jul 26, 2015 8:33 PM in response to goilala

The phone connects using wireless. Wireless is half-duplex.

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Answer 2

goilala Author

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Jul 26, 2015 9:09 PM in response to Bob Timmons

AH, thanks! So even though I am looking at airport utility on my phone and it reports the bridge at half duplex, it is still actually full duplex?

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Answer 3

goilala Author

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Jul 26, 2015 9:20 PM in response to Bob Timmons

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Answer 4

Jul 27, 2015 3:56 AM in response to goilala

In your case the ethernet connection is half duplex.. this is not such a surprise really. I think the real surprise is that it is report via a wireless link on the iOS device and not on your airport utility on a Mac. At the current settings you will not experience any loss of speed due to half duplex.

Please detail what you have plugged into all the ports and how the airport is setup? Complete with the whole rest of the network.

If this unit is plugged into another AE are they both AC models??

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Answer 5

goilala Author

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Jul 28, 2015 10:15 AM in response to LaPastenague

Thanks for responding. I have two brand new Airport Extremes. Both AC models, both current firmware. They are set up according to the article mentioned above, Wi-Fi base stations: Setting up and configuring a roaming network (802.11 a/b/g/n) - Apple Support .

The only difference being that I have a 100 MB/s switch between the AE connected to the internet modem and the bridged AE to create the roaming network. While I recognize that this will cut the 1 GB/s down to 100 MB/s between the two AEs, it should not make it half duplex when connected via Cat 5e cable. This seems very strange to me.

When I look at the Airport Utility on my Mac Book there is no indication of the duplex setting or the "fair" setting that you see in the images above. It is only when I use my iPhone to look at the Airport Utility when siting next to the bridged AE that I see this extra information. As you can see from the screenshot above, it says the connection is "fair" and then when I drill deeper to the next level it shows that second screen where it says Duplex is Half Duplex. But you will notice further down on that screen that it says "wireless clients" when I drill down on that it shows my iphone and says connection is Excellent.

So, why would you say that half duplex is not a surprise when the two AE's are connected via Cat 5e ethernet cable? I thought that using ethernet to connect the AEs meant that I don't have to suffer half duplex? This is confusing since the Iphone airport utility shows that extra information that suggests I don't have full duplex.

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Answer 6

Jul 28, 2015 10:34 AM in response to goilala

The only difference being that I have a 100 MB/s switch between the AE connected to the internet modem and the bridged AE to create the roaming network. While I recognize that this will cut the 1 GB/s down to 100 MB/s

When you say 100 MB/s.......I think you mean to say 100 Mb/s. 100 MB would be 800 Mb/s

it should not make it half duplex when connected via Cat 5e cable. This seems very strange to me.

It is not hard to figure out that things will be half duplex if the switch is set at half duplex. How have you tested the switch?

But, before you go any further with this, it does not make any sense to try to test your network with an iPhone using a wireless connection. You know wireless is half duplex. How would an iPhone using a wireless connection ever detect a full duplex signal?

You need to test using an Ethernet connection that you have verified to be operating at full duplex. I'll let LaPastenague take it from here.

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Answer 7

goilala Author

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33 points

Jul 28, 2015 3:31 PM in response to Bob Timmons

100 MB/s means Megabytes. That is the standard for ethernet. Mb/s is megabits, the standard for wireless and internet. I am very surprised that someone with a high rating on this forum would not know such a basic standard. This makes me very skeptical of the replies I receive on this forum. The switch is NOT set at half duplex. It is a typical netgear switch, albeit and older one, that is not configurable and runs only at full duplex at 100 MB/s.

Regarding the iPhone and Airport Utility: The Utility reports the devices being monitored, not the device being used to report what it sees.

So, my concern persists, why does my iPhone Airport Utility report a Roaming network configuration with ethernet as a HALF Duplex network?

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Answer 8

Jul 28, 2015 1:45 PM in response to goilala

What model Netgear switch do you have?

The typical Ethernet switches I know of have network ports rated in Mbps. For example, see the specs of some Netgear switches here (rated 10/100 Mbps): http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/datasheet/en/FS105-FS108-FS116.pdf

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Answer 9

Jul 28, 2015 1:59 PM in response to goilala

Any switch is going to be rated as follows......10, 10/100, or 10/100/1000.

This is Mbps......not MB.

Hopefully, you will find someone else to help you. But, be prepared for them to say the same thing.

They will be correct. If you can't accept that, then you best try another forum.

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Answer 10

Tesserax

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148,453 points

Jul 28, 2015 3:25 PM in response to goilala

100 MB/s means Megabytes. That is the standard for ethernet. Mb/s is megabits, the standard for wireless and internet.

Yes, and no. In telecommunications the data transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate) per unit of time. Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data that can be transmitted through the media. BOTH are typically represented in Megabits per second (Mb/s). That it true whether you're talking about the Internet, Ethernet, or wireless forms of media. However, you are correct in that Megabytes could, and sometimes is, used when referring to either data transfer rates or bandwidth, but is more commonly used when talking about data storage capacities.

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Answer 11

goilala Author

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33 points

Jul 28, 2015 3:38 PM in response to Tesserax

Ah, I stand corrected. I thought Internet and Ethernet were Mb vs MB and that Internet Megabit was not as 'fast' as Ethernet Megabyte. Now I know. Thanks.

Anyway, my problem still stands. I am using a 10/100 switch between two AE 1Gb/s units. One is set to be a router and the other to be a bridge. When I look at airport utility on my iphone it shows the bridge as in the images above, i.e. as HALF Duplex. The whole reason I am using ethernet to extend my wifi network was to avoid half duplex. So this is confusing to me.

Perhaps it is some anomaly by using the iPhone when looking at airport utility? As I mention above, if I use the Macbook when looking at airport utility, it does not show any such information as the connection and it's "excellent, good, fair" rating or its duplex status.

Still confused. But not as concerned if I discount the iPhone's version of Airport Utility.

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Answer 12

Tesserax

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148,453 points

Jul 28, 2015 4:16 PM in response to goilala

Ok, so I gave my iPhone 5s a try to see what results that I get from my network and it reports full duplex for my base stations. In my case, I have a Cisco as my main router with Gb/s Ethernet ports, with each of the base stations connected back to the Cisco via Ethernet using CAT5e cabling. All of my base stations report in the iOS version of the AirPort Utility as having full duplex.

Makes me think your 100 Mb/s switch may be the culprit.

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Answer 13

goilala Author

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33 points

Jul 29, 2015 4:21 AM in response to Tesserax

Thanks Tesserax. I guess that must be my issue then. I will be unable to test it for some time as it was a wifi network I was helping someone set up on the other side of the country. But when I return I will take them a Gb switch and see if that does indeed resolve the problem. I will mark this as solved.

Thanks everyone for your input and my apologies for my incorrect brash reply to Bob Timmons. I had been under the impression that Gigabit (or Megabit) were speeds used to describe ISP bandwidth and were 8 times slower than LAN Ethernet GB/s or MB/s. I see now that this was a misguided assumption I had made and ethernet and internet and wifi all use the same Mb/s determined by bits not bytes per second so a 100 Mb/s Cable or Fiber ISP connection is the same as a 100 Mb/s ethernet LAN bandwidth.

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Answer 14

Jul 29, 2015 5:59 AM in response to goilala

Thank you for having the courtesy to explain that your comments earlier were based on a different assumption of things. We hope that a new 10/100/1000 Mb/s switch will do the trick.

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