iperf test - 10/100 router result the same as crossover on gigabit

Was testing my speeds between my Ubuntu Server 14.04 and Windows 8.1 laptop. Ubuntu server had recently had a new 10/100/1000 gigabit card installed, all up and running perfectly and showing 10/100/100 in ifconfig.

So I did a iperf test through the 10/100 router and it was 86Mbits/s - ok good enough.

Then I connected directly to the server from the laptop using a cable, both ethenet cards gigabit configured and .... same result.... 86Mbits/s.

Are we looking at some form of software configuration needed here or am I doing something blatantly wrong??

Iperf Dump- Through 10/100 router

------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.0.48, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 63.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 3] local 192.168.0.11 port 52708 connected with 192.168.0.48 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0-10.0 sec 103 MBytes 86.6 Mbits/sec

Iperf Dump - crossover, both running 10/100/1000 gigabit cards

------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.0.48, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 63.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 3] local 192.168.0.11 port 52744 connected with 192.168.0.48 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0-10.0 sec 104 MBytes 87.0 Mbits/sec

Ubuntu Server 14.04 - ethtool, lshw output

 server@mediaserver:~$ ethtool eth1 Settings for eth1: Supported ports: [ TP MII ] Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full Supported pause frame use: No Supports auto-negotiation: Yes Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes Link partner advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full Link partner advertised pause frame use: Transmit-only Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: Yes Speed: 100Mb/s Duplex: Full Port: MII PHYAD: 0 Transceiver: internal Auto-negotiation: on Cannot get wake-on-lan settings: Operation not permitted Current message level: 0x00000033 (51) drv probe ifdown ifup Link detected: yes
$ lshw -C network
*-network:0 description: Ethernet interface product: RTL8169 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:06:00.0 logical name: eth1 version: 10 serial: 14:cc:20:04:1a:5e size: 100Mbit/s capacity: 1Gbit/s width: 32 bits clock: 66MHz capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full ip=192.168.0.48 latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=64 mingnt=32 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s resources: irq:21 ioport:b800(size=256) memory:ff921000-ff9210ff memory:ff900000-ff91ffff

Windows 8.1 - wmic dump

C:\Users\Nick>wmic NIC where NetEnabled=true get Name, Speed
Name Speed
Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller 100000000

What is the difference between size and capacity? Should the server be 1Gbits for size and capacity?

1 Answer

Link partner advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full

That means the other end of the connection is not advertising Gigabit capability. In this case, presumably that's your Windows 8 laptop, for which the Windows command output does show only 100 Mbit/s speed. Fix your laptop.

What is the difference between size and capacity? Should the server be 1Gbits for size and capacity?

Size is actual connection speed, capacity is what the server can support on that interface. It would be 1G for both if both ends of the connection support 1G.