Does my switch throttle my network speed when using CAT7 cables?

Preface:

We just moved houses, and in an effort to modernise the new house, we've begun to pull CAT7 cables through, from the router to a switch, and then on to perhaps another switch and an access point. I have a 500/500 connection with my ISP ().

The problem:

I made a diagram here (not enough rep to post directly):

I have a gigabit access point, and 2 gigabit switches (netgear GS105 & TP-Link TL-SG108). Both switches get a 1000 mbps connection to the router over the first CAT7 cable, but any device I hook up to the switch only gets 100 mbps over CAT7 (the blue line). When I use a cat6 cable from the switch to the AP I get gigabit. The strange thing is, that when I use the 100mbps CAT7 cable to directly connect the AP to the router, I get 1000mbps!

Do both my switches somehow throttle network speeds when using CAT7?

2 Answers

Most likely, you have an analog problem: A less-than-perfect connection on one of the sockets or plugs on the blue CAT7 cable, that puts it outside the specs for Gigabit Ethernet.

Different manufacturers design different levels of resilience for out-of-specs cables into their products. So it is easily possible, that your router can still communicate on a gigabit level, while the switches fall back to the less demanding 100MBit.

By accident I have been in a very similar situation a few days ago: It was 100Mbit with a Zyxel switch and no connection at all with a HP switch. Recrimping the wall outlet fixed it.

Just to answer my own question, the issue was that the CAT7 cables between the router and the switch were not terminated according to spec.

After terminating them using CAT7 specced keystones and to then use factory-crimped cables, the issue resolved and I now have full speeds.