Thanks for all the good feedback.

If i was to point to one thing outside of the switch, router or setting etc that could be a weak spot it would be the cat 6 cable (flat type) that is connecting at 1Gbps between switch and modem with the run at 20metres. I've generally been careful in purchasing flat cables and generally buying the type that are supposed to exceed cat 6 and are sold as this phantom cat 7 rating.

I have noted though that when things are ok I get a good throughput via the cables. It will be easier to install the unmanaged switch than run another cable so that will be my first choice. But of course if there is any messing about after that I'll certainly see what I can do in regard to replacing that switch to router cable. I may also change the router over in the mix before any cable change to a TPlink VR900 - that would be the easiest route to go I believe.

Edited by Vorlon (Thu 23-Nov-17 16:46:15)

In reply to a post by prlzx:

This was about 5-6 years ago, and I have a feeling the unmanaged stuff would just keep going being more about the underlying switch chip (e.g. Broadcom) and the retail branding only being about the case, not how the innards behave.

I hope the time will come when I can buy a 16 port Gigabit managed switch for less that £100. Will I be lucky?

Amazon

NETGEAR GS116Ev2 16-Port Gigabit Smart Managed Plus Switch, ProSAFE Lifetime Protection
by NETGEAR
£88.84

Thank you. There is also a Zyxel GS1900-16 which at the moment is not available on Amazon, I will have to study the specs.

I've tried connecting to different spare ports (ie swapping over) and have noted that any of the ports on the Plusnet router other than Port 1, the cable connects at 100Mbps. When connected to port 1 (my initial choice on the router) connection is at 1Gbps. Although these figures are not immediately obvious other than the Port 1 @ 1Gbps. The other router ports 2-4 seem to degrade to 100Mbps after several minutes after initially connecting at 1Gbps.
I've also noted that sometimes and regardless of if the setup is working is that the switch will appear as a device in the routers information screens and sometimes it won't!

Also using a browser to access the switch to use the cable check feature, all appears ok there. Although I have no idea as to how accurate these switches are in checking the cables condition.

Edited by Vorlon (Thu 23-Nov-17 23:02:43)

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

Thank you. There is also a Zyxel GS1900-16 which at the moment is not available on Amazon, I will have to study the specs.

Zyxel don't appear to market the GS1900-16 in the UK. I bought mine via Amazon.com. Total cost including shipping and import duties was £100.02 (Switch £64.04, £17.06 Delivery, £18.45 Duty & VAT)

Do you like your Zylex GS1900-16? Have you made much use of vlans etc?

Amazon UK do sell the 24 port version for £90. The 16 port version from the USA was well over £100 when I tried.

Michael,
To be completely honest I am using few of the facilities offered by the switch. Currently my only use of multiple VLANs is in using a separate VLAN for my guest wifi. Even now 18 or so months down the line I've still not got it configured quite how I initially intended but the fault there is mine not the switch.

I went for the 16 port rather than the 24 port due to the significantly smaller size of the 16 port. 216mm wide against 440mm. I currently have 13 devices connected plus the router giving me 2 spare ports. Due to my layout I have another 2 devices connected directly to the router.

Everything has been sort of ok and it's increasingly looking like a cat 6 cable that isn't of the quality it should be. Connecting the cable (between switch an PN Hub) and simply trying a different ethernet port on the plusnet router seems to give different results. Ports 2-4 seem to intermittently slow to 100Mbps (yet start off at 1Gbps) whilst port 1 will remain at 1 Gbps all day.
I'll get a replacement cable of the flat type I have used since that are of a far better quality than the one I happened to use for this 20 metre run.

After cleaning the PN Home Hub RJ45 contacts by using the dry wipe method, basically inserting/removing a decent quality new/clean RJ45 plug I now have a stable Netgear switch. The RJ45 plugs on the Cat 6 cable I've been using look like their contacts could be a lot better than they are.
I'll be altering things around when I can and I'll replace this particular cable with one of the Cat7 flat ethernet cables made by Primewire that i think I got from Amazon.

I appreciate all the feedback.