Hello All and thanks for your help. Just want to elaborate on the full story in depth.....firstly some background on me.....i'd class myself as a 'prosumer' with a mild IT background....i love getting new up to date tech (within reasonable cost). I've always loved upgrading to faster broadband speeds and help push BT along to get our area covered by getting the neighbours to fill out the registration forms and ring them etc....like back in the day when 2mb came out (showing my age now) Then when 38 and 80mb VDSL2 came out etc. etc.. i made sure to rally the neighbours and really get Openreach and BT to pull their finger out. I am by no means in some rural country side, im in the heart of Essex. So naturally when FTTP came out I jumped at the chance and went straight to 900mb. Have been around the houses with broadband companies from Zen, to SKY, BT and some others. I have had all sorts of brands of Wifi extenders and routers and switches, Belkin, LInksys, Netgear etc etc. Always trying to improve the home network so there are no dead zones and everyone can use all their devices with stable and fast connectivity.
SOOOOOO...where the current issue started..........Jan 2024 i do a new PC build....MSI Tomahawk Z690 WIFI Mobo, i5 14700 cpu, Corsair RAM 48gb, Corsair 850w power supply, RTX 4070 gfx of some description....i will mention i am not a gamer, im just impatient and like a fast computer, when i click i expect the page to load...DONT MAKE ME WAIT! lol
I had been on BT's 900mb FTTP package the day it came out in our town (first one on the road to have it) which has been 2yrs, eagerly following the progression of 1.2, 1.6 and 1.8gbps speeds soon coming. As soon as EE had it available on the availability checker, i booked in for the upgrade, i was with BT so had to be migrated over to EE with 900mb initially. So as i had been reading about the associated tech upgrades in the industry, and my new build having 2.5gb lan port, i thought in order to get the most from the 1.6gbps connection i'd upgrade the router to one that has 2.5gb or higher WAN and 2.5gb LAN ports (at least 1). So after much review reading and searching i settled on the ASUS ROG GT-AX11000 Pro, and a BrosTrend 8 x 2.5gbe port switch. I was still on the 900mb service awaiting my appointment at the time of purchase. I installed these and then noticed the DROP OUTS BEGIN!!
Im a huge victim to the SUNK COST FALLACY! So i ignored it for a while then thought, oh its something stupid, it'll sort itself out. Then i started with the cheapest option first and 1 by 1 process of eliminatiion began....
1. Purchased CAT 7 cable to replace the Cat6 from my pc to my RJ45 socket in the wall which goes to the BrosTrend switch. (DROP OUTS REMAINED)
2. Purchased a PCI NIC to eliminate it being the RJ45 port on my 3mth old Mobo (DROP OUTS continued)
3. replaced Ethernet cables from Router to ONT, RJ45 wall socket to BrosTrend Switch all to Cat 7 (still getting drop outs)
4. Then i tried a different port on the switch (still drop outs)
5. Tried different port on Router (still getting drop outs)
6. I purchased a new MSI Tomahawk Z790 Wifi Motherboard moved all my hardware over etc.. (STILL GETTING DROP OUTS)
7. Swapped BrosTrend 8 x 2.5gbe switch back to OLD TP-Link 8 x 1gbe port switch (NO MORE DROP OUTS) aha! we are onto something!
**** Luckily the NIC, Asus Router and BrosTrend were still with in the return and refund period........I have now sent all items back ****
Now i have orderd a TP-LINK Archer BE9300, £100 less than the ASUS and has 4x 2.5gb LAN ports and 1 x 2.5g WAN port.
A zyxel 8 x 2.5gb port switch, a TP-Link 8 x 2.5gb switch and a QNAP 4 x 2.5gb and 2 x 10gb port switch
I will test all the above switches and report back!
(Obviously i dont intend on keeping all the switches i just need 1, but i will keep the one that WORKS! if any!)
So i hope everyone now understands....i did take a systematic approach and only do 1 change at a time. I will report back!
My advice still stands. Also that no connection image denotes wifi to me rather than wired, but who knows what UI standards Windows does at this point. Also no mention of NBASE-T support in specs for the 10Gb port, I would be amazed if it didn't support it given the 2.5Gb WAN, but you never know.
