topic Re: Does google wifi gen 1 support cat6a cable in Nest Wifi

Does google wifi gen 1 support cat6a cable

betsyr0129 — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 04:37:48 GMT

I have google mesh wifi gen1 and I have been testing bandwidth throughput. When I use a cat6a cable in between my primary puck and the router, I noticed the router will show an orange light (meaning 100Mbps) and my throughput test drops to about 80Mbps. If I use a cat5e cable, the router shows a green light and I get around 400Mbps (outbound link is 400-450Mbps). Do the gen1 mesh pucks support cat6a cabling ?

Re: Does google wifi gen 1 support cat6a cable

olavrb — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 08:30:13 GMT

It should support cat6a no problem. I use it in my setup.

Do you have a cable tester, or have you been able to verify that the cable gives 1gbps connected between other devices? Have you tried a different cat6a cable? What exact cable is it?

Re: Does google wifi gen 1 support cat6a cable

betsyr0129 — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 14:21:56 GMT

Thanks for any assistance.

The cat6a wiring says :

SOUTHWIRE (R) - E160837 CAT 6 UTP 23AWG 4PR TYPE CMR 75C C(UL)US LISTED SUN RES -- UL VERIFIED TO TIA-56B-C.2 CAT 6 --ROHS-2 COMPLIANT G0072105280140 4503189819 020FT

I have tested the wire with 2 different testers and it tests good but the test tools do not give maximum bandwidth data. I can only see the all 8 wires test good on both RJ45 connectors. The RJ45 connectors are generic cat6 pass-through connectors, not 23AWG or 24AWG specific.

When I use the cat6 cabling between a workstation and a switch or the external (4-port) router, the switch/router shows a green light not the orange light and bandwidth speeds from the workstation test in the maximum throughput range.

Re: Does google wifi gen 1 support cat6a cable

olavrb — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 16:59:08 GMT

Could it be an ethernet crossover cable? Unmanaged switches should handle it fine, but I've read about people having problems with it with Nest Wifi earlier.

I'd try with a different, well reputed cat6a cable. Or with an unmanaged switch, like Netgear GS108, in between.

Re: Does google wifi gen 1 support cat6a cable

betsyr0129 — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 17:40:08 GMT

The switches it works on are managed switches and I can see the wiring colors, it is not a crossover cable. I attempted to use another cat6 (same brand but different cable) on a different google puck and same issue occurs, link is marked as 100Mbps(orange) but the cable used between managed switch and workstation has the link as 1000Mbps (green).

I think I am going to just continue to use cat5e to the pucks and use the cat6 between switches and workstations. It just seemed that everything points to the pucks not supporting the cat6 cabling and thought it was worth asking to be sure.

Re: Does google wifi gen 1 support cat6a cable

Jeff — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 20:31:20 GMT

Hey, betsyr0129.

It looks like olavrb was able to help you figure this out, but I wanted to check in and see if you needed any more help on this. If so, just let me know.

Thanks.

Re: Does google wifi gen 1 support cat6a cable

Jeff — Wed, 04 May 2022 21:47:00 GMT

Hi, betsy0129.

I just wanted to check in once more to see if you were all set or if you needed anything else on this or if you're all set.

Thanks.

Re: Does google wifi gen 1 support cat6a cable

betsyr0129 — Thu, 05 May 2022 03:48:47 GMT

I do not know why but the cat6a wire continues to run at 100Mbps when connected to my google pucks. I have been careful to only use cat5e and I obtain expected throughput. So I don't know why this occurs but it is consistent and the cat6a wires run with expected throughput when connecting other devices.

Re: Does google wifi gen 1 support cat6a cable

Jeff — Thu, 19 May 2022 17:03:19 GMT

Hi, betsyr0129.

I wanted to check in once more to see if you were able to sort this out. Were you able to get everything running at expected speeds in the end, or are you still seeing issues?

Thanks.

Re: Does google wifi gen 1 support cat6a cable

betsyr0129 — Thu, 19 May 2022 17:56:27 GMT

Nothing has changed since my previous update.

I have not heard of anything new to try so I am still running using cat5e cables.

Re: Does google wifi gen 1 support cat6a cable

Jeff — Thu, 19 May 2022 19:39:28 GMT

Have you contacted support directly, betsyr0129? They would be able to diagnose things a bit deeper and may be able to verify that it's not a hardware issue. You can contact them here: https://bit.ly/3o1aRK5.

If you have any issues reaching them, please let me know.

Thanks.

Re: Does google wifi gen 1 support cat6a cable

Jeff — Tue, 31 May 2022 16:59:45 GMT

Hi, betsyr0129.
I just wanted to check in real fast to see if you were able to reach support and to find out if you still needed any help on this. If you're still needing assistance, please just let me know and I'll be happy to continue helping.
Thanks.

Re: Does google wifi gen 1 support cat6a cable

betsyr0129 — Tue, 31 May 2022 20:55:20 GMT

Support can not assist me unless I rewire back to the cat6a wiring which is not possible at this time so consider the issue closed. Thanks.

Re: Does google wifi gen 1 support cat6a cable

Jeff — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 17:48:34 GMT

Sorry it's not the answer you're hoping for, betsyr0129. I do appreciate your patience. I'll mark this as closed for now, but if you need anything else going forward or choose to revisit this in case of any changes, go ahead and open up a new discussion and we'll pick things back up.

Thanks.