My "Gigabit" network card only getting 100m, is it even actually 1gbps?

Question

I've searched to no avail. I have a RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 05) network card in a toshiba satellite laptop. Running Ubuntu 16.04

The card doesn't seem to support gigabit speeds according to terminal, everything pointing to 100mbps despite the fact it says Gigabit right in the controller name. I'm fairly new to ubuntu. Usually in windows I would check the device ID and search for it to confirm if it is in fact truly a gigabit controller.

I just subscribed to a new ISP offering upto 1000mbps download (not 100, as I was sure the sales rep was mistaken), other subscribers are getting numbers 800-950 on speedtests, I'm getting ~320 but I feel thats the limit of my iPhone/wifi. So I started booting up laptops one by one only to realize that none of my laptops (that were all given to me for free) have gigabit NICs. I have SmartTVs, DVR and a NAS all running gigabit but have no way to do a speed test on those devices. Last option is this toshiba that had issues on windows so I decided to format and am playing around with ubuntu.

Ok on to the details:

    adriano@adriano-Satellite-L850D:~$ sudo lshw -C Network
  *-network        A^[[A^[[B^[[B^[[B^[
       description: Wireless interface
       product: RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       logical name: wlp1s0
       version: 01
       serial: 20:16:d8:de:dc:e5
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rtl8192ce driverversion=4.4.0-57-generic firmware=N/A ip=192.168.1.101 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
       resources: irq:16 ioport:3000(size=256) memory:f0200000-f0203fff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: enp2s0
       version: 05
       serial: 70:54:d2:ac:41:a3
       size: 100Mbit/s
       capacity: 100Mbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full firmware=rtl_nic/rtl8105e-1.fw ip=192.168.0.12 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s
       resources: irq:34 ioport:2000(size=256) memory:f0004000-f0004fff memory:f0000000-f0003fff


adriano@adriano-Satellite-L850D:~$ sudo ethtool -s enp2s0 speed 1000
Cannot advertise speed 1000
adriano@adriano-Satellite-L850D:~$ sudo ethtool enp2s0
Settings for enp2s0:
    Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
    Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
                            100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
    Supported pause frame use: No
    Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
    Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
                            100baseT/Half 100baseT/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: Symmetric Receive-only
    Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
    Speed: 100Mb/s
    Duplex: Full
    Port: MII
    PHYAD: 0
    Transceiver: internal
    Auto-negotiation: on
    Supports Wake-on: pumbg
    Wake-on: g
    Current message level: 0x00000033 (51)
                   drv probe ifdown ifup
    Link detected: yes

adriano@adriano-Satellite-L850D:~$ lspci | grep -i net
01:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter (rev 01)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 05)

I see that my network card is a RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 05) the "/"s are concerning me, is that part of the info and model number ie:10/100/1000 or is it telling me I have ONE of these hardwares ie:"RTL8101 - Fast" or "RTL8102 - Fast" or "RTL8106E - Gigabit" and if so why can't Ubuntu tell me which one? I'm prying its just driver issue of some sort. I accept I may have to borrow a laptop from someone not as cheap as I am to check my full potential. Also can anyone tell me why I have a weird adaptor name? I thought it should be something like "eth0"

Solution 1

the "/"s are concerning me, is that part of the info and model number ie:10/100/1000 or is it telling me I have ONE of these hardwares ie:"RTL8101 - Fast" or "RTL8102 - Fast" or "RTL8106E - Gigabit"

That is exactly what is being conveyed; you have one of the devices listed. In your case, according to ethtool, it is one of the Fast devices, not the Gigabit.

ethtool from a gigabit-capable device clearly reflects it. Here is a sample from my machine:

Settings for enp0s25:
    Supported ports: [ TP ]
    Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
                            100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
                            1000baseT/Full 
    Supported pause frame use: No
    Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
    Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
                            100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
                            1000baseT/Full 
    Advertised pause frame use: No
    Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
    Speed: 1000Mb/s
    Duplex: Full
    Port: Twisted Pair
    PHYAD: 1
    Transceiver: internal
    Auto-negotiation: on
    MDI-X: on (auto)
    Supports Wake-on: pumbg
    Wake-on: g
    Current message level: 0x00000007 (7)
                   drv probe link
    Link detected: yes

Notice that the supported link modes include 1000baseT; that is, gigabit.

In short, you are unable to achieve gigabit speeds because your device doesn't support it.

Solution 2

I had the same issue on my HP Pavilion G6 notebook. Long story short : remove old driver and compile new from the source.

lspci | awk '/[Nn]et/ {print $1}' | xargs -i% lspci -ks %

look the exact Kernel driver in use(Realtek in my case r8169 do have list of US patents on their website).

Comments

[dobey]

What is the ethernet cable you're using for the device? Is it cat5, cat5e, cat6, or something else?

[Thomas]

Add the output of sudo ethtool <name-of-ethernet-dev>. There you should see which speeds are supported and to which speed it is actually synced. Does your switch/router/modem you connected your laptop to support 1Gbit/s?

[user886869]

Any hint on how to remove the old driver and compile new from source?