Purple - WAN Only Works on 100Mb/Cat 5
I've been using a Purple connected to a cable modem with a Cat 5 cable, and it's been working just fine. I never thought about it, it just happened to be the cable I grabbed, and I never paid for speeds above 100Mb so it was fine. Today I got fiber internet installed, and while setting it up and connecting the new ONT to my Purple, it seems like I've discovered the Purple's WAN port won't work with anything other than a Cat 5 cable. At the moment I have both cable (Xfinity) and fiber (Frontier) service active, and here are the various combinations and results:
- Cable modem, Cat 5 cable: Purple port green, modem doesn't have an LED, full connection automatically with no issues
- Fiber ONT, Cat 5 cable: Purple port green, full connection automatically with no issues
- Cable modem, Cat 5e, 6, 6A cable: Purple port amber, no internet, Firewalla network diagnostics report port connected, IP address OK, ping test and DNS test fail
- Fiber ONT, Cat 5e, 6, 6A cable: Purple port amber, no internet, Firewalla network diagnostics report port connected, everything else fails (IP address, ping test, and DNS test)
I previously was noting the ONT's port color, but as it's a 10G port, it was always green.
I did testing with and without rebooting, one at a time and both at the same time. Nothing gets me a working gigabit connection, but I can always switch back to 100Mb with a Cat 5 cable, no reboot necessary. I'll note that I get alerts when I plug in different cables, stating the connection switched to gigabit/100Mb speed, so it seems like the Purple is aware of the change all the way to the software level, but it just doesn't result in an internet connection.
Any ideas what it could be? Could the Purple's WAN port be bad? Is there some setting I'm missing preventing it from switching to a gigabit connection?
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When you get connection switched to gigabit/100Mb speed event, it means the port can physically negotiate speed properly to 1G or 100Mb.
Given when using Cat 5e,6, 6a cable with Fiber, Purple can't get IP address, this is the first thing needs to be fixed. If you connect a GB device to your Fiber ONT directly, will it get internet? If it can, try rule out Firewalla port issue via swapping the default WAN and LAN ports and see if it makes any difference.
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Thanks for the reply. I do not have Smart Queue enabled, but I can't really do any sort of speed testing with a gigabit-capable cable because I simply get no connection at all. The only way I get a connection is with a cat 5 cable, which yields a speed test of nearly 100Mbps. So it's really not a speed issue, it's an issue of getting no connection at all if I use anything better than a cat 5 cable.
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Given when using Cat 5e,6, 6a cable with Fiber, Purple can't get IP address, this is the first thing needs to be fixed. If you connect a GB device to your Fiber ONT directly, will it get internet? If it can, try to rule out Firewalla port issue via swapping the default WAN and LAN ports and see if it makes any difference.
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OK well my last post has been "pending approval" for 24 hours now, so I don't know what's up with that, but the point of it was that I swapped the ports and the problem followed the port. I was able to see full gigabit service to the internet, but then I was only able to connect the Purple to my network switch if I used that Cat 5 cable. So the problem definitely appears to be with the port itself.
I tried cleaning the contacts, but no change. I'm surely out of warranty after 4 years, so I'm guessing the only solution is to buy a new box, which is not something I'm interested in, so I guess I'm stuck with gigabit service but a 100Mb bottleneck at the router one way or another.
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