A student moving into a new apartment in Mascot wanted the whole thing handled end to end: which provider to pick, getting the line activated, installing the router, and making sure every device was fast. They went with an Aussie Broadband (ABB) gigabit (1000 Mbps) plan. On the very first wired speed test we only saw about 100 Mbps — not because of ABB, but because of an old 100M Ethernet cable that was already run in the room.
A connection is only as fast as its slowest link. The plan, the modem and the router were all gigabit — but one old 100M (Fast Ethernet) cable already run in the room capped every device behind it at ~100. Swapping in a gigabit (Cat5e/Cat6) cable removed the ceiling.
| Old / 100M cable | Gigabit cable | |
|---|---|---|
| Max speed | 100 Mbps | 1000 Mbps |
| Category | Cat5 / unmarked flat cable | Cat5e / Cat6 |
| Often found | Cables left in older rooms/walls, cheap thin cables | Modern patch cables, in-wall Cat6 |
| How to check | Look for “Cat5e” or “Cat6” printed on the jacket; test wired at the wall port, not over WiFi; check the router’s negotiated link speed in its admin page. |
Root cause: an old 100M Ethernet cable already run in the room, not Aussie Broadband. After swapping to a gigabit cable the same line delivered ~1000 Mbps wired, with the desktop and TV connected and stable — about a 10× jump with no plan change.
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