WD My Book Live ethernet connection not negotiating at 1000 mbps with Airport Extreme!

[Yeonardo]

Howdy!

The Link Up LED light at the back of my WD Live shows yellow meaning that it's negotiating at 10/100 mbps. I'm using this network drive with 5th generation airport extreme so shouldn't the connection be 1000 mbps (green led light at back of drive)?

I appreciate in advance for your advice.

Thanks for reading,

Regards,

Yeo

[TonyPh12345]

Make sure that you are using a Cat5e cable that has all eight wires.

If it's an older 4-wire cable, it will only negotiate 100 meg.

[Yeonardo]

Dear Tony,

Thanks But I'm using a cat 5e cable. In fact, I'm using the default cable that comes with the package...

[Myron]

I was, not to long ago, wiring up 60 Ethernet cables of which one end was chopped by previous owners so I had to trace the cables from the wall and correctly wire it all to a patch panel.

ANYWAY . . .  I found what some of the sockets on the walls were faulty.  The connections between pins 1 and 2 were open-circuit.

What if in the Ethernet socket of either the MBL or the AirPort there a connection is not correctly made and as such the it all falls back to 100 Mbps?

[Yeonardo]

Hey Myron, Thanks Do you mean that it's most likely due to either the Ethernet port of My Book Live or Airport Extreme is faulty? If that's the case, I'm not sure how do I check it? I've tried using other port of my Airport Extreme and it's still negotiating at 100Mbps (Yellow light). It seems unlikely that the airport extreme is faulty. Perhaps I should buy another Ethernet cable to test it first. Thanks again

[TonyPh12345]

It's rare, but there are devices out there that are unable to negotiate with their peer. 

It takes a lot of low-level electronic diagnostics to determine who is at fault.

Your best bet is to test your MBL against another Gigabit switch.  Try borrowing one from a friend of neighbor.

[Myron]

I agree with Tony.  Try another gigabit router.  Maybe if you got a friend with a Gigabit router of a different manufacturer?  Take your MBL to a friend's house?

If it's of any help I use a Linksys E2000 router and it's absolutly compatible with the MBL.

[Yeonardo · Accepted solution]

Dear folks,

I bought another Ethernet Cable today and realized that the "Yellow" LED Link Up light that is behind My Book Live is actually negotiating at 1000 mbps. I realized this when I saw "Orange" color LED Link Up after using the new cable and checked the Link Up Speed on my Mac is 100 mbps. 

Thanks to Tony and Myron for providing your valuable advice. Really appreciate it.

Have a great day!

Regards,

Yeo

[TonyPh12345]

Heh!  That's great!   Just an odd color rendition.

Thanks for the follow-up.

[Myron]

Glad it's sorted.