If you do buy Cat5e cable, make sure it's 350mhz.
they were running a special today on a 5-port for $18 shipped iirc
amazon has the 8port model for $30 (or did when i ordered mine last friday)
For starters -
On the PC that is showing 100mbps, check the NIC card properties to be sure that Speed & Duplex are set to Auto. Also, try swapping Cat6 patch cables between the two PCs to see if the problem follows the cable.
For the printer, that could be related to other issues outside of the network.
Was the printer "fast" on the 10/100 network you had it on before?
Did that...still slow
Its the switch, well more specific the ports on back. You have to move them around to make sure it all reads gig speeds on lights.
Lots of switches don't configure 1gig unless the ports are next to each other, or certain configs.
That TREDnet switch they linked to is very finicky with speeds because of that. .
I've never had that problem with a switch. If I did, I'd RMA it. That's not normal.
I have this one and it work great. Bought it when it was on sale for $19
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833156250
So I got the Cat 6 cabling, D-Link DGS-2208 switch, Identical Nic's in both PC. 1 PC is showing me 1gbs thruput while the other is showing me 100 mbs. My printing to my networked printer is dumb slow. Any ideas?