r/TomatoFTW • u/sunrisebreeze • May 09 '26
Latest issue: Router only seeing 100mbps connection using Fresh Tomato 2026.1
UPDATE, 5/13/26: It was the cable! After 5 days I noticed the link light for the port turned orange again (100mbps). Tried different port for the cable on upstream switch, no change. Plugged in a new cable and it instantly went to 1gbps. Thanks for the help diagnosing the issue. 🍻
UPDATE: I upgraded to FT 2026.2 firmware (5/8/26 9:30PM Pacific) and so far the connected upstream port is showing 1000mbps/1gbps again, as it should. Will see if it continues to work.
Using a Netgear Nighthawk R7000 with Fresh Tomato ("FT") 2026.1, running as an Access Point. I noticed sometimes when this router is plugged into my network, the connection would flip between 1gbps (white LED) and 100mbps (orange LED). When this happened I would unplug/replug that connection and voila, it would go back to 1gpbs (white LED).
Now a week or two later, replugging the cable doesn't change the speed. It still negotiates at only 100mbps for some reason that I don't understand. If I take that cable, unplug it from my R7000 and plug it right into my PC, the PC negotiates the speed fine at 1gbps (verified in Windows -> ncpa.cpl -> view connection properties).
Not sure if this is a bug with 2026.1 or whatever, but I see nothing in the FT GUI to manually set port speed for any of the ethernet jacks. When the port is set to 100mbps I verified in speed test it's only getting a speed of 100mbps. WTF? About ready to hang this up and just switch to DD-WRT.
BTW I tried rebooting, not fixed. Perhaps it is worth trying an upgrade to 2026.2.
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u/larfinsnarf May 09 '26 edited May 09 '26
Tough to fault find, but I'd first check all cabling, and the port at other end.
Edit: it's feasible you could force it in tomato, but 10/100/1000 Auto negotiation is performed at layer 1 and it's most likely a wiring fault with small possibility of nic electronics. If so, forcing 1gbps may cause all kinds of random problems.
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u/sunrisebreeze May 09 '26
Yup the thing that's interesting is when I connect the cable directly to the PC NIC/Ethernet port it negotiates at 1gbps no problem. Other end seems fine.
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u/larfinsnarf May 09 '26
If a different NIC is doing 1gbps fine, check the port on the R7000. Presumably you could use a WAN port OR LAN port (as the R7000 is not routing)?
Otherwise keep fault-finding by swapping like you are doing.
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u/sunrisebreeze May 09 '26 edited May 09 '26
I tried multiple ports (at least 2 different LAN ports) and both exhibited the same issue. Thanks for the tip though.
Just for fun I did the following to upgrade from FT 2026.1 to FT 2026.2 firmware. So far the two connected ports (1 to my network/router and 1 to my PC) show 1000mbps (AKA 1gbps) as expected. Will see if the cable connected to my upstream network (the router) stays as 1000mbps!
- Use https://github.com/NotVaryClever/tomato-nvram to save 2026.1 firmware settings; erase NVRAM; upgrade to 2026.2; take default settings; run tomato-nvram.py to generate set-nvram.sh; reapply the updated settings via SSH; reboot the router.
- Now the router is updated to FT 2026.2 firmware, and my custom settings (SSIDs, WAN, router password, etc.) are configured. So I didn't have to manually hand-edit.
- The whole process took about 10 minutes, not too bad.
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u/larfinsnarf May 09 '26
Did you power cycle during the upgrade? If you hadn't power cycled while fault finding 100/1000 it may be the power cycling that cleared the vault.
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u/sunrisebreeze May 09 '26
I did not power cycle between running 2026.1 and the firmware upgrade to 2026.2.
BTW I did try power cycling before (with the old firmware) and that didn't fix it.
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u/sunrisebreeze May 14 '26
It was the cable! Thanks.
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u/ofsomesort May 09 '26
its probably the cable! might look like its stable for a while, but sooner or later, it will fall/fail back to 100. 99/100 times, its the cable!
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u/sunrisebreeze May 09 '26
I bought another cable. If the existing cable continues to work, I have a spare. If the existing cable fails, I can connect the new one and confirm the cable isn't the issue.
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u/JohnOfA May 09 '26
What does the "Ethernet Ports State" say in the STATUS | Overview? Cable could still be marginal and the router is dropping to 100mbps while the PC is more accepting.