A warehouse access point shows clean client SNR, and its switch port negotiated 100 Mbps on a cable that should run at gigabit. Clients are slow only when they move real traffic. What is the limit?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
You can see clean radio conditions, but the Ethernet connection has fallen back to 100 Mbps. That link is the bottleneck, not the noise floor. A VLAN number is not a speed, and changing beacon timing will not renegotiate the cable.
Full Explanation
An access point whose Ethernet link negotiates 100 Mbps instead of the gigabit the port and cable should deliver can have clean RF and still crawl when clients move traffic. The limit is the 100 Mbps Ethernet link, possibly because of a bad cable, a damaged pair, or a port locked at 100 Mbps. The noise-floor explanation does not fit: a 100 Mbps negotiation does not mean the channel is too noisy, and the clean SNR points to healthy radio conditions. The guest VLAN explanation also fails because a VLAN number is not a speed; a slow link does not mean its number is above 100. The beacon-interval explanation is incorrect because beacons are small, and spacing them differently neither fills or empties a 100 Mbps port nor makes the link renegotiate at gigabit. Clean radio readings do not measure the Ethernet link; the wire is the narrow part during transfers. Exam caveat: forcing the switch to 1000 full when the cable cannot support it can drop the link. Practical check: read the negotiated speed, then connect the access point to a known-good cable and port; confirm it comes up at gigabit and that a client transfer improves.