this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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So is it some ports support 10, some support 100, and some support the full 1000? Or how does it work with the three different speeds?
All of the ports support all three speeds. When you first plug in, there is a quick round of negotiations where both sides basically say “Here are the speeds I can work, what about you?” Then they go with the highest that both support.
Wait so what would happen if it was only 1000? Like, can't any connection automatically support up to its limit? What's the advantage of explicitly supporting lower numbers?
Support for older/slower connections does get dropped sometimes. I’ve seen devices that are 100/1000 only, and I had a fiber->ethernet box that only supported 1G/10G one one port, and 10/100/1000 on the other.
So what happens when that occurs? Does it just stop working, or does it work at the lower speed despite the lack of official "support" for it?
If the two sides don’t have a common speed, then it just doesn’t work.
Oh damn, really? So do normal home routers have to support basically every possible speed? Because I don't think I've ever encountered or heard of someone encountering a failure due to a speed mismatch.
Basically, yes, but there are only three speeds in common use. 10/100/1000M will be enough to support for basically every consumer device out there. 2.5G is starting to become common in routers and some desktop or high end docks, and 10G is starting to show up in high end prosumer devices, but they can usually also support at least 100/1000M. There isn’t much 10M gear still out there except in very specific industrial applications. Really, if your router supports 100/1000 it will cover 99% of the devices in the wild.
Oh very interesting. Thanks for being so patient! I had no idea about this. I always just assumed that if a device said it supported 100M, that necessarily meant that if you connect a 10M device up to it, it'll automatically take the lower speed. Like a car with a max speed of 10 can go on a road with a speed limit of 100...it'll just be limited to 10. I didn't realise it had to sync up like that.