he might be referencing a fast ethernet switch. some ethernet switches (the more recent ones) are faster (eg capable of operating at up to 100Mb/s) than others (eg at 10 Mb/s). at least that would be my guess.
This sounds like it’s actually rather old. “Fast Ethernet” was a common name for 100mbit Ethernet - 100baseT, one step up from the original 10mbit 10baseT, and one step down from the now standard 1000baseT “Gigabit Ethernet” that runs at 1gbit.
Correct. Mine, IIRC, is supposed to be able to do 2 GB/s.