Ethernet vs. USB vs. FireWire

[antsct]

I have been wirelessly networking with my laptop and cousin's laptop for a while now however the speed is very slow - 11Mbps. Now we would like to connect them together with a cable. We network our laptops to share files and play games.

Both our laptops have a 4 pin FireWire connection. We aslo have an Ethernet port and USB 2.0 ports.

What would be the best choice out of Ethernet, USB ofr Firewire?

I've heard of, FireWire 1394a (400Mbps), Firewire 1394b (800Mbps), USB 2.0 Hi-Speed (480Mbps - apparently this is rare speed to achieve?) and Fast Ethernet (100Mbps).

So woulds the best/fastest to use?

Thanks.

 

[HutchinsonJC]

Ethernet would be fastest assuming you had 10/100/1000 Ethernet connections on both machines. Seems you are limited to 10/100.

USB 2.0 has a higher overhead in comunicating data. The theoretical bandwidth on USB 2.0 is not likely to be reached because of this overhead.

Firewire 400 for use in general external Hard Drives will out perform USB2.0. It's also easier on resources, leaving more number crunching power to do other things than USB2.0.

Firewire is probably your best option for file transfer. It's pretty hassle free and as simple as plug in and go.

For gaming, I'd think Ethernet (cross-over cable) would be the best option, though I could be wrong. I'm not real sure how Gaming would respond over either FireWire or USB peer to peer connections. I don't know if it's a real option in most games. I've never tried though, so again... I could be wrong.

 

[antsct]

Thanks a lot for that.

Is there any way I can test if I have 10/100/1000 (Gigabit Ethernet) ?

Also with gaming, I dont think it matters if FireWire or Ethernet. When networking with the two, both use TCP/IP.

 

[HutchinsonJC]

Device Manager might help.

In XP:
Right Click My Computer >> Properties >> Hardware >> Device Manager

Find Ethernet/Network Adapters. You should see something that would reflect information on your Ethernet card. If the information isn't listed in plain text about 10/100/1000, you might find better luck in a google search for the card listed.

 

[antsct]

Thanks again.

I've checked and it seems that my network adapter, the Realtek RTL8139, is 10/100. Not 10/100/1000. So I guess my best bet is FireWire as this would be faster than 10/100? Also, the FireWire ports on the laptop are 4 pin, does this mean they are 1349a and not 1349b?

 

[HutchinsonJC]

Pin count is specific to power. As in a 6 pin has a +/- pair that enables the use of some smaller external drives to operate without the use of a completely seperate power adapter for that drive.

I should mention that some 6 pin ports within laptops don't necessarily support the power option. The port in some cases is only '6 pin' for the simplicity of using the larger sized, and more widely used (or at least this was the case a few years back), firewire connection. I have such a laptop with 6 pin that doesn't make any use of what was supposed to be the +/- pair.

From sounds of it, Firewire in your case would be 4x faster than ethernet. Likely it won't really matter for gaming, as I don't see a single pair of computers saturating a 10/100 connection talking between eachother in a game. Most games that offer multi PC play work under the limitations of the 1 to 1.5Mb/s connections offered by your average ISP... with the largest set back being latency.. not so much the connection speed itself. But, for file transfer, and depending on your hard drive/s, Firewire should prove quite faster for file transfer.

Always keep in mind bottlenecks. A single 7200RPM drive will not be able to transfer data to a 4200RPM drive at it's full speed because the 4200RPM drive will be a limitation... even with the fastest of connections between the two. That said, if it's a matter of a new purchase for what you're wanting to work, this might be something to consider.

As for which Firewire connection your laptop has... I'd venture a guess that it's an alpha and not a bravo, but I could not be certain. The guess is based on the fact that it's a laptop that doesn't support 10/100/1000 and from nothing more really. Either way, it'd be possible that if you did have a bravo, that you could be limited by your cousins potential alpha.

 

[JackMDS]

Firewire is not a real Network and it is very limitted in its network scope.

10/100 is more than adequate for gaming and regular file transfer. 98% of the Local Networks run at 10/100Mb/sec.

Networking is Not following the rational that is employed in CPU, Video, and PSU "Pushing".

 

[antsct]

Great explaination there. Thanks.

I'm yet to see a 4 pin 1394b however, and I checked the manual of my laptop's series (not the exact model) and it did say 1394a. So overall, a 10/100/1000 would not achieve 1 gigabit because the NIC does not support 10/100/1000, and I pressume there's no chance in using a 1394b cable because the laptops dont support it. Is there some sort of way to test if the FireWire is infact, 400Mbit or 800Mbit.

EDIT: JackMDS, what do you mean by "limited in its network scope."?

 

[JackMDS]

Th only thing you can do id connect two computers with a cable up to 15'

There is No Modems, Switches, Routers, Wireless etc, for Firewire.

Using Firewire for Networking is like having a outhouse with a hose instead of a Bath room.:shocked:

 

[p0lar]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
Using Firewire for Networking is like having a outhouse with a hose instead of a Bath room.:shocked:

TRUTH!!! :thumbsup:

 

[antsct]

I understand what you mean

Ok here's a question, we both have ATA100 drives. Does this mean that we cannot transfer data through Ethernet, FireWire or USB at greater than 100Mbit speeds?

EDIT: Or is ATA measured in megabytes?

 

[HutchinsonJC]

ATA100 = Edit:UDMA5 = ~100MB/s
any form of ATA will likely never exceed 80MB/s sustained according to wiki

Your 10/100 Ethernet card = 100Mb/s

You will likely get similar performance using either your ethernet connection or firewire connection during file transfers assuming 4200RPM drives that may not fully utilize the ATA100's connection, though I'd give firewire the edge since it has a lot more play room in the event that more data needs to be transferred outside of the the data you actually intend to transfer. example: accessing potentially multiple HDDs at one time on either machine.

XPSP2 defaulted FireWire to 100Mb/s if I remember correctly. No idea if that was fixed later or since then been changed... I think it applied to both alpha and bravo. Wiki search of FireWire seems to confirm. Orangeware's website seems to only mention bravo. Either way, if you go with FireWire this may be something you'll want to research more... there was a fix.

Personally, I'd just use some regular Cat5 from one laptop to another. Doesn't seem like you'll tap into Firewire's potential very much if at all.

 

[antsct]

Ok thanks for the help mate.

And by ATA100 = 100Mb/s , do you mean 100MB as in megabytes?

 

[HutchinsonJC]

fixed | sorry

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: antsct
Ok thanks for the help mate.

And by ATA100 = 100Mb/s , do you mean 100MB as in megabytes?

ATA100 = theoretical maximum speed of 100MB/s - however, your 4200rpm laptop drive will never see that kind of speed. Hell, I don't even think any single IDE desktop drive exists that can saturate that line.

If you're just playing games and shuttling small amounts (~1GB or so at a time) of data around, go with good old fashioned 10/100 ethernet. That is what it was designed for.

- M4H

 

[antsct]

Thanks for the help guys. Much appreciated. I guess i'll try out FireWire for the sake of it. It's only a few dollars for a 4 pin to 4 pin cable.