Inconsistant Network

[Fides]

I'm running a network with a Netgear RT314 router and i have a problem with the transfer rate from one com to the other.
I look at the data transfer rate with ctrl-alt-del in the task mamager. The networking graph only shows the networks running at 1% half the time! on rare occasions it bumps up to 50 or even 80%... But I really dont know what happening.
If anyone could help me i'd appreciate alot, im not exactly a Guru but i think id be able to get it working with some help.

SYSTEM 1:
Amd T-bird 1.0Ghz
Asus a7v 133 mobo
512 ram pc133
SMC Ez Card PCI 10
30 Gb Wester digital 7200 rpm w/ ata 100
GeForce 2 Gts
Sb live! value

SYSTEM 2:
Amd Duron 1.2Ghz
Asus a7v 133
256 ram pc133
Winbond W89C940 Pci ethernet adaptor
60 Gb western digital (7200 rpm)
Sb Live! value

i just got new network cables installed.. so i dont think that would be the problem.

 

[Nirvana1979]

The network graph is merely displaying how much data is being transfered over your network medium as a percentage of your total bandwith capability(or the capability of your actual cable).

I for example have a cat5 cable for my broadband internet, so the networking software reads my bandwith as 100Mbps. But because you can't actually send data this fast over the internet, you're always going to be using a very small % of the network resource on that graph. So don't worry, it's not a rating of performance, it's just usage/capability.