Painfully slow internal network file transfer

[BusyDoingNothing]

I have a few computers at home in an internal network. We have two Linksys WRT54Gs, one upstairs and one downstairs, hardwired together with a cable modem hooked up to the downstairs router. The downstairs router also has 3 PCs hardwired to it, and the upstairs has 2 PCs hardwired (mine and my media center PC).

I use Windows File Sharing to transfer files between my main PC and my media center PC, and the transfer speed is PAINFULLY slow. It caps out at a whopping 2% network utilization, with an average of 1%. It would be quicker for me to RAR the files and transfer them via floppy. 400MB is saying it will take 171 minutes. Give me a break.

I have the NIC card in my main PC and my media center PC set to "force 100Mbps" instead of autosense. I also have Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP set on both. I don't know what else to do...this is ridiculous and making it damn near impossible to transfer anything. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[BusyDoingNothing]

Nevermind. I switched it from "Force" to "AutoSense" and it works like a charm. I swear I read somewhere else that forcing would be better. Guess not.

 

[spidey07]

that's actually one of the most common problems.

people forcing their nic to 100/full thinking it will improve performance.

what it really does is completely screw up your connection and make is painfully slow.

it's always best to just leave it at autosense.

 

[nweaver]

duplex mismatch is a commen problem for "slow stuff" and it's almost always someone remembering the "old days" when autosense didn't work so well. Still get into arguments at work with old hands who want to hard set everything to 100 full. Luckily we have a couple killer L2 guys in who are fixing the problems that have built up the last few years. Interestingly enough, their first task-Tackle layer 1 with replacing all ethernet in the patch panel to premade cables of the correct lenght, snagless ends, and a color coded schema to make figuring what goes where for why easier.