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Roomate's internet connection SLOWER when directly connected to Cable Modem

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obeseotron

Golden Member
Normally I have a cable modem running into my PC, Windows ICS shares the connection and my 2nd NIC is connected to a hub running to the other computers in the apartment. My PC is currently not working, so I plugged the cable modem straight into his Mac. Web browsing slowed down to something similar to dialup. His computer is a Mac G4/800, no speed demon, but it's got a gig of RAM and really should be plenty fast for web browsing. Any idea why it would go slower when plugged in directly rather than going over NAT?
 
No reason at all. Check settings, may not be configured correctly - being a non Mac user can't offer specific suggestions.
 
The only thing I can think of is that your cable modem is picky about the MTU -- Maximum Transmission Unit. If it has an MTU of 1492 (common) and somehow Windows is trying to use an MTU of 1500 then there will be packet loss, albeit slight. I have heard of some cable services having MTUs as low as ~900, but how your router would be able to pick that up automatically is beyond me.

Or it could just be some fluke.
 
does he have a temp internet file/folder? how long has it been since he has cleared that?

that would be the first thing i would check. have him delete his cache as well if he has one.
 
I think you might need to post this somewhere that deals primarily with Mac's. I know all the guys above me have good intentions, and are probably way more capable at assisting you than myself. Ecept they failed to read where you said it is a MAC.
MAC MAC MAC (For emphasis)
So no, it isn't Windows setting a default MTU value, and it won't be an Nvidia Nforce NIC either. To me though, it does sound like the guys are on the write path. The cable modem you are using to plug into your windows based machine may not be 100% compatible with the Mac computer. So it may be a hardware comatibility issue. Or it may be software, and something that isn't configured properly inside the Mac, which I have no experience with at all.

I wish I knew what part of the forums would be more appropriate to pose this quetion. Here may even be the best bet, since it is a networking issue. Good luck.


I
 
Okay, being a Mac (sorry, skipped over that, ADD and all) I have a few theories.

1) Still could be the MTU problem. I'm not sure what OS X's default MTU setting is for broadband connections, but if it's too high or way too low then you'll run into problems.
2) If the cable modem requires a login and password -- PPPoE or PPTP -- the flaw may be in OS X's implementation of PPPoE or PPTP. PPPoE is, at best, a hacky mish-mash of dialup (PPP) security and ethernet protocol; XP didn't even properly support it at first, and now it's somewhat glitchy at times. I wouldn't be surprised if OS X has issues with it still. If it's PPTP... well, that's even more bizarre. Standardized, but unusual for broadband. That could also be the issue.
 
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