Speed with crossover cable?

[fisheye]

I have 2 PCs connected with a crossover cable and Internet Connection Sharing (one PC has a wireless card, other doesn't). Windows shows the connection at 100mbps, but when transferring files from one PC to another, it takes close to 6 minutes to transfer a 700mb file - that's about 2MB/s, which seems awfully slow. Suggestion? I'm using the onboard ethernet ports on both PCs - one with a nforce 3 250-based mobo, other is a biostar ideq 210v sff.

 

[PClark99]

thats probably about all you will get.

crossover cable is equivalent to a 10mbps network, assuming 10mbps is a theoretical maximum. There might be some tweaks to improve performance a little bit, but damned if I know them.

 

[fisheye]

Really? As of now, the PCs are less than 6 ft away from each other. What can I do to improve the speed between the 2? (Hopefully without costing too much $$$)

 

[spidey07]

something is not right. A crossover cable is nothing speciall and you should see full 100 Megabits/sec rates.

I would ask if this is a purchased crossover cable or something homemade?

 

[Nothinman]

You should be able to get full 100Mb/s from a crossover as long as the other hardware can keep up.

 

[Homercliez]

First, I would suggest that you try another cable to see if that is the problem. As most have already mentioned in here, you should be seeing 100 Megabits/sec rates with this type of connection.

If you are making the cable yourself, make sure that you keep the pairs twisted as far as the RJ45 will let you. Also, try setting the NIC?s speed & duplex settings to Auto. I have actually seen this help in some situations.

 

[ktwebb]

Another chime in to say you are not limited to 10 Mb by using a crossover as stated earlier. In fact, a well made and spec'd X-over would be nominally faster than going through a switch or hub as it is a straight connection from node to node. Nothing you'd be able to tell though. I would also ask the same question Homercliez asked of you. Did you make the cable yourself? If so, then yeah, that may be all you'll get out of it.

 

[BespinReactorShaft]

Side question: Is there some kind of software tool that can show whether the NIC has defaulted to 10Mbps instead of 100Mbps?

 

[Nothinman]

What windows tells you should be accurate with regards to what the NIC has negotiated. I don't think Windows tells you duplex by default though.

 

[DainBrammage]

Check the properties of each NIc htere should be a drop down where you can set the modes from full duplex . half-duplex and auto negotiate. failing that your registry could be corrupted for the NIC entries

 

[0roo0roo]

check driver properties