Why can't I get fast Ethernet speeds?

[blahsome]

Hi, all, I have two computers connected to a Linksys router. They have Linksys NICs as well.

However, my file transfer speed between the two is only slightly faster than 10Mbps (around 12Mbps or so). I am wondering what is preventing me from getting better speeds? (I know the speed could be faster because similarly equipped computers at my work transfer files a lot faster. They are connected to a Linksys switch.)

Below is my detailed configuration. Anybody spot any problems or have any suggestions?

Router: Linksys BEFSR41 router with a built-in 100Mbps 4-port switch
Cable: CAT-5 or 5e (at least 5, likely 5e)
Machine 1: WinXP, P3 1GHz desktop, Linksys 100TX NIC
Machine 2: WinXP, P3 600MHz notebook, Linksys PCM100 NIC
Network Protocol: IPX, Simple File Sharing
NIC Speed Config: Auto-sense (The 100M lights are on. I tried to force 100M with no speed gains anyway.)

 

[spidey07]

1st place to look is cables. Make sure they are good store bought cat5 cables, not homemade.

Second would be to take out IPX and use IP only.

Third would be to use FTP and see if you get different results.

 

[nightowl]

Another problem is your laptop NIC. It is a 16bit PC Card device and that in itself it limiting your network transfers. I have a Linksys 16bit PC Card NIC and I can only get about 20Mbit with it. To reach your full potential you really need to get a 32bit Cardbus adapter. Aside from your laptop NIC I would check your cables as Spidey said.

Edit: And how are you even on the Internet if you are only using IPX? If you are worried about your network security for transferring files disable Netbios over IP and install Netbeui. Though I prefer to only use on network protocol and thus I only use IP.

 

[dougtran]

Good point on the cables, protocol, and 16-bit PC-CARD. I would also just make a cross-over cable to remove Linksys, cough, router from the picture.

Doug

 

[blahsome]

Thanks for the suggestions!

Sorry I wasn't clearer about IPX. My File and Printer Sharing is bound to IPX, but of course the Internet stuff is handled through TCP/IP.

FTP (which uses TCP/IP I assume) between the two computers is slightly faster than file transfers through the Microsoft network, but still significantly slower than what I get at work.

I tried multiple cables, so I guess that leaves the NICs and router then. Would be better to ask somebody else with the same Linksys router what kind of speed they get for their home network...

 

[nightowl]

It is highly unlikely that the problem is with your Linksys gateway. It is a solid state device that usually either works or it doesn't. I would say that your laptop NIC is the bottleneck. There is nothing wrong with it. It is just a limitation of the hardware and interconnecting bus. I would go pick up any 32bit Cardbus NIC for your laptop. Using it should result in significant speed increases over the network as well as lower CPU usage on your laptop.

 

[EricT]

I wouldn't really trust the "link lights" as a sign that everything is OK. We just had a lot of trouble at the office with bad network performance, pc's with transfer rates as low as 10Mb (byte, not bit) per minute even though the light indicated 100Mb etc.

Basically you can't trust network autosensing for anything other than 10Mb HALF duplex. More often than not autosensing will also work at 100Mb HALF duplex and almost always it will fail at 10 or 100Mb FULL duplex (which happen to be the significantly faster modes). As soon as we fixed the 100Mb FULL duplex mode on our boxes (NT4, Win2K and XP pro) the transfer rate went up from 10Mb per minute to well over 100Mb per minute (even as high as 400Mb per minute on a dual Xeon machine running Win2K server).

If you force the setting on both machines, you should be able to copy 200Mb in about 2 minutes especially when copying from the laptop to the desktop. The other way around may be slower because the laptop hard drive may turn out to be the bottleneck there. If forcing the speed & duplex mode does not make a difference, I'd try a cross cable. When both ports are fixed and there is a difference in speed between the cross cable and the DSL router then a faulty router becomes a very likely possibility.

Eric

 

[JackMDS]

Just a typo, but never the less funny.

Quote from initial post: Machine 2: WinXP, P3 600GHz notebook, Linksys PCM100 NIC

Though you have the fastest Laptop in the world, old Laptops are notorious in slow file transfer.

Unless it is a crucial issue I would leave it alone.

 

[blahsome]

> Just a typo, but never the less funny.

What typo were you talking about?

Seriously though, I just upgraded my notebook hard drive to a 5400RPM one and experienced a dramatic difference in speed. It feels almost like a processor upgrade.

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: blahsome
> Just a typo, but never the less funny.

What typo were you talking about?

LOL!

My comment was made: "Edited: 02/28/2003 at 3:12 PM by JackMDS"

We are talking about this typo:"Edited: 02/28/2003 at 3:55 PM by blahsome"

My G-d it is a Slow Laptop. Took you from 3:12 to 3:55 to change one letter.

 

[dougtran]

NightOwl,

Yes, however the are still dependent on a "robust" firmware. I have noticed a dramatic loss in speed after heavy usage on my wireless SMC Router and Netopa DSL router. I have not seen this problem on my Wired SMC router.

Doug

 

[zephyrprime]

More often than not autosensing will also work at 100Mb HALF duplex and almost always it will fail at 10 or 100Mb FULL duplex (which happen to be the significantly faster modes)

I've never yet encountered this on any computer or any nic I've had. Perhaps it was just some weird thing with your particular setups?

And back to the main topic, I don't trust linksys nics. I used to have some that only ran at 30mbps for me. Trying various other brands yielded better results for me. The linksys nics were the worst brand of all the nics I tried. Now I run with intel nics @90mbps.

 

[StraightPipe]

I've got the same router, and 2 networks in on my main PC

the crossover is much quicker than going through the routher (sorry i dont have the speeds handy)

I've got a gigabit NIC going to the router (built on MOBO)
and SMC1411TX on Xover network

 

[StraightPipe]

the router is good for distributing bandwidth from your ISP, but a switch of Xover netork will be faster for filesharing.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

you might manually set the nics up to use full duplex, 16-bit nics are notorios for using half-duplex when autosensing.