Slow Network?

[kaorisdad]

My file transfer rate over my network is extremely slow between my two PC's. Roughly the speed of a 56K modem. I have two PC's - one with WinXP Pro, the other with Win98, a Linksys hub/router and Cat 5e cabling. Internet access and speeds are fine for both PC's. Print sharing seems to be fine too. It only is file transfers.

Can anybody shed any light on why my network file transfer speed is so slow?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jihiggs]

is one 100 speed and the other 10 speed? has it always been slow or did it recently start?

how do you shoot the devil in the back? what happens if you miss? -verbal

 

[kaorisdad]

I should say, this is a new installation. The settings are whatever the default settings are for the NIC's. But I'd be happy if I had 10MB/sec transfer rate.

 

[camieabz]

Perhaps a duplex issue?


<b><font color=blue>~ What do you mean "It isn't working!"...Now where's my sonic screwdriver? ~ </font color=blue></b>

 

[jihiggs]

well, find out what the nics can run at, if they can both run at 100/full duplex, configure them to that instead of auto. if one or both can only do 10/half, set them both to 10/half. you get the idea right? we had a similar problem but on a much larger scale in one of the offices i support. it seems 3 com nics dont negotiate too well with cisco switches.

how do you shoot the devil in the back? what happens if you miss? -verbal

 

[kaorisdad]

Thanks for the advice. Being new to networking, where do I check and change these settings for Win 98 and Win XP?

 

[Stain]

You can set them in Control Panel->System->Device Manager->Networking Adapters, Double-click the network adapter and under the Advanced tab.

 

[kaorisdad]

Thanks for the post. I think I looked there in Win 98, but saw nothing about duplex, half-duplex or 10/100 settings. However, I was able to change my settings on my WinXP PC and tried 10 half and full duplex, but it made no difference. It's taking over 5 minutes to transfer a 11 MB file. That's only 37K! It turns out that the NIC in my old PC is an older Kingston KNE 20T ISA card, but should be ok for 10 full duplex.

I'll try a different NIC in my older PC, but it shouldn't matter. As I mentioned earlier, I'd be happy with a file transfer rate of 10 +/-.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by kaorisdad on 07/25/02 10:26 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[camieabz]

You've tried different cables, NICs etc?

Try uninstalling and reinstalling your NIC software and your TCP/IP protocols.

That done, you can count them out of things.

Do you have any other software which might be interfering with the transfer? Protocols or firewalls etc?

<b><font color=blue>~ What do you mean "It isn't working!"...Now where's my sonic screwdriver? ~ </font color=blue></b>

 

[kaorisdad]

Thanks for the response. I have not tried different cables, however, my internet connections on both PC's are fine. I see transfer rates of about 240K on downloading files on both PCs. I would think that this would at least rule out the cables (and probably the NICs). It is only on file transfers between PCs.

I'll give reinstalling NIC software and the TCP/IP protocols a try.

I don't believe that any software is interferring. I'll try clearing everything out of the taskbar next time and check. I know that WinXP Pro has a built-in firewall, but I walked through their installation wizard when setting up the network. Other than that, there is a firewall in the hub/router. But that firewall is on the WAN, not the LAN.

This should not be this difficult. What a pain.

 

[camieabz]

You're not getting internet speed probs because the speed is a lot lower than the 100Mbps you should get between the PCs.

Tried hooking either of the PCs to another NIC enabled PC?

<b><font color=blue>~ What do you mean "It isn't working!"...Now where's my sonic screwdriver? ~ </font color=blue></b>

 

[kaorisdad]

I guess my point was that I can get at least 240K from the internet, and if I got 240K on file transfers, I could even live with that. But I'm getting 37K on file transfers.

I'll try connecting each PC via a short cable at the hub/router location and then I can systematically rule out cable runs. I hope it's not cable problems, because they are buried in my walls.

 

[Guest]

In win98 go to control panel->network-> in the field scroll down to the description of your network card with the _green_ icon and click it once-> click properties below-> click the advanced tab. Now you should see something similar to what you did in XP. you can make your changes in here, don't forget to reboot.

One thing to keep in mind is deffinitely set all the the NIC's on the same subnet with the same rate and duplexing. This is very important as mismatches will cause slowdowns like you are seeing.

good luck.

 

[kaorisdad]

Well, I tried the following:
Replaced NIC to an Intel Pro100+ and cable in Win98 PC
Set Speed and Duplex to same in both PCs
Ran network diagnostic on WinXP PC and it says I'm OK for 100
Re-ran the XP network Wizard.

Success! My network file transfer speed is fine now! I'm not sure what I did previously - I think I may have described my network incorrectly the first time I ran the Wizard. It is fine, but I did have to disable the XP firewall. I guess this is ok since I have a firewall at my hub to the WAN.
Thanks all for your help.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by kaorisdad on 08/04/02 11:12 AM.</EM></FONT></P>