LAN trouble -- low bandwidth

[Don_HH2K]

Recently I installed Windows NT 4.0 onto one of my older computers, and since then I've had connection speeds of nearly a hundredth of what they should be!

I'm running a 10Mbps LAN with a 3Com hub and an ICS gateway. My guess is that the problem has to do with the NT4 machine, as another machine I have can connect without any trouble somewhere around the desired speed.

On the NT4 machine I have a Xircom CreditCard IIps Ethernet PCMCIA adapter, running at full-duplex 10BaseT speed (and according to some advice from Intel's website, have specified that I'm using twisted pair cable). At this configuration I get a link speed of around 8KB/sec -- usually this number should be around 800KB/sec.

If I ping the machine, I'll get some interesting times:

Code: Select all

Reply from 192.168.0.4: bytes=32 time=243ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.4: bytes=32 time=243ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.4: bytes=32 time=242ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.4: bytes=32 time=241ms TTL=128
. . .
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 241ms, Maximum = 243ms, Average=242ms

Another machine on this same network has a result of [tt]time=<10ms[/tt].

So far I've tried updating the drivers to the card (which prevents the card from communicating at all), and switching among three different Cat5(e) cables -- all of which yield similar results. I haven't had any success switching out the PCMCIA Ethernet dongles; though they use the same interface they're apparently not universal (right now I'm using a Belkin dongle; though it's cracked in two places, I've verified it to work in another machine).

Aside from bypassing the hub and directly connecting the two computers with a crossover cable (as I don't have any), does anyone have any ideas, programs, experiences, etc... that might help here?

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[Edward]

Have you tried CAT6 cables (10/100/1000)? Those are designed for gigabit ethernet connections.

I just upgraded my older CAT5e cables to CAT6.

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[Don_HH2K]

Have you tried CAT6 cables (10/100/1000)? Those are designed for gigabit ethernet connections.

I doubt I even have any Cat6 cables. Since the network is only 10Mbps, though, I doubt it would make much of a difference. I'm using Cat5e cables with two Novell NE2000 cards (in two other machines), and both can make a reliable connection at 10Mbps -- I know that I can transfer around 15GB worth of files down this line every Sunday night without any problems.

I also tried swapping out the 3Com OfficeConnect hub for a Magnum ST80, which didn't fix the problem either.

I didn't fix the problem, nor did I ever find out what it was, but I did manage to find a 3Com EtherLink card to replace the Xircom. This one claims that it's running at 100Mbps even though the ST80 only supports 10Mbps connections (and I doubt a 16-bit card could work at 100Mbps), but I can get a good connection at the same speed as the NE2000 cards.

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[Edward]

For the first few years of my broadband 'net connection, I did not have a router, I simply relied on the software-based firewall included with Linux and the anti-virus/firewall software in Windows. I [b]never[/] received a virus under Windows. I was not worried about this in Linux.

The network interface cards I purchased were Network Everywhere (Linksys) model NC100. When the price of routers came down, I bought one and purchased a Linksys, as I wanted to ensure that the cards and the router could talk to each other. To date, there have been no problems.

Even though the connection with Comcast is 6Mb down, 384Kb up, the connections between the cards and router are 100Mb.

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[vipergg]

If its truly a hub then its 10/half and if you set the nic to 10/full then thats a speed/duplex mismach and that will make it real slow because of errors and excess collisions . Try the nic at 10 half and see what happens and or auto which will default to 10/half.

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