Networks Serious network help needed

Setup

Laptop - Belkin 10/100 pcmcia NIC

PC - edimax 10/100 PCI NIC

NTL 128 BB connection being shared via Netgear RP114 Router/Switch (10/100)

All connected with cat5 patch cable.

The problem

The two computers can’t seem to transmit more than 1.3mbps between each other, I’ve tried all settings on the NIC's and there is still no change. I’ve also tried to connect both computers with a cat5 crossover cable and its still the same, could one of my NIC’s be broke? Is there any way to single out the defect NIC?

 

what operating systems are you running, and how are you determining your thruput? is that megabit or megabyte megabit would be mbps, megabyte would me mBps

in device manager (provided your not in NT) for your nics, are
they set for auto config? if so try setting at 100tx full duplex..



-scoob8000

 

On the PC im running windows 98 and on the laptop im running windows 98 SE.

The speed im measuring in megabytes.

I've tried all settings for each nic, right now they are both on 100/tx full duplex but there is still no change .

Any idea what TX and RX are?

Is there any way which I can ping one of the nics with a certain amout of data to see which is causing the problem?

 

TX = transmit
RX = receive
100-Tx is (one of) the standards for 100Mbit ethernet.

It's unlikely one of the NICs is borked - this sounds more like a software/settings problem to me. What are you using to measure the transfer speeds? And have you ever run any "Internet Connection Tune-up" type of programs?

If you're getting 1-1.2MBps you may well have the cards stuck at 10Mbps rather than 100Mbps

Try going back to a single crossover cable to make sure the router isn't causing the problem. Set the drivers to autonegotiate both speed and duplex and then reboot both PCs and see whether they come up at 10 or 100. You might want to see whether the manufacturer has a diagnostic program on their website.

Give this a go and let us know what happens

Cheers
Kata

 

I tried that and still no luck

I am using a program called Network LED to measure the speeds, a 500MB file takes about 10mins to transfer.

I have tested my PC NIC with its own diagnostic program and all seems ok, but i cant test the Laptop belkin NIC because they dont have a diagnostic program.

And I have not used any internet connection tune-up programs.

 

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... doh. I've just gone back and read your first post. One of the PCs is a laptop, right?

If the NIC in the laptop is PCMCIA (the old style of add-in card, not that likely) then you won't get more than about 10Mbps throughput on it, because PCMCIA is analogous to the old ISA spec. If the NIC is "PC-Card" (more likely) rather than PCMCIA it's more analogous to a PCI card than ISA.

At this point I'd go and check for an update for the PC-Card Controller drivers that Win98 uses. You can probably find them on the laptop manufacturer's website. Try installing those and see whether that makes any difference. If not, chances are that you're stuck with the ~10Mbps connection from the laptop... sorry...

Cheers
Kata

 

The Laptop NIC is a PCMCIA, but on the manufacturers site and the NIC manual it says thats its a 10/100 card so it must do 100Mbps.

Here is a link to the NIC... Belkin PCMCIA NIC

 

Possible Problems:
If all your PCs are connected to a HUB then don't even think about getting 10/100 Full Duplex because a hub only supports half duplex. Since hubs use CSMA/CD (carrier sense multi access / collision detection) you cannot run Full Duplex *only 1 device on a hub can transmit at a time. So, if you have Full duplex enabled on a hub, that’s not going to work.
Also, make sure if you wired your patch cables yourself that you used the standard color coding: White Green, Green, White Orange, Blue, White Blue, Orange, White Brown, Brown.

Also, set your nics to auto sense.

Good luck.

 

Lets just forget about the Router/Hub for now, i'd be happy enough to get 100mbps with the crossover cable.

The crossover cable is pre-made by belkin, its a yellow cable.

both NIC's on auto sence - Still no difference

Any more ideas?

 

Try to connect both your PCs to another machine or device and see if you are still getting that kind of speed.
Now, what are you using to mesaure the speed you are getting from computer to computer...

 

Sorry, my last post was badly written. Note to self: Do not write technical responses after bed time

From the bottom of the webpage you quoted: The Belkin card is a 16bit PCMCIA card.

There are two types of laptop cards: PC-Card (also known as cardbus) and PCMCIA. PC-Card is a 32bit/33MHz spec, and is equivalent to PCI in a desktop. PCMCIA is a 16bit/10MHz spec and is equivalent to ISA.

The problem is that although the Belkin card can negotiate a 100Mbps FD connection, but it can't get the data from the laptop fast enough, because the PCMCIA bus is the bottleneck. This is the same reason that you don't see 100Mbps ISA cards: the bus speed simply isn't up to the task.

Sorry dude, but it looks like a new PC-Card/cardbus NIC for the laptop is about the only way forward...

Cheers
kata

 

I aint made of money

The NIC is less than 2 months old from Ebuyer.co.uk, is there any chance of getting a refund for selling me a product that doesn't do what its suppose to?

 

I'm probably not the best person to answer that, cos I live in New Zealand and I haven't the faintest idea what the law says in England about this kind of stuff. The only advice I can give is to mail them (nicely!) and let them know that you believe you were mislead and would like to upgrade the product to a similar PC-card based NIC. See what they say.

Cheers
kata

 

firstly, not only hubs utilize CSMA/CD, but as all true 802.3 ethernet networks.. which is what were dealing with here..


anyway, after reading all this, i would say your network is running at 10mbit, in which case i would look towards your pcmica card. have anyone you could borrow one from to test? also what is the condition of the cable you are using, and how long is it?

also i forgot to ask in my first post, what processors do theese systems have?

-scoob8000

 

Unfortunately I don’t know anyone else with a PCMCIA NIC

My Cat5 Patch cable is about 10m from the PC to the hub and 2m from the laptop to the hub, its brand new from tekheads.

The Crossover cable is also brand new and is only 2m.

The laptop CPU is.. AMD K6-2 500Mhz
The PC CPU is.. AMD K6-2 533Mhz

 

Ahh i totally missed the part where you had a hub in there, more correctly, a Router with a built in switch.

to answer your previous question, TX/RX is Transmit/Recieve..


Its safe to assume you get the same speed going thru the Router as you do with the crossover cable? at least that eliminates the Router from the equation..

I assume you are also using windows file and print sharing for this setup, are you using strictly TCP/IP in your protocol configuration?

-scoob8000

 

yeah, its the same speed without the router.

I am using windows file and print sharing, whats this strictly TCP/IP config? sorry for being such a noob

 

Scoob - no offense man but either you've missed a fair chunk of the conversation, or you're ignoring my comments completely. Which is it?

Boss - By "strictly TCP/IP" Scoob's asking what networking protocols you have installed. Go to the properties for your network connection, and it will have them all listed. It'll look something like:

Client for Microsoft Networks
TCP/IP
NetBEUI
IPX/SPX
File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks

You'll almost certainly have the Client and File and Printer sharing installed. You will have one or more of TCP/IP, NetBEUI and IPX/SPX installed, and perhaps others too. Tell us what protocols are listed there

Cheers
Kata

 

Fast Infrared Protocol -> Infrared PnP Serial Port
TCP/IP -> Belkin F5D5020 PCMCIA Card/Nootbook Network Card
TCP/IP -> Dial-up Adapter
TCP/IP -> Motorola SurfBoard 4100 USB Cable Modem

Thats all I got

 

I always thought it was white-orange, orange, white-green, blue, white-blue, green, white-brown, brown...

maybe it's a different spec.