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Gigabit LAN has problems

By Jim Phelps ·
I have a user who is connected to two LANs: a megabit LAN and a gigabit LAN. The reason for the gigabit LAN is that he transfers massive amounts of data.

However, it seems that communications are choking on the gigabit LAN. He can copy all the data he wants on the megabit LAN, but if he tries to do the same on the gigabit LAN, it takes forever, then chokes part way through.

I have replaced the NIC and also confirmed that his wiring is good.

The NIC is a D-Link DGE 550T Gigabit NIC. The PC is a Dell Precision WorkStation 420 MT. He is running Windows 2000 sp3, on a Windows 2000 network.

Is there some setting in CMOS, the mother board, or in Windows, which perhaps is set wrong?

All other similar users are using IBM Intellistations with the same NIC and Windows setup. None of them have this problem.

Any suggestions?

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by Joseph Moore In reply to Gigabit LAN has problems

I would run a sniffer on a span port on the Gigabit switch, and see what is going on, traffic wise. You can run Sniffer Pro, and get a bandwidth utilization also. That should help you with this.
www.sniffer.com

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by mshavrov In reply to Gigabit LAN has problems

I have Gigabit links on all my critical servers, but I never saw link utilization over 4-5%. I'm performing backup through LAN every night and it's peak I ever have and it gives me 5% on Gigabit. So, at physical leve you will never "over-utilize" these links.

Another thing you should consider is your NIC's internal interface. Is it PCI? So, it may be 33 Mbit. If you have PCI/64Bit, you will have biger "bandwith" available. Try to run Performance Monitor on both your computers and watch all parameters you see "logical".

Third: What network protocols do you have in your network. How your "name resolution" is configured. I've experienced a few times, when applications weren't properly configured and requested DNS server for every "database transaction". Check if you have MAC addresses cached on your machines, etc.

If you have more details and want to follow-up, just send me e-mail.

Michael Shavrov
CCNP, CCDP, CCSP, MCSE W2K, MCSE+I, Sun SCSA, Security+

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by jodaddy In reply to Gigabit LAN has problems

i have seen where having the nic and/or switch port set to auto causes conflict. try hard setting them on the switch and pc. 100mb/full, 1000mb/full

try disabling the mb card and transfering the data to see if there is a performance gain. bet there will be, however i bet if you disable the gig card and do the transfer, their won't be much difference in transfer time.

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