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Optimizing NIC performance

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by ð 1 view

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Anyone know how to tweak the system to utilize 100% or at least 90% of the NICs banwidth? I have a dual xeon 2.4 GHZ processor with intel gigabit nic running windows 2000 server and a 3com 3c90x on a P4 2.0GHZ running windows XP. They both wired to a linksys wireless G Cable/DSL router. It took about a day & half to transfer about 35GB of data. More like 17 hours. I've try the tweaks from speedguide.net but no help. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

11 replies

by gralfus

The router is being used as a switch in this case.
It supports a maximum of 100Mbps as a switch.

What does the transfer speed show on each PC while the transfer is taking place?
Are the NICs set to full duplex?
Are the NICs both set to 100Mbps?
Are the CAT5 cables in good condition?
Is anything using the CPU while the transfer is taking place (use Task Manager to view processes)?
Are both PCs getting their IP address from the router as DHCP?
Any problem pinging one PC from the other?
Can each see the other in My Network Places?

by gralfus

For speed status, I go into the network settings, right-click the connection, and then select Status.
It is curious that the speed seems to jump between 100 and 1000. Is the NIC configuration set to autosense or set to 100? If it is autosense it may misinterpret the speed and slow things down while it figures it out.

by gralfus

When you said you connected to a Cisco switch, did you mean instead of the Linksys? That's a good thing to do to test if the the bottleneck is the Linksys. The router portion is only needed for access to the Internet (or another subnet).

Other than that, it sounds like you have it set up correctly.

by gralfus

The only other thing is that when not using the router, the XP box won't get an IP address, so you will need to make sure that the XP box gets an IP in the same subnet as the server (along with subnet mask, etc.)
And when it is connected to the router and getting a DHCP provided IP, make sure it has an IP in the same subnet as the server.

by ð

How can I get a better reading of transfer speed? The status of the packets jumps back and forth from 100s to 1000s. Check the network on the XP PC in task manager, the network utilization is at 2% for about 5-7 secs and jumps to about 5%,18%,etc. Max I've seen was 26%.

All NICs(Both PC) are set on 100/Full Duplex.

Not sure how to check the CAT5 cables they're probably about a year old.

CPU usage is normal. Is not straining at a constant 100% if that's what you want to know.

The server uses a static IP. The XP gets DHCP from the router.

The pinging/tracert between each PC is fine.

I can view the server on the XP machine. I Can not view the XP machine on the Server.

by ð

The NICs are set/force too 100/full duplex mode.

I've connected to a Cisco 2900 switch and it's at a respectible speed.

My conclusion is the Linksy wireless G Cable/DSL router. How can I tweak this damn thing. Its got the latest firmware. Helppppppppp!!!

by ð

also, I've try downloading W2k SP4 network install from microsoft download website at a good speed which start off at 1.57 MB per sec than drops or stays at consistant around 1.0 MB per sec. My ISP is OptOnline.

by ð

Any tips on getting rid of the bottle necking on the router?

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