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LAN speed seems slow

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by rfmargheim

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We have a small LAN (peer-to-peer). PC's have 10/100 NIC's, all connected to a 3Com SuperStack II Baseline Hub (model #3C16441) 10/100, which is then connected to the Internet via DSL. Why, then, does our LAN throughput always show a speed of 10Mbps? I've checked a few of the PC's NIC configurations and see that they are either set at hardware default or auto select. Cabling and devices are all Cat5. I was just hired recently and given the task of figuring this out. Help!

9 replies

by oz_media

Set all your cards to 100MBps throughput and see if it speeds up. This will let you know if it is a card config issue at least.

by rfmargheim

Already tried that, some NIC's would disconnect when advanced setting was changed to 100Mbps, but all could be changed to "auto select".

by rfmargheim

DUH! Boy do I feel stupid. If only I'd read the networking manual instead of just looking at the pretty pictures. But, how does this affect the LAN? I thought the DSL was for external Networking only.

by joseph moore

Also, hubs usually only run at 10 mbps. So, if your PCs all have their network cards configured for "auto sense" or "auto detect" then they will pick up the 10 mbps from the hub and use that.

Get a 10/100 switch instead. Hard-code the switch ports to be 100 mbps full. Then, just to make sure, hard-code the NICs on the PCs to be 100 full.

by rfmargheim

Most hub's, probably, but this is a 10/100 autosensing hub. I am purchasing a 10/100 switch though for one department that needs the higher throughput. I think my problem is that the ADSL modem only operates at (theoretically) 10Mbps, thanks to mbobea@wcmcc.org (see Answer 2).

by alpha-male

Unless I'm missing something....

If you hook a 10Mbps device up to a 10/100 HUB all devices on that HUB will work at 10Mbps. You need a Switch to get your devices working at optimum speed. The switch you're buying should resolve the issue...

Good luck!

by rfmargheim

Thanks, that was the answer I was looking for. And again, DUHHH!! Of course, I knew that. The pressure to perform on my very first IT job must have caused me to panic & forget all my training.

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