Need some networking advice -X'overs

[cAaHobgoblin]

Hi,

Maybe the Guru's can help me here

Im currently networking two win 98 SE Pc's using a pair of 10/100 Mbit NIC's and a CAT5 crossover cable that someone made up for me. Only it seems to be slower than I had expected, with file transfers of around 3meg per second. Ive set the two network cards to 100 mbit mode in their properties and also messed around with turning full duplex on and off, the speed remained the same at around 3Meg/sec.

The crossover cable goes past lots of other cables (including power leads) and through a wall could this be the problem? or are crossovers just damn slow.

Ive also noticed that the CAT 5 cable that goes to my cable modem, is much thicker, possibly due to shielding? Could it be that my crossover is unshielded and suffering from lots of interference.

Do I need to go for some kind of 100mbit hub?, bearing in mind I only have two pc's and not likely to get any more.

Any help or advice on what I should do is appreciated in advance

Many Thanks
Adam

 

[spidey07]

If your saying your file transfers run at 3 megabytes per second then that is appropriate. Check your network card control panel or whatever applet for errors. CRCs, runts, FCS or any other errors indicate a cable/nic problem. however I doubt you have any.

ps - 3 megabytes per second is about 28 megabits per second counting overhead. Hard drive speed, memory, disk cache, controller, pci bus - all of these contribute to the "speed" of file transfers. not to mention processor and NIC. Belive me...all NICs are not created equal. you get what you pay for.

looks like your running fine. Our favorite saying around here "WAD - Working As Designed".
Typical whining user - "But the internet is slow"
"What sites are you accessing from the company's internet connection?"
whining user - "E-bay and www.hotdates.com"
"WAD"

cheers,
spidey.

ps - I have severe QoS limits on the popular "has nothing to do with business" sites. Of course it is slow. forums.anandtech.com has top priority though. Man i love my job.

 

[puritan]

Spidey is exacly right. Try setting your cards at 10 full and see if you see a difference. I guarantee that you will. You are more than likely hitting some other physical limitation. Be it bus speed, processor, etc.

Also, there is no difference betweek thinner and thicker cables unless they are shielded or un shielded. Shielded cables have metallic foil or braided wire in them to block emi. (electro magnetic interference) Some cables have shielding made of different materials. That's all.

Enjoy!

 

[cAaHobgoblin]

Ta for the replys, ill mess around with the settings today