Slow LAN throughput

[d0ofy]

I have 2 computers sharing a cable modem line using a 4-port Linksys router and 2 Linksys NICs. Everything is working fine, except transferring files between computers seems slow. Both computers are linked at 100Mbs, but when I move a file from one computer to the other in Windows Explorer, NetStat Live tells me it's moving at about 18Mbs. That's 80Mbs left unused.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[spidey07]

What operating systems are you using?

but, that's pretty normal for windows file sharing.

 

[d0ofy]

One computer has Windows 2000 SP2 and the other has Windows NT 4.0 Workstation SP6a. Both are networking OS's so shouldn't things be more streamlined? I would expect this from Win98, but NT?

 

[spidey07]

well, file sharing in windows just isn't that fast. Are your NICs set to autonegotiate speed/duplex?

and finally, you are limited by hard drive performance more than anything else.

 

[Nightfall]

Are the cables high quality CAT5e?

I don't know what the performance is of the Linksys cards myself. I have 3com nics in my systems and I can transfer a 700 meg file from one machine to the other in under 3 minutes. Hard drive speed could be another factor, but I would look at the cabling first.

 

[bitterjoe]

For what it's worth: Moving files between my WinNT4 server and Win98SE workstation via 10/100Mbps NIC's, Cat5 cable and Netgear FS105 fast ethernet switch I max out at about 21.6Mbps.