Strange Networking Problem - transfering files.

[phule]

I have three machines on a home network. All have Intel 10/100 NIC's hooked up to a 5 port Netgear switch.

This problem /just/ started this week. Everything had been working fine until then.

Machine 1: WinME
Machine 2: Win2K
Machine 3: Win2K
Switch: Auto-sensing Netgear 5 port. All ports indicate 100Mb.

The problem is this:
I can transfer files from Machine 2 to Machine 3 and back again with no problem. I can transfer files from Machine 1 to Machine 2 or 3 with no problems as well. However, I can not transfer files from Machine 2 or 3 to Machine 1.

I shouldn't say "cannot." Rather, I have a 12 meg file that I've been using to test transfers between the machines. When I try to transfer this file from Machine 2 or 3 to Machine 1, it takes upwards of 40 minutes to transfer the complete file. This is obviously not right. The transfer of the same file between Machine 2 and Machine 3 takes about 4 seconds I'd guess.

So what's going on? Why would transfers from Machine 1 to Machine 2 and 3 be ok (about 4 seconds to transfer a 12 meg file) but any transfer /to/ Machine 1 basicly doesn't work?

Additional info:
I forgot to add what I've done so far:
1. Swapped out the network card on machine 1.
2. Tried different ports on the switch.
3. Tried different network cable on different ports on the switch.

No change in the behavior of Machine 1 with any of those tests.

 

[bRuiner]

What Mobo is the "troubled" machine on?

Have you tried putting that Nic in a different PCI slot?
Does it transfer smaller files (lets say 500k or something) slow also?

 

[phule]

Troubled machine is an Abit BX6 (original not rev2).

I did not tried a different PCI slot. I will try that tonight.

File transfer of any size file results in the same behavior.

 

[MrChicken]

I have a similar problem with WinME. I have had Linksys PCI2 combo cards in my pc's for about three years. Under 95 they worked perfectly. After upgrading to WinME they will recieve at full speed, but will only send at 1/3 speed and use 100% of the cpu doing so. This is on 3 different pc's, each pc has a different type of MB, Intel 815, Tyan 400 VIA, Abit BH6. No combination of pci slots or I/O addresses has helped. I tried a Netgear card and it works fine. Linksys hasnt had a driver update for over a year, and I think the problem is in the driver, with the way it works with WinME.
My plan is to buy new NICs...

 

[CapNjacK]

You may be seeing some read/write permission probs mixing 2k and ME. Are you using NTFS partitions on your 2k machines?

 

[phule]

Yes, NTFS on both 2K machines.

Please note (to all) that there were no problems with this setup for about 3 months, but just this weekend I started having problems.

 

[phule]

I have tried my two other open PCI slots with no change in the behavior of Machine 1 (the one with the problem).

I'm really at a loss here. Anyone?

 

[MrChicken]

Well, there's the old "what have you changed on the pc before the problem started" bit.

Windows updates? Is updates set to automatic?
New software?

 

[rpeAMP]

Are all the cards either set to full-duplex or half-duplex? The network will be more efficient if all are set to the same mode.

 

[phule]

MrChicken:
the only change made to the machine recently was the addition of a USB scanner about 9 days ago.

rpeAmp:
The card was set to "auto" but I forced it to 100Mb/Full Duplex and that had no effect on the problem.

 

[phule]

Despite a reinstall of ME on Machine 1, I'm beginning to suspect that it's a corrupt driver (or corrupt drivers).

As an experiment, I pulled the current hard drive from Machine 1 and tossed in a blank one. I formated and installed 2K on the new HD. Result: network file transfers were fine.

So, given that I wasn't having any problems with the setup until this past weekend, I'd say that probably points to faulty drivers....something must have corrupted them (as I have done disk scans with no errors found).

 

[RanDum72]

Windows is a melting pot of drivers. I have one machine before that transfers files so slowly it takes hours. Turned out the NIC didn't like the VPN protocol installed by AOL. Removing it enabled transfers in a matter of seconds. I have another machine where installing a certain driver version of a SCSI card slows it. I reverted to older drivers and it worked fine.