Network Transfer Slow....

[Ed Hall]

I am having an issue with network transfer speed. Copying 12MB taking 7
minutes on 3 computers, and taking under 20 seconds on 4 others. Trying to
figure out why three are slow even though all settings the same.

There may be some intermittent nature to the transfer speed, although seems
absolutely consistent over the last half day, with various restarts, etc.

Some key environment stuff:
Win XP SP3 (same issue whether from another XP PC or SBS2003).
McAfee 8.5.0 antivirus.
All are HP / Compaq desktops of various models.
HP network switches, 100Mbps network cards.
Workgroup (no domain).
No related errors in event log.
No hardware errors.
Yes, I have restarted my computer(s).
Yes, repaired network connection using repair option in the connection.
DHCP, auto everything (other PC's on network behaving great).
Have played with other settings (WINS, TCPWindowSize, etc) to nil effect.

 

[smlunatick]

I am having an issue with network transfer speed. Copying 12MB taking 7
minutes on 3 computers, and taking under 20 seconds on 4 others. Trying to
figure out why three are slow even though all settings the same.

There may be some intermittent nature to the transfer speed, although seems
absolutely consistent over the last half day, with various restarts, etc.

Some key environment stuff:
Win XP SP3 (same issue whether from another XP PC or SBS2003).
McAfee 8.5.0 antivirus.
All are HP / Compaq desktops of various models.
HP network switches, 100Mbps network cards.
Workgroup (no domain).
No related errors in event log.
No hardware errors.
Yes, I have restarted my computer(s).
Yes, repaired network connection using repair option in the connection.
DHCP, auto everything (other PC's on network behaving great).
Have played with other settings (WINS, TCPWindowSize, etc) to nil effect.

Network speeds can be affected by the quality of the network cables.
Also, depending on the "age" of the network switch, the connected
Rj-45 ports electronics can be slowly failing.

 

[jlm]

Make sure the Speed/Duplex is set to the highest setting on the computers
that are not transferring at the proper speed.

 

[Ed Hall]

Thank you for those who responded. Just so other readers can benefit from my
learning.

The issue turned out to be that the speed / duplex had been manually set on
the NICs of the computers that were playing up (set to 100Mbps/full duplex).
Our Network switch was set to autonegotiate (necessary in case somebody
connects a older 10Mbps NIC). It turns out that by manually setting the NIC
speed that the switch does not automatically autonegiate to this speed, but
instead autonegiate fails. On failing autonegotiation, the switch falls back
to 'Half Duplex' by default and not the full duplex set on the NIC, and you
end up with a duplexing mismatch. Setting the NICs back to Auto enabled them
to autonegotiate correctly to 100Mbps/Full Duplex, and life on the network
came good again.

Regards,
Ed.

 

[James Egan]

The issue turned out to be that the speed / duplex had been manually set on
the NICs of the computers that were playing up (set to 100Mbps/full duplex).
Our Network switch was set to autonegotiate (necessary in case somebody
connects a older 10Mbps NIC). It turns out that by manually setting the NIC
speed that the switch does not automatically autonegiate to this speed, but
instead autonegiate fails. On failing autonegotiation, the switch falls back
to 'Half Duplex' by default and not the full duplex set on the NIC, and you
end up with a duplexing mismatch. Setting the NICs back to Auto enabled them
to autonegotiate correctly to 100Mbps/Full Duplex, and life on the network
came good again.

That's interesting feedback, thanks.


Jim.

 

[jlm]

Great! Glad that helped!

Thank you for those who responded. Just so other readers can benefit from my
learning.

The issue turned out to be that the speed / duplex had been manually set on
the NICs of the computers that were playing up (set to 100Mbps/full duplex).
Our Network switch was set to autonegotiate (necessary in case somebody
connects a older 10Mbps NIC). It turns out that by manually setting the NIC
speed that the switch does not automatically autonegiate to this speed, but
instead autonegiate fails. On failing autonegotiation, the switch falls back
to 'Half Duplex' by default and not the full duplex set on the NIC, and you
end up with a duplexing mismatch. Setting the NICs back to Auto enabled them
to autonegotiate correctly to 100Mbps/Full Duplex, and life on the network
came good again.

Regards,
Ed.