network speed problem

I had my home network with 3 computers all with xp pro, and the network was working fine, but now one of the computers wich is working as a server, has windows 2000 advance server, and the network only works at 10 Mbps, and the network devices r all 10/100 Mbps. Before i installed windows 2000 it was working at 100 and now is only working at 10, why is that and what can i do to fix this...

thanks in advance for your help...

 

Are any of your network cards using Auto for the speed setting or do you have them all set at a certain speed/duplex combination?

And when you say it only works at 10Mbps, does that mean that any faster and things won't work?

What device is connecting the PCs?

 

The network cards r set to Auto, if i try to set it to 100 full or 100 half it doesn't work.

All cards r "Realtek RTL8139(A) PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter ".

The network cards r connect to a HUB from Surecom.

But like i said it was only when i installed windows 2000 advance server that the network became slow, i had the same devices before and it worked alright. 2 computer r still the same (hardware and configuration) and one computer has change to windows 2000 advance server.

When i first installed Win2000 AS my internet connection (cable) from time to time it went down, but after a installed the latest service pack, it fixed that problem, but the network continues slow (10 mbps).

Note : my hub supports 5 pc's, and as a switch to Normal or cascade ( but i'm not shure what it means), right now is set to normal like it was before.

 

How do you know they are running at 10.

Do the lights on the NIC indicate it by the light or are you relying on the indicator in the system tray.

If you are looking at the icon in the tray, get properties and make sure it is not the internet connection that you are looking at.

You mentiond a hub but not a router?

If there are 2 NIC's in this computer the one connected to the DSL/Cable modem will show 10 anyway.

In control panel connections, on the LAN connection properties put a check in "Show icon... etc.

Now you will have 2 connection icons in the tray. One for LAN one for WAN.

Mike

 

That hub will only do 10Mbps Half Duplex. Most hubs will only run that speed in fact. You will improve your situation slightly by setting all the NIC cards at 10Mbps Half Duplex. For faster speeds you'd need a switch. But that would allow you to run well over 10 times faster on the network.

If it was running faster before then the 10Mbps half duplex seemed fast enough to you and there has to be a reason for slowing down now. If locking the cards to the speed of the hub doesn't help then give more specifics. Always slow or only when doing certain things?

And as a quick check, assuming your PCs are named 2K, XP1, XP2 then try pinging from XP1 to 2K and from XP1 to XP2 and see if the response times are pretty similar. Also, on 2K, a quick check for NIC problems by doing the following. You should see the same values each time and absolutely no time-outs or other issues

ping -t 127.0.0.1 and let it run for 2 or 3 hundred reps. Ctrl-C will stop it.

 

****, your right Newt, i did a check on my hub and it only works at 10mbps, now i feel stupid, i had this hub for a long time, i didn't buy it so i never checked.

I did the check for NIC problems but it's all ok!

As for the ping :
. xp1 to xp2 - bytes=32 tempo<1 ms TTL=128
. xp1 to 2K - bytes=32 tempo<1 ms TTL=128
. 2k to xp1/xp2 - bytes=32 tempo<10 ms TTL=128

. From the 2k to the others it seems slower, dont know exactly why this is.

Just for curiosity, what should i do if the test for NIC problems return anything wrong, and why is setting to 10 half-duplex better.

Tanks for your help....

 

When you said

"Before i installed windows 2000 it was working at 100 and now is only working at 10, why is that and what can i do to fix this... "

I assumed you knew you had a 100 hub so I didn't check the HW specs on the HUB glad Newt did!

Mike

 

"Just for curiosity, what should i do if the test for NIC problems return anything wrong, and why is setting to 10 half-duplex better.

Taking the 2nd part of the question first - if you have your PC's NIC set to auto then it and the hub will spend time negotiating the best operating speed. So delay you don't need and network traffic you don't need. Also, they have been known to mess up on the speed thing and just not work at all. Since you already know the fastest possible speed for the connection (the 10Mbps half-duplex that's the best the hub can manage) it makes sense to reduce the potential problems and unneeded chatter by setting the speed. If you are using a "managed" hub (high cost item so usually not what you will have) then you can and should lock the hub port to that speed as well.

In fact, the slightly longer ping response time from the 2K PC may well be just what I described above.

And what to do if the self-ping shows errors - you gotta fix it. Maybe just a matter of reseating the NIC better in the 2K machine. Maybe a change of drivers needed. Maybe device manager and remove the nic then shut down, remove it, reboot and shut down, replace it and do a full reinstall. Or possibly a new NIC.

And FWIW, very possible to have a NIC or drivers that worked OK with XP but not with 2K. Indicates a problem that XP could ignore but 2K can't.