NIC Card Settings

I have two computer on a LAN. One a WinXP Pro laptop, with Broadcom
integrated wireless; the other runs Win2K Server and has an Intel
10/100 Pro NIC Card. Both go through a DI-624 router from D-LINK.

My LAN is incredibly slow right now; copying files via network shares
frequently fail as a result of drives being dropped, and FTP does not
result in anything different.

I was thinking the problem might stem from my card settings. The Intel
card is currently set to 100 Half, while the wireless card shows that
it is running at 54 Mbps. What would be the optimal settings for each?
How would I go about changing the Wireless' card's Media Type, as I
don't see it in the card properites as I do for the Intel card. Could
this discrepancy explain my LAN issues?

Would appreciate any help.

I have seen instances where the card wass set to say 10/100 FULL and
the switch/hub is set to auto-detect the speed - in this case packets
were dropped and have problems on the network.

As fir Wireless - 54 MB is the maximum you can get with the 80.2.11g
standard - I think 802.11i is the next standard at 108 MBs



On 13 Jul 2004 17:54:47 -0700, google-(E-Mail Removed)
(JStrummer) wrote:

>I have two computer on a LAN. One a WinXP Pro laptop, with Broadcom
>integrated wireless; the other runs Win2K Server and has an Intel
>10/100 Pro NIC Card. Both go through a DI-624 router from D-LINK.
>
>My LAN is incredibly slow right now; copying files via network shares
>frequently fail as a result of drives being dropped, and FTP does not
>result in anything different.
>
>I was thinking the problem might stem from my card settings. The Intel
>card is currently set to 100 Half, while the wireless card shows that
>it is running at 54 Mbps. What would be the optimal settings for each?
>How would I go about changing the Wireless' card's Media Type, as I
>don't see it in the card properites as I do for the Intel card. Could
>this discrepancy explain my LAN issues?
>
>Would appreciate any help.

On Tue, 13 Jul 2004 17:54:47 -0700, JStrummer wrote:

> I have two computer on a LAN. One a WinXP Pro laptop, with Broadcom
> integrated wireless; the other runs Win2K Server and has an Intel 10/100
> Pro NIC Card. Both go through a DI-624 router from D-LINK.
>
> My LAN is incredibly slow right now; copying files via network shares
> frequently fail as a result of drives being dropped, and FTP does not
> result in anything different.
>
> I was thinking the problem might stem from my card settings. The Intel
> card is currently set to 100 Half while the wireless card shows that it
> is running at 54 Mbps

100 half is an unusual setting. Is there a good reason for this? Most
100Mb devices are capable of full duplex. In most cases, setting the NIC
to autonegotiate is the best bet. Most modern devices will autonegotiate
to 100 full.

A duplex mismatch between the card and the router would explain what you
are seeing. Try autonegotiation, if that doesn't work try 100 full.

It cannot be a speed mismatch, that wouldn't work at all and NIC drivers
can detect the link speed even if autonegotiation is disabled as the link
beats are different, so speed mismatches are relatively rare.

It doesn't matter that your two PCs are running at different speeds. It is
the settings between the NIC and the switch (which in your case appears to
be embedded in the router) which matter. I have 100 full and 10 half
devices (I have some very old stuff) connected to the same switch and
communicating happily.

Regards, Ian

In message <(E-Mail Removed)>, None
<(E-Mail Removed)> scribes
>I have seen instances where the card wass set to say 10/100 FULL and
>the switch/hub is set to auto-detect the speed - in this case packets
>were dropped and have problems on the network.
>
>

The rules of Auto Negotiation state that if one end is Auto and the
other end is manually set then the auto end will set to half duplex,
regardless of the duplex setting of the manual config end. If you are
going to set one end then make sure that it is half duplex OR that you
set both ends manually.

I fell foul of that one at work.
--
Snowy

Wow, thanks for the great overview--that's very helpful. I did change
the NIC card to Auto--that's what it was on originally, but I had
changed it to Half 100 as part of testing. I checked my router, and
the closest settings I saw to Link Type were the following:

WAN select to 10/100 Mbps
---------------------------
100Mbps | 10Mbps | 10/100Mbps Auto (set to 10/100Mbps Auto)

TX Rate
------------
Auto (Mbps)

Is there any similar setting I need to set in the properties of the
Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN wireless network connection properties
(right-clicking on the system tray network icon)?

Unfortunately, as of now, I tried to FTP across my LAN (as someone had
suggested as a better means of copying files across a LAN)--it got
farther than before, but still dropped out toward the end. I then
tested a mapped network drive, and the transfer only got through a few
files before I got the "network drive is no longer available" message.

Please let me know what other card settings I should tweak. I really
appreciate all the advice! Thanks so much.

google-(E-Mail Removed) (JStrummer) wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed). com>...
> Wow, thanks for the great overview--that's very helpful. I did change
> the NIC card to Auto--that's what it was on originally, but I had
> changed it to Half 100 as part of testing. I checked my router, and
> the closest settings I saw to Link Type were the following:
>
> WAN select to 10/100 Mbps
> ---------------------------
> 100Mbps | 10Mbps | 10/100Mbps Auto (set to 10/100Mbps Auto)
>
> TX Rate
> ------------
> Auto (Mbps)
>
> Is there any similar setting I need to set in the properties of the
> Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN wireless network connection properties
> (right-clicking on the system tray network icon)?
>
> Unfortunately, as of now, I tried to FTP across my LAN (as someone had
> suggested as a better means of copying files across a LAN)--it got
> farther than before, but still dropped out toward the end. I then
> tested a mapped network drive, and the transfer only got through a few
> files before I got the "network drive is no longer available" message.
>
> Please let me know what other card settings I should tweak. I really
> appreciate all the advice! Thanks so much.

In my experience, auto-negotiation of speed/duplex is still a bit
flakey (even in a corporate environment). Auto-neg also seems to give
worse results on systems where there is a lot of data being
transferred. We tie ports down to fixed speed and duplex where
possible, but even this is not straightforward. Some PC's and servers
run well at 100/Full, but badly on 100/Half whereas others are fine at
100/Half but run appallingly at 100/Full. It is probably best to try
each setting (obviously the same at either end) and compare the
results when transferring a large file using FTP and file-share.

It is also worth checking the NIC card manufacturers web-site for the
latest drivers as we have also found that updating to the latest
driver has fixed problems on certain systems.

Pete