NIC Setting: Full or Half Duplex ??

One of the lights on my router/switch often turns red indicating that one of
my NICs is reverting to 10mbit speed. I want to change it from
Auto-negotiate to full speed, but do not know whether to use Full or Half
duplex. Which do I use? Searching on Google doesn't give any clear
answers.

Cheers

ss.

On Wed, 29 Mar 2006 07:30:02 +0100, Synapse Syndrome wrote in
comp.os.ms-windows.networking, comp.os.ms-windows.networking.windows,
microsoft.public.windows.server.networking:

>One of the lights on my router/switch often turns red indicating that one of
>my NICs is reverting to 10mbit speed. I want to change it from
>Auto-negotiate to full speed, but do not know whether to use Full or Half
>duplex. Which do I use? Searching on Google doesn't give any clear
>answers.

It should be identical to the settings at the device connected to that
port, preferrably not Auto-negotiate at either end.

IMO full-duplex on a busy network is slower than half-duplex unless all
devices implement the same throttling/back pressure mechanism. YMMV.

--
Michael Bednarek http://mbednarek.com/ "POST NO BILLS"

"Synapse Syndrome" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:w8udne35T-(E-Mail Removed):

> One of the lights on my router/switch often turns red indicating
> that one of my NICs is reverting to 10mbit speed. I want to
> change it from Auto-negotiate to full speed, but do not know
> whether to use Full or Half duplex. Which do I use? Searching on
> Google doesn't give any clear answers.
>

It depends on what you're connecting to. Generally, a "hub" device
uses half-duplex. A "switch" or "router" device is usually full
duplex. A half-duplex setting expects to see everything it sends on
its receive line; if it does not, it concludes there's been a collision
and the packet is retransmitted. Full duplex has a dedicated buffered
receiver on the end of the transmit lines so it is expected that all
packets sent are transmitted correctly unless an error/retry packet is
sent back.

HTH,
John