Posted: 1/15/2003 10:55:51 AM EDT
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I currently have 4 machines all connected to the Inet and each other via an Efficient Networks Modem/Router (static IPs). My transfer speed between computers is DISMAL. I'm talking a 600MB file takes 2 hours to transfer. So, it was suggested that I use a Switch to help things out. This morning, I bought a Linksys 8 port switch. I hooked it into the router (connected thru a network socket on the router and the uplink socket on the switch). My Inet promptly died. I'm getting NO internet at all this way. So then I decided to bring an old Netgear hub into the equation. I hooked up the hub straight to the Router (thru the uplink), then I hooked up the Switch to the hub (used the uplink port on the switch and a regular port on the hub). My Inet is now back, and data transfer to 2 of the other computers is where it should be. However, I'm now having connection problems with one of the computers. It's hooked up the same way as the others, with the same subnet mask, proper IP, etc. But none of the computers will see it on the network, and it gets no Inet. [b][fixed] I changed the NIC to full duplex 100MBPS instead of FD 10[/b] OK, so how can I go about dumping the Netgear hub? Why do I need that in the equation? The Linksys switch says it's supposed to double as a hub. I don't understand all this, and I'm about to rip out my hair. |
| Without more info, it sounds like one of your nodes may be having autonegotiating troubles. Its not an uncommon problem and it seems like every vendor implements it differnetly. Best rule is to just hard code the speed and duplex on both ends to rule that out first. This problem can manefest itself both in slow performances and completely unconnected nodes. If you can trace it with a sniffer, the bad packets usually look like "runts". BTW, 10base full duplex is a pretty rare beast. Usually it is half duplex. |
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Auto negotiation probably, take a look at your cables. You might have pos Cat. 3 cables, or cables with the pairing all messed up. 100BaseT is very demanding of quality of cables, jacks and connectors, wheras 10BaseT can use even silver satin (no twists), Cat. 3 connectors and jacks. When a 10/100BaseT NIC senses it can go to 100Mbps it will, regardless of the bad cabling. Some newer hubs and switches can detect cable types and adjust accordingly, but not low end store and forward switches. If manually setting the NIC to 10BaseT solves the connectivity issue, get new cables and set the NICs back to auto. By the way, a switch is slower than a hub unless you're doing multiple transfers with different hosts simultaneously. Low end switches like Linksys are store and forward units that introduce high propagation delays, where the switch stores the entire frame before deciding where to foward it, every frame. Cut through, fragment free forwarding methods are faster but don't expect to find these in the sub $1500 switches. |