VERY slow network speeds.

I'll try to be brief and detailed at the same time... bear with me.

I'm running a network at home with several different computers, utilizing a Motorola SBG1000 as the access point. Up until recently I've not done much file transfer or computer to computer stuff-- it was mainly for wireless/Internet access. The speeds I've been getting for that have always seemed ok, but for some reason when I try to transfer files within the network (or browse), the times are PUNISHING. I've tried USB on one machine and 100Tx on the other, USB on one and wireless on the other, wireless to wireless, etc. Even disabling wireless and going physical lines doesn't seem to help-- at best I'm getting maybe 100kbps on average, even when the wireless card on one of the machines (Dlink) says it's transmitting at 2200kbps.... I'm in hell, here, folks. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what might help?

Thanks,
Ed

What OS are you using? I'll presume XP...

Try looking at these sites:

http://www.computing.net/networking...orum/20148.html

http://forum.techstud.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=98

http://www.ss64.com/nt/slow_browsing.html

I'm running both 98SE and XP on the network. It very well could be an XP issue as the wireless card that claimed to me transmitting at 2200kbps was on a 98 machine. On the other hand, an 802.11b wireless card sitting right next to the gateway appliance should still be doing better than 220mbps, no? Unless it negotiated a much lower rate because the XP machine couldn't possibly take it.... This is confusing.

Did any of the links help?

With a 802.11b wireless card, the network speed should be 11Mbps, although the maximum you're likely to see is around 6Mbps. You'll have no chance of reaching 220Mbps.

Whoa, that was a colossal typo. It was supposed to read 2200kbps, as in my original post. Read that way, the whole thing will make a lot more sense.

I did go through those links, and the only thing that seemed to describe something similar to my problem was the network collisions... but if I'm running a WAN and I'm topping out at 11mbps with 11b, would this even happen? And even if it did, what could I do about it?

I'm almost wondering if it's anything to do with the SBG1000....

I doubt it has to do with the SBG1000, but perhaps you should try a firmware upgrade. Also, is there any chance you could connect the computers using wired ethernet? This would determine whether there is a problem with the SBG1000 or the setup with one of the computers.

I connected the 2 XP machines via wired ethernet and forced them up to 100/fullDux, and also switched off the IEEE authentication, which seemed to help.... still, I only saw about 2mbps through the wired LAN, which is a huge step up, but completely wretched if it's supposed to be a 100mbps connection. Pulled one off the Lan Card and tried wireless-- still agonizingly slow.

Well that tells you that there is a problem with the config for one of the machines.

Try some of these things on the XP computer:

Delete the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace
Key to delete: {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}

For the NICs, manually set them to a speed, rather than using the auto setting.

Look again at this site: http://forum.techstud.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=98 and follow the instructions to set the TcpWindowSize setting.

Also try this KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315237

Already forced the NICs to 100/full, as stated in my previous post.

Tried the other stuff - If anything, things are slower now than they were.

Interestingly enough, the TcpWindowsSize setting on one of the machines was already in there and set (don't know what by) at like 64000 before I put it down to the 2920 Microsoft recommends. Can't see why that would matter anyway, as the machines will be wireless most of the time and this claims to be germane to 100mbps LAN issues.

I'm tempted to change the LAN MTU that's set in the gateway-- it's at the Ethernet-friendly 1500 at the moment, but at this point I'll try anything. Maybe it's time to call Motorola.

Is there any way you can try connecting the computers using a different hub/switch?

Just an FYI here folks you do NOT want to set the PC to a static speed and duplex if you cant set it static on the switch! If you set it on one then set it on the other or have them both set to auto. otherwise you will get framing errors and such. Microsoft boxes do very well at auto negotiation however, NOVELL and Unix you would want set manualy in almost every situation. (most of the time if one is set static and the other is auto it will be slower).

I could maybe connect them wired with a different switch, but I don't have anything else wireless that I could do, except maybe go ad-hoc and see what happens. I have a sneaking suspicion the throughput on the SBG1000 is garbage, but I can't prove it because Motorola informed me yesterday that they support no functions on the SBG1000 beyond the internet connectivity.

Any time a company refuses to support the functionality of its own product, the product becomes highly suspect.

I guess it is, but the only way you can prove this is if you try a different product with the same config and see if things are faster.

I still see config issues being part of it on the wireless end, but no matter what the NICs are set to, I ought to be getting better than 2-5 (at best) megs a second with two 10/100 machines on a wired LAN right out of the box.

Maybe I'll grab a hub from work and see what I can do with that speedwise.