Limited TCP throughput on laptop nic

neoka · Post by **neoka** » Sun Jun 10, 2001 1:30 pm

SO now I've got a fast ethernet cable router/hub and all my PC's show marked speed improvements. All except one - my Sony Vaio SR11k.

Since my router is fast ethernet I upgraded all my PC's with fast nics to take advantage. My Vaio used a Xircom CEM56 Creditcard modem/10/100 nic quite happily and I had previously connected it to our business network (mixed Netware & Windows) at 100Mb.

I was excited to finally be able to get 100Mb out of this at home as I do some convoluted video editing and moving large video files and hoped this would speed it up - I was wrong. No matter what it wont go faster than 10. When I ask it to do 100 it just does not start and it shows as 'cable unplugged'. This is, of course, in a 100Mb port! If I move the cable to a 10Mb hub it connects OK.

Because I wanted FAST ethernet in my laptop I went out and bought a Netgear FA410TX creditcard 10/100 adaptor. It works and shows as connected at 100 and full duplex (like all the other machines connected) the only problem is that it goes DEAD slow. BRowsing and suchlike are like being on a modem.
I've tried various TCP tweaks to see if RWIN had something to do with it but it's all been optimised and no effect.

DOES PCMCIA port limit bandwidth?

Any other comments welcome. Ta.

HQH51 · Post by **HQH51** » Sun Jun 10, 2001 3:50 pm

I have a FA410TX for my Presario notebook 17XL260. Well, the max I've gotten out of this is over 10 Mbps, or around more than 1 MBps when transfering to another computer. I have it on auto negotiation. Do you have the latest drivers installed for the NIC? I have a Linksys BEFSR41 that the NIC goes through. It isn't the router's switch limitation, but I'm guessing that it's my notebook's hard drive that can't squeeze more than 1 MBps.

neoka · Post by **neoka** » Sun Jun 10, 2001 3:54 pm

I thought so.

I can't get any faster than about 4kbps download through the router (also BEFSR41). Whereas all my other PC's rocket through at 60-70kbps.

HQH51 · Post by **HQH51** » Sun Jun 10, 2001 7:44 pm

You can get update drivers at http://www.netgear.com/

I would recommend that you uninstall the drivers and reinstall it. Also, try to set on auto negotiation. I have WinME, and I the only tweaks I apply are the patches available on this website. I also run firmware 1.38.5 for the BEFSR41, going to update it later on to 1.39 beta. You can get beta drivers and BEFSR41 support at http://www.dslreports.com/forum/equip,16

neoka · Post by **neoka** » Mon Jun 11, 2001 7:46 am

Hiya and thanks for your reply.

I have downloaded both updated netgear drivers for the FA410TX (inc eprom flash for latest card bios) and installed. Still imited to about 4kbps.

I also downloaded and upgraded my drivers for the Xircom CEM56 card which is also still limited to about 4kbps.

Since I have already re-installed the drivers I'm not sure how to un-install then reinstall. It seems to me to be something dodgy with TCP as installed in my Win2k Vaio.

Can I just remove then reinstall TCP/IP? Cheers

Thanks

HQH51 · Post by **HQH51** » Mon Jun 11, 2001 11:05 am

Hmmm. Win2K... I don't have this OS, so I probably be missing steps or telling something else. Well, if you go into the Network properties, you can remove the Ethernet. That will get rid of the protocols along with it (or that's how it's done with Win9x/Me). I believe that your notebook should come with 2 PCMCIA slots? Put the NIC in the other slot when you boot up. See if it wants drivers that you download instead of using what Win2K may have stored. I would also do a search at SONY's website to see if there are any issues with your notebook regarding speed throughput.

rachase · Post by **rachase** » Mon Jun 11, 2001 12:55 pm

I have a NEC fastethernet card for my IBM laptop which connects through a Linksys BEFSR router (v 1.38.5) and I down and upload with it right about at the cable cap the same as I do on my desktop (1.5 M & 300k bs)

Switching PCMCIA slots for the NIC shouldn't make any difference -- if you want to exorcise your card and drivers, try deleting it in Device Manager. You can also update drivers for it there...