MySpareBrain
join:2000-06-12
Pearland, TX
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| [Other] Bought Gigabit Switch, not getting Gigabit speeds?
Okay, here we go...
I bought a Netgear GS-105 Gigabit 5 port switch. I have 2 PC's that I want to use the gigabit on (one is XP Pro, the other 2000 Server). I also have a Linksys BEFW11S4 4 port 10/100 router. The 2 PC's are connected via Cat5e cable to the gigabit switch (each cable is about 25 ft). I am using port 5 on the gigabit switch (which I am assuming is the uplink port) connecting to port 4 on the Linksys router (port 4 is the uplink port on Linksys) which is also connected by Cat5e (length on that is about a foot).
The 2 PC's are using Netgear GA311 10/100/1000 NICs with the latest drivers, firmware, etc. I cannot get a file transfer to go at 1Gbps. I tried forcing 1000Mbps on both cards, this did not change anything. I have also tried to set them to auto negotiate. There are no 10/100 devices connected to the router at this time unless you count my cable modem (usually I would have my Xbox connected to this but I unplugged it for troubleshooting).
The interesting thing is that on the uplink port on the switch there is a light for 100Mbps and one for 1000Mbps. The light is now on 100Mbps. I am guessing this is where the problem lies. But I am using Cat5e which I thought was Gigabit rated? Anyway that is my problem.
Netgear tech support suggested that I upgrade to Cat6 cabling, but I don't see how that would solve anything? Cat5e is gigabit rated is it not? Even using Cat5e would think I would see speeds better than 100Mbps; like 200-300Mbps or something like that? Anyway that is my problem and I must say I am disappointed so far. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. |
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DaMaGeINC
The Lan Man
Premium
join:2002-06-08
Greenville, SC
clubs: | Well, the cable really doesent have any affect unless your running its over 100ft. So thats not your problem. |
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cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
| reply to MySpareBrain
Re: [Other] Bought Gigabit Switch, not getting Gig
Well, you have several things going on here. Your router is 10/100. Since you have that plugged into port 5, the light for port 5 should indicate 100mbits/sec. It won't say 1000 because the top speed is only 100. Now on the two ports that your PCs are plugged into, they should read 1000 mbits. Just because you are connected at that speed doesn't mean you can actually obtain that speed. Some of the beefest servers in the world can't saturate a gigabit connection. I will guarantee that a traditional desktop machine could even come close to saturating the connection. Download a copy of Dumeter and transfer a huge file...something on the order of several gigabytes. Figure out your transfer speeds and go from there.
Also, did you make your cables or did you buy them? If your cables have split pairs, are untwisted just a little to far, or are poorly constructed, it will effect your transfer speeds. Cat 5 vs. Cat 6 isn't your problem. |
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Fleed
join:2001-09-26
Europe
clubs: | reply to MySpareBrain
You mention file transfers... could it be your HD is the bottleneck rather than your network? Try doing pure net transfers using udp over the network to test it's raw speed. |
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MySpareBrain
join:2000-06-12
Pearland, TX
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| reply to cdru
said by cdru  :
Download a copy of Dumeter and transfer a huge file...something on the order of several gigabytes. Figure out your transfer speeds and go from there.
Also, did you make your cables or did you buy them? If your cables have split pairs, are untwisted just a little to far, or are poorly constructed, it will effect your transfer speeds. Cat 5 vs. Cat 6 isn't your problem.
Yes I forgot to mention that I am in fact using DU Meter to measure speeds. I'm not even getting close to 100Mbps speeds? I'm getting an average of about 55Mbps. I used a 18GB file that I had transferred on 10/100 connection but I don't see any difference with the gigabit switch. There is a mix of pre-made cables and constructed ones. But they are the same as I have used all along and never noticed any problems? |
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MySpareBrain
join:2000-06-12
Pearland, TX
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| reply to Fleed
said by Fleed :
You mention file transfers... could it be your HD is the bottleneck rather than your network? Try doing pure net transfers using udp over the network to test it's raw speed.
Its a 7200RPM Maxtor hard drive with 8MB cache. Don't know the model off the top of my head. How do I transfer using UDP? |
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Shootist
Premium
join:2003-02-10
Decatur, GA
| Could it simply be that because you are using a 10/100 router that all the traffic is going through the router which is slowing down the speed. Just because the 2 PCs are connected to the switch doesn't mean the router isn't handling the transfer. Unplug the cable to the router and reboot the PCs, let them work out a IP address and then do the transfer.
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Anav
Sarcastic Llama? Naw, Just Acerbic
Premium
join:2001-07-16
Dartmouth, NS
| Good point although I always thought that the router managed the WAN to LAN, LAN to WAN interface and was not involved once traffic was past one of its LAN ports ie to a switch....... if the traffic is LAN only would not the switch handle that ie not reach the LAN PORT of the router???
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Ain't nuthin but the blues! "Albert Collins". Leave your troubles at the door! "Pepe Peregil" De Sevilla. Just Don't Wifi without WPA, "Yul Brenner" |
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Shootist
Premium
join:2003-02-10
Decatur, GA
| By theory yes. The switch should ?"route"? traffic from 1 PC to the other not broad cast it across the LAN. But if the router is doing DHCP then it might have the final say where and how the data gets sent. Since the switch does not have a server (not sure if that's the right term) to know where to send the data it send it to the router to be directed to the right PC/IP address. This is just a BIG guess. But sounds logical to me.
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Are You Ready--Stand By BEEP ******** |
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MySpareBrain
join:2000-06-12
Pearland, TX
1 edit | reply to MySpareBrain
Switch Only
I have tried unplugging the router and running just the switch. No luck there. Also my addresses are statically assigned, and no DHCP. Not sure whether that would make much of a difference or not. |
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carp
join:2002-10-30
clubs:
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to MySpareBrain
Re: [Other] Bought Gigabit Switch, not getting Gigabit speeds?
You are not going to get near gigabit speeds with these machines. We get 880Mbps in netperf sending the packets out of memory with very large buffers, window scaling on, and an RWIN close to 1MB. In real life we get about half that by time the information has to be retrieved and written to drives and the overhead of our Enterprise backup software. The servers are, shall we say, not cheap.
Any latency over one half of a millisecond is going to cut your throughput so you need to adjust RWIN and turn window scaling on. |
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MySpareBrain
join:2000-06-12
Pearland, TX | Okay I will give those a try. I know that I will never see a true 1000Mbps speed. The fact of the matter is I have not seen any change from 100 to 1000Mbps? Shouldn't I see SOME increase? Even a little? |
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connellyg
Premium
join:2002-04-27
England
clubs:
1 edit | reply to MySpareBrain
; |
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MySpareBrain
join:2000-06-12
Pearland, TX
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| said by connellyg :
have you got ethernet network cards
What the heck kind of a question is that??  Anyway, I am using Netgear GA311 cards which are gigabit rated. |
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connellyg
Premium
join:2002-04-27
England
clubs:
1 edit | ::: |
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carp
join:2002-10-30
clubs:
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to MySpareBrain
said by MySpareBrain :
Okay I will give those a try. I know that I will never see a true 1000Mbps speed. The fact of the matter is I have not seen any change from 100 to 1000Mbps? Shouldn't I see SOME increase? Even a little?
It's quite possible that you will not. |
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MySpareBrain
join:2000-06-12
Pearland, TX
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| said by carp :
said by MySpareBrain :
Okay I will give those a try. I know that I will never see a true 1000Mbps speed. The fact of the matter is I have not seen any change from 100 to 1000Mbps? Shouldn't I see SOME increase? Even a little?
It's quite possible that you will not.
Wow, that's a bummer  Guess I'll bring the stuff back if that turns out to be the case. |
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Cobras33
Premium
join:2003-02-05
NJ
clubs:
| Tolasar,
I'm in the same boat as you. I got a new MB that came with a Gb NIC, decided to upgrade the other 2 boards/PC's with Gb NICs and got a Gb switch. I think the real issue here the standard 32-bit/33Mhz PCI bus that comes with consumer-grade mother boards. I was initially using 2 of the 3 PC's as servers. I tired all tuning and RAIDing combinations and the best I could get was 200-250Mb/s. I think that since both the NIC and the RAID cards were on the same 32-bit/33Mhz bus, the transfer speeds were limited. I then bought a server board that had dual 64-bit 133/100 Mhz PCI-X bus channels, one for the Gb controllers, the other for the 2 PCI-X slots. With the faster bus, Gb LAN on the PCI-X bus, and the upgraded RAID controllers (now 64-bit PCI-X cards), I am seeing transfer speeds in the 500Mb/s range. Still not GB speeds, but I don't have to money for a serious SAN setup to bump this up any further.
Hope this helps. |
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MySpareBrain
join:2000-06-12
Pearland, TX
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| said by Cobras33 :
Tolasar,
I'm in the same boat as you. I got a new MB that came with a Gb NIC, decided to upgrade the other 2 boards/PC's with Gb NICs and got a Gb switch. I think the real issue here the standard 32-bit/33Mhz PCI bus that comes with consumer-grade mother boards. I was initially using 2 of the 3 PC's as servers. I tired all tuning and RAIDing combinations and the best I could get was 200-250Mb/s. I think that since both the NIC and the RAID cards were on the same 32-bit/33Mhz bus, the transfer speeds were limited. I then bought a server board that had dual 64-bit 133/100 Mhz PCI-X bus channels, one for the Gb controllers, the other for the 2 PCI-X slots. With the faster bus, Gb LAN on the PCI-X bus, and the upgraded RAID controllers (now 64-bit PCI-X cards), I am seeing transfer speeds in the 500Mb/s range. Still not GB speeds, but I don't have to money for a serious SAN setup to bump this up any further.
Hope this helps.
Yeah, I was just hoping for faster transfer speeds for file transfers and stuff. Heck even on the box for the switch it says "Move large files at lightning speeds". Sounds like false advertising to me. |
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Anav
Sarcastic Llama? Naw, Just Acerbic
Premium
join:2001-07-16
Dartmouth, NS
| They just forgot to include the words after..... using a cray computer and the energy output of the main LA generating station  Tricks (and box writeups) are for kids!
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Ain't nuthin but the blues! "Albert Collins". Leave your troubles at the door! "Pepe Peregil" De Sevilla. Just Don't Wifi without WPA, "Yul Brenner" |
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