Re: [OT] Network speed

[Harry Broomhall <haeb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 3 Jul 2006 09:08:59 +0100, you wrote:

>
>
>Can anyone suggest how to check the speed of our network ?
>
>All PC's are running 100mbit cards - switch is a 10/100 switch - but
things
>seem to be going real slow.
>
>To transfer 5 files totalling 4.5gig - 76 minutes ? - that doesnt sound
>right to me...
>
>Any suggestions appreciated
>

That is equivalent to about 8Mbps or so, so seems somehwat slow.

There are many reasons why you get poor speeds, and you don't give
enough info to guess.

1)  Make sure that you are running full-duplex everywhere.  A
good switch will tell you if you are.

2)  Make sure that you are actualy running at 100Mbps - again a
good switch will tell you.  Note that the speed you are getting is
equivalent to the switch only running at 10Mbps.

3)  Many times the speeds are reduced because the OS on the PC
has a problem.  If the files are fragmented, and the drives are slow
then this can reduce speeds, although to get down to these speeds
something major would be wrong.  Unless one of the machines was old.
Poor network cards can sometimes cause this as well.

4)  Are the cables good cables, and are they shorter than the
max length of 100m?

Regards,
Harry.