[Gigabit Netoworking switch speed]

[Gigabit Netoworking switch speed] - Computers

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Gigabit Netoworking switch speed
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Posted by: cmolson

Hi there, I have a question regarding my Netgear FS526T switch. It has 24 100mbps ports, and 2 gigabit ports. Now I have a linux pc, and a windows vista pc connected to the two gigabit ports. I can never seem to get speeds above 20MB/s when copying files to and from either pc. From what I understand 20MB/sec would be about 160 megabits per second (rough estimate). This is not close to a gigabit.

I am not familiar with using switches with so many ports (used to 4 or 8 port ones ) What I am thinking is that the two gigabit ports cannot communicate with each other at gigabit speeds, rather they are only meant to be able to communicate with multiple 100mpbs connections at once....

Maybe I have not set the switch up proporly? There are not too many options available as it is an unmanaged switch..

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. I am thinking I should get a 4 or 8 port gigabit switch (I have no need for 26 ports).

Thansk!

Posted by: IBMan

are you sure the hardware of both systems are gigabit? From my experience i would assume that it's not split up unless it needs to be..they should be able to communicate with each other at gigabit...also make sure you have the right cables

I'm not 100% sure but i think u need at least Cat5E(yea the E has to be there) or maybe even at least cat 6 cable to run gigabit.

Posted by: cmolson

I am sure they both have gigabit cards (one is a new mobo, and the other I bought specifically for gigabit) The light on the switch indicates it is connected at 1000mbps, and windows also reports it.

About the cables, I am using just regular short (less than six feet) to connect to the switch. This could be the problem.

I assumed that since the switch reported them as being connected at 1000mbps that the cables were fine.

I will try switching cables, thanks! any other ideas if it is not the cable?

Posted by: cmolson

I checked my cable, one is a Cat 6, the other is plain old cat 5.

My main computer:
core 2 duo e6400
2gb ram
raptor 150gb drive
built in pcix gigabit
Vista

the other one is only an amd 1.2ghz, 512mb ram and 7200rpm drives. The gigabit controller is PCI.
Is the pci bus the limiting factor perhaps?

Also, I forgot to mention (and now it seems to make a bit more sense) my hard drives in the computer with the PCI card are conected to a pci ide controller... So they are sharing the pci bus bandwidth... but it shouldn't cause this much of a performance hit should it?

Edit: I tested transfering a file to to the hard drive NOT connected to the pci controller, same result....

Thanks!

Posted by: IBMan

not sure on the bandwidth sharing...but im almost 100% positive standard cat5 will not support gigabit

Posted by: cmolson

Hey thanks for the replies! Well, still no luck trying to solve this dilema. I have tried using a CAT 6 one one pc with a CAT 5E on the other, same results. I can get 25 Megabytes per second max using a ftp transfer between pc's... Maybe I can try doing a direct connect using cat 6 between the pc's, that will pretty much tell me if it is the switch or not.

Any more ideas?

Thanks a ton!

Chris

Posted by: cmolson

Okay, looks like it is the switch after all. Just tried a direct connect between my Vista PC and Linux, about 50MegaBytes/sec I know it can go faster, but the hard drives are the limiting factor now. Thanks for your help guys!