[plug] gigabit lan

[Bernd Felsche]

Adrian Chadd <adrian at creative.net.au> wrote:
>On Tue, Jan 08, 2008, Kev wrote:

>> I've just replaced 2 x 10/100 8 port switches (daisy chained) in our 
>> home p2p network with 1 x 16 port gigabit switch.  Most (but not all) of 
>> our home machines have gb nics on motherboard, including the 2 right 
>> here on my desk.  One has a Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
>> with the skge driver installed and the other has an Nvidia CK8S Ethernet 
>> Controller with the forcedeth driver installed.  These are the default 
>> drivers installed by Xandros.

>> I use only Samba on the network because there is a mix of Windoze and 
>> Linux machines at home and thus far (the last 3(ish) years) Samba has 
>> run flawlessly.  Even now Samba seems to be running OK.

>> The problem:  There appears to be no improvement in network speeds - no 
>> change at all.  Copying files between these 2 machines I have in front 
>> of me happens at about 3.6Mbytes/sec according to gkrellm.  I'm using 
>> good condition bought, moulded cat5E cables, each 2m long.  Only the 
>> switch between them.

>The first thing to do is grab iperf and read up about it.

The _first_ thing is to use any blinkenlights to confirm that your
cables are running at gigabit speeds.

Lights on the switches and NIC often have LED that indicate by
colour/speed the nature of the actual connection.

No point of trying to find a bottleneck in the machine if the wiring
isn't up to it, or the NIC hasn't sensed the ability to work at the
higher speed.
-- 
/"\ Bernd Felsche - Innovative Reckoning, Perth, Western Australia
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