# Why won't my Network card go to 100Mb a sec

## d4mo

I ususally have my network card connected to a 10Mb/s hub.  But when I want to transfer large files I connect it to a 100Mb/s router.  So I connected it to the router but it won't connect at 100.  when I type ifconfig it says Interrupt:10 Base address:0x1800.  Now should It say 100 there.  Or does that always say 10 base.

Also my NIC module is 8139too.  The router lights up like it's connected to a 100mb device, But it doesn't transfer like one.

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## Nuteater

The ifconfig line about 'Interrupt: 10' only tells you the interrupt number of the network card

-- it has nothing to do with the transfer speed. If you are experiencing slow transfer speeds, it

is due to something else. How fast are the transfers?

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## d4mo

it's only transfering a 1.25 Megabytes a second.  So that works out to 10 mbits.  It's gonna take me 20 minutes to transder 1.5 GB

It's very confusing.  KPF tells me that I'm transfering at 1Mb/s....SuperKaramba says 1350 kB...and windows says 1.25MB.  I don't think people are using the right abbreviations.  because 1 Mb/s  is defiantely not the same as 1350 kB.  And those are both on my linux computer.

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## j-m

Well - easy answer - the autonegotiation is broken. Try setting it manually.

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## d4mo

And I do that how?

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## codergeek42

 *d4mo wrote:*   

> And I do that how?

 ethtool perhaps?

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## d4mo

OK..I downloaded ethtool.  When connected to the hub it's at 10Mb/s at Half Duplex like expected.  When plugged direcrtly into the Router it's at 100Mb/s at Full Duplex like it should.  But why does it only transfer at 10Mb/s?

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## joaander

mii-tool can set the speed negotiation

get it by emerging mii-diag

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## joaander

 *Quote:*   

> OK..I downloaded ethtool. When connected to the hub it's at 10Mb/s at Half Duplex like expected. When plugged direcrtly into the Router it's at 100Mb/s at Full Duplex like it should. But why does it only transfer at 10Mb/s?

 

Heh, I guess ethtool can do it too.

One thing you can try is to benchmark the link speed through something other than a file transfer, which may have other bottlenecks. One tool I have used successfully is iperf (emerge iperf). There is even a windows version so you can benchmark gentoo->windows speed transfer.

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## bluedevils

and what is the source of your transfer?  Is that set properly and can handle more than 10MB/s tranfer rates?  Are you downloading from a cable modem?

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## d4mo

I am sending it to a Windows XP computer.  And I know that my network can handle the speed because I have sent files between 2 windows computers and it was at 100Mb/s.

I have tried using KPF and WinSCP to send the file and it is still at 10Mb/s speed.  I just don't understand why.  

Also the modem has nothing to do with the speeds.

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## d4mo

This is really confusing me......help!!!!!!!!!!!!

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## Nuteater

Let's first check if it is a configuration issue. Have you tried booting to an another OS?

If you have LiveCDs hanging around, pop one in and check how is the transfer speed 

there.

Also, as a silly question (but it got me once  :Wink: ), have you got any traffic shaping

set up on the machine? I once had a similar problem, but it turned out I had just set

up wondershaper for a lower speed.  :Smile: 

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## bluedevils

So in summary,

The router reports a 100MB connection (Full Duplex?) and the nic card is reporting a 100MB Full Duplex connection, but it transfers like 10MB.  You've also tried a different port on the router?  You could also try swapping the nic card with a proven one from the windows machines.

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## joaander

 *Quote:*   

> This is really confusing me......help!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Did you try iperf? It should be capable of getting marks up to 90Mbs or more on a 100Mb connection. And since it only involves RAM->network->RAM, it would eliminate the filesystem and other things from your (presumed) samba, WinSCP and other tests. If you still get low performance with iperf, you know there is something wrong with the network. But if it is fine with iperf, the problem lies elswhere. Narrowing down root cause is always the first step in troubleshooting.

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## d4mo

I will try iperf.  Do I have to run that on 2 computers I assume?

Also I can't try a live Cd.  I  have knoppix but it won't load.  It freezes.

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## maxweld

Perhaps a wild thought:

 *Quote:*   

> When connected to the hub it's at 10Mb/s at Half Duplex like expected. 

 

Many hubs, like mine, are only capable of 10Mb/s. More recent switches, or routers with inbuilt switches are are 10/100Mb/s.  Could the problem be simply that connecting through the hub limits that segment of your lan to 10Mb/s.

Just a thought.

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## joaander

iperf has a lot of options, but the most simplest setup is this.

On one system, run iperf in server mode:

```
$iperf -s

--------------------------------------------------

Server listening on TCP port 5001

TCP window size: 8.00 KByte (default)

--------------------------------------------------

```

On the other system run the client:

```
$iperf -c neutron -r

------------------------------------------------------------

Client connecting to neutron, TCP port 5001

TCP window size: 16.0 KByte (default)

------------------------------------------------------------

[  3] local 192.168.0.10 port 1689 connected with 192.168.0.253 port 5001

[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec    446 MBytes    374 Mbits/sec

------------------------------------------------------------

Server listening on TCP port 5001

TCP window size: 85.3 KByte (default)

------------------------------------------------------------

[  4] local 192.168.0.10 port 5001 connected with 192.168.0.253 port 1092

[  4]  0.0-10.0 sec    320 MBytes    268 Mbits/sec
```

The -r option runs a test with client transmitting, and then runs a test with the server transmitting, so you can see if one end or the other is slower at transmitting. In my case (Gb net bandwith limited by PCI bus cards), you see that the second transfer is slower... this is most likely because 192.168.0.10 is an old, slow system.[/quote]

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## d4mo

 *bluedevils wrote:*   

> So in summary,
> 
> The router reports a 100MB connection (Full Duplex?) and the nic card is reporting a 100MB Full Duplex connection, but it transfers like 10MB.  You've also tried a different port on the router?  You could also try swapping the nic card with a proven one from the windows machines.

 

I know it is not the router port because I have used windows machines on it, and all was fine.  Secondly I can't swap cards, because I don't have any....all onboard.

 *Quote:*   

> Many hubs, like mine, are only capable of 10Mb/s. More recent switches, or routers with inbuilt switches are are 10/100Mb/s. Could the problem be simply that connecting through the hub limits that segment of your lan to 10Mb/s. 
> 
> Just a thought.

 

Yes, my hub is only capable of 10Mb/s.  I said I plugged it directly into my router/switch which can and does run at 100, just not in this situation for some reason.  Sorry if I wasn't clear.

And I will try iperf tomorrow.

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