Only getting 100mbps on my networked computers

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Joshontech

Joshontech

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Jun 23, 2013
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I have a media server PC connected to all my computers in my house via Ethernet. The computer use to have a 10/100mbps ethernet card installed but recently i switched it to a 10/100/1000mbps card to enable the gigabit connection. I got the card all set up and ready to go and when I looked in the network connection it only said it was a 100mbps connection.

After discovering that its only running at 100mbps I went into the advanced tab and forced both of my pc's to 1000mbps/full duplex and restarted both of them and yet they still say 100mbps!

My file transfer speed is only 11.2 megabytes a second and I am copying over 100-500 gb of Video every 2 weeks its just a killer to wait.

The media server pc is running windows xp sp3 and my main computer I use to transfer the files is running windows 8.1 but that is not the problem because I have had this problem before I networked the 2 computers together. My windows 8.1 always said 100mbps but I didn't think much of it due to the fact my internet connection is only 15mbps I just started noticing when I set up my media pc.

Anything I can do to fix this? I have looked all over and nothing for my specific topic showed up.
 
Solution
B
Yes if put a small gig switch in front of your router the traffic between the machines will flow though the switch at gig speeds and then if it needs to go to the router will only be able to transfer at 100m. Likely not a issue since few people have internet over 100m.
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Joshontech

Joshontech

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Jun 23, 2013
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Well I just decided to look up my router and its only a 10/100mbps ethernet connection. So my next question is can I get a gigabit ethernet switch and will that allow me to get gigabit? Also can I still run it through my router at that point or will I have to run it just between my 2 computers?
 
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bill001g

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Aug 9, 2012
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Yes if put a small gig switch in front of your router the traffic between the machines will flow though the switch at gig speeds and then if it needs to go to the router will only be able to transfer at 100m. Likely not a issue since few people have internet over 100m.
 
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Solution
photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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I just noticed the Best Answer is incorrect. I know it's a long time ago.

A router can redirect traffic as that is its purpose. A switch does not work the same way. You can NOT connect two PC's directly via a switch. It works like THIS:

1. PC into switch
2. Switch out to Router
3. Router back to Switch
4. Switch to 2nd PC

A switch is a simple device that shares the same cable by quickly multiplexing between inputs but ALL inputs go out the output to the router.

There may be advantages to a switch such as fixing auto-negotiation issues which could account for the solution if adding a switch helped. I added a switch in between a PC and Router which did fix a 100Mbps connection go back to 1Gbps speeds though I can't be certain if it was auto-negotation that was the issue.
 
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bill001g

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Aug 9, 2012
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This is about as wrong as you can possibly get.

A switch keeps track of the mac addresses and know what device is on every port. Traffic within a lan only uses mac address. It directly transfer the traffic port to port.

It is trivial to prove this. Take 2 machines hooked to a switch run a constant ping between them now turn the router off.

It should also be obvious because you can put static ip on machines and run only using a switch with no router at all.



 
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photonboy

photonboy

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I appear to stand corrected.
 
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jsmithepa

jsmithepa

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Jun 14, 2014
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This happens on enterprise-class network equipment. A switch typically only handles layer-2 traffic and if that's the case, it will just switch the traffic wo further fuss. However, if layer-3 traffic needs to be handled, then an uplink router takes over (router got more intelligence) and it goes PC1->SW->RT->SW->PC2. Of course these days layer-3 switches are available and no "helper" router is required.

Home users don't need to know any of this stuff.
 
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