Where's my 100Mbps?

[Guest]

I'm unning this thing called Qcheck which I downloaded somewhere. It is supposed to test network performance. It seems to do that. My problem is my results. I paid for 100Mbps components, however I aint gettin there according to Qcheck.

Brief system overview:

-3 Win 98SE pc's
-2 3com 3C905-Ctx cards one netgear FA311
-1 netgear DS104 hub
-2 50' cat5e cables premade
-1 10' cat 5e cable premade

Results:

-Respose time between any 2 computers is always 1ms by the test results
-Throughput between 3com's is ~50Mbps on average, but as low as 20 and as high as 80.
-Throughput between either of the 3com and the netgear is typically about 20% slower than throughput between the 3com's on average.

What is going on? Everything is nearly new. Is what I'm seeing normal? I want my 100. I paid for it darn it.

Late Kevin

 

[Arrow]

I assume you mean 100mbps. It's nearly impossible to get pure 100% performance. Cable quality, kinks in the hub, and other delays may cause this.

Rob
Please visit <b><A HREF="http://www.ncix.com/canada/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048" target="_new">http://www.ncix.com/canada/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048</A></b>

 

[Guest]

Cable was very spendy, it dern well better be good or I'll wring some neck. Kinks in the hub? I haven't dropped it or anything. Or maybe you are refferring to the kinks built into it by the designers, eh?

So is what I'm getting reasonable then?

My stuff has Mbps written all over it, I'm assuming that stands for mega bits per second. What is mbps? milli bits per second? what is a milli bit?

 

[Arrow]

Honestly, I really don't know what the average speed achieved by 100mbps system users is, so I can't really say about your results. Yeah, regarding the hub, it may be due to the design of the circuitry and all that. It's just not possible to get 100% of the expected speed, similar to how you wouldn't expect to get 100% of the expected yield in a chemical experiment

Rob
Please visit <b><A HREF="http://www.ncix.com/canada/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048" target="_new">http://www.ncix.com/canada/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048</A></b>

 

[Guest]

Damn it, I'm pissed. Is the best I can do half way? What if I could just throw some money at it, would changing some of my hardware make my performance closer to what I thought I was getting? I mean are there obvious weak links here? Maybe I should mention that my main motivation is moving lots of files around, but my games seem to like it too when I work on improving my scores.

Hey, your probably correct about the M vs. m thing for all I know. If it's true it is sure confusing me man. It seems like they taught me small m for milli and big M for mega back in high school. That's not really so tough to remember though. Classic old dog new trick syndrome.

 

[CALV]

whats the ting you tested it with? If you post a lint ill download it and test my setup which is 100 (in theory...)

Next time you wave - use all your fingers

 

[Guest]

Mb should be megabits
mb should be millibits
MB should be megabytes
Mb should be megabits

 

[FatBurger]

-1 netgear DS104 hub

That's your problem. With more than 2 computers, you'll never actually get 100Mbps with a hub. If you're worried, then get a switch.
A T1 is only 1.5 Mbps, if that puts your internet connection versus network connection in perspective.

<font color=green>In memory of all the Americans that died 9/11/01
Rest in peace</font color=green>

 

[Guest]

It's NetIQ Qcheck. Supposedly you can get it free here

http://www.qcheck.net/

but that particular address isn't working for me now though. I forget if that's where I got it.

 

[Guest]

What kind of boost in scores could I expect from changing the hub to a "good" switch? Whats this hub supposed to be good for then? I ask all these questions due to the fact that money really is an object for me.

 

[FatBurger]

Switches generally run around $10/port (except for the enterprise switches, but you don't need to worry about those). Hubs are of course less as you get to larger ones.

Hubs' bandwidth is cut for every computer you have. If you're running a 100Mb Full duplex hub with two computers, you'll have 100Mb FD. But, if you have three computers, you only have 33Mb FD available. 4 computers, 25Mb FD. Make sense? That's the approximate bandwidth.

The reason for this is that every packet sent on a network that reaches a hub is simultaneously sent to all the computers on that hub. They disregard the ones that are not addressed to them. With a switch, it processes the packets, and only sends them to their correct owners. This results in less network traffic, and especially fewer packet collisions.

<font color=green>I post so you don't have to!
9/11 - RIP</font color=green>

 

[Guest]

I'm pretty sure that my particular hub is not full duplex. At least it seems to give me good results to force all of my NIC's to half duplex. Maybe that's one of my problems.

From the way you describe a switch it sounds very similar to a hub, but with a bit of processing power to help it make good decisions.

Do you know of any reviews that compare all the various options, ie all types of hubs and switches with different software functions? I guess I'd also like to consider the different brands as well. Obviously I didn't do enough research the first time, I just want to avoid doing that again.

 

[FatBurger]

Hubs and switches are similar, just switches give more performance. You won't have any noticeable difference between different brands and models.

Neither hubs or switches generally have software. That is, until you get up to the 24-port Enterprise switches. But those work more like routers than switches.

<font color=green>I post so you don't have to!
9/11 - RIP</font color=green>

 

[upec]

100Mbps is theoretical value you can never reach it.

 

[upec]

Hub also referred to as a "repeater" or "concentrator". Every time a hub receives a packet. It sends the packet to all other nodes connected to the network. Unlike hub, switch provides a private connection between two nodes on a network, speeding up the rate at which data is sent along the network and eliminating collisions. Switch allow full duplex, which means network nodes can send and receive data at the same time. This doubles the theoretical "speed limit" of Ethernet and Fast Ethernet, maxing out in the latter at 200Mbps.

 

[CALV]

the links now working but Im not filling out my entire life history for one crappy download- sorry.


Next time you wave - use all your fingers

 

[Guest]

Hey, thanks everybody.

CALV, no need to apologize buddy.

 

[Ron_Jeremy]

I have using Qcheck for a while. I kinda like it. I see as much as 90 mbit/s using a cheap Linksys 4 port switch & 3COM cards in all machines that run NT/2K.

I guess it isn't abnormal to see 50 mbit/s on your network sometimes, as I have seen #'s as low as 65 mbit/s on mine once in a while (depending how many systems are surfing/gaming at that time).

Personally, first thing I'd do is junk anything in your system/network that has letters in this sequence on it > N E T G E A R

Cheers,

Ron_Jeremy

If you loan a friend $20 & never see them again, it was worth it.