DSL-604+ 100Mb ethernet router doesnt look like one

B0rG

Just noticed today that my ADSL cable modem/router/hub combo doesn't do 100Mb on internal network.
Normally you would copy 700Mb file on 100Mb net for about 1.5 min or so. This one copies it 10 mins. On top of that there seems to be a lot of outgoing traffic on machine B.

set up is like that:
machine A: P3 600/100 Mb Realtek net with eDonkey running, router redirects certain ports to that machine.

machine B: P4 1.5/100 Mb 3Com net. does nothing on the internet.

win2k sp4 on both. And both connected through DLink DSL-604+ router/hub combo. Flashing light shows that network is 100Mb.

Copying file from A to B is slow, plus a lot of outbound IP traffic on machine B. Connection status shows "received packets" 700 000 and sent packets around 80% of that.
Those 2 machines used to be connected with just cross-over cable and everything seemed to be normal: high traffic and normal sent/received ratio when copying files from one machine to another.

What could it be?

I have a couple of guesses:
1. Serious packetloss on the network. (But the internet connection is fine)
2. Something wrong with routing on internal network?? (went through all the router settings didn't find anything related to that).
3. Router still has time set on 1/1/1970. But I don't see any reason for it to re-timestamp packets on internal network (though dlink engineers might have a second opinion). And I don't know if it affects anything.

Any help will be appreciated.

plenderj

Nothing's going to be as fast as a cross-over cable between two machines. Hubs are notoriously slow - you should have at least gone for a switch!

We have a 10/100Mbps switch in work, and it can take about 10 minutes to copy a 700meg file from the server to a client machine.
That's normal I'm afraid.

What I would suggest, is getting just a 4 port switch.
Plug your computers, and uplink your router into the switch.
That should speed up the network a little.

Because you see with a hub, all data a hub receives is forwarded to all active ports on the hub. So if you're running something like eDonkey, all data it sends and receives is also being sent to all other computers connected to that hub.
But if you were using a switch, it only forwards data to where its supposed to go.

So by using a switch, aswell as your other bits and pieces, I'd say you'd speed up your network a bit...

B0rG

tanks a lot plenderj,
that clarified a few things to me ;-)

External router solution seems good, but that will add an extra box to my apartment, which I really wanted to avoid.

Strange thing here
http://www.dlink.co.uk/dsl-604plus.htm
it is being advertised as switch ports 10/100MB, lying bastids :-\

STaN

are you saying the D-Link 504/604 are hubs not switches?

plenderj

Just checked our own specs here, and its showing as a switch.
I think its just a matter of the processor in the switch being just on the underpowered side - or that that's simply the transfer rate you're going to get anyway when going through an extra level of complication - i.e. instead of going straight from NIC to NIC

STaN

going NIC to NIC should take about 4mins or so

Boston

I find using a router to be just as fast as cross over, maybe even abite faster, e

bricks

If its really a switch then you'll get 0 collisions. If its a hub then you'll get collisions.
Another thing to watch on a 10/100 Switch is the Duplex settings.
If the switch is set to autonegotiate then you'll need to set the PC's to autonegotiate for it to work properly.
So to troubleshoot the problem see if the switch has a setting for forcing 100MBits FULL duplex. If it does force both the switch and both PC's manually to 100Mbits full duplex and then you should get full speed.

GUI

bricks is 100% correct

the problem has to do with autosensing

if one side is say half duplex and other is full duplex..

packet loss is huge..
and needless to say performance drops a whole..

had the exact problem at work today

pc was 100megs full duplex switch it was patched back into
was 100 megs half duplex

when port on switch was configured full duplex and client pc full duplex..
full copy took maybe 2-3mins as opposed to over 15!

i use the 504 here myself and all network adaptors are configured full duplex with fantastic performance speeds..

i dont know what the 504 ports are set at myself and have not been able to telnet into this router a number of ways either to find out..

judging by performance autosensing full duplex from client

btw autosensing can be wasteful when used in large segments

STaN

i've noticed, watching network preformance charts that the max my network card is transmitting at is 50Mb/sec. so what do i need to do?

B0rG

Guys, my knowlege in networking is somewhat limited, so I apologise if I'll be talking total nonsense.

Thanks for the advice on Full/half duplex - I'll go check it out when I get home.

The thing is advertised as switch. However there are only 2 machines on the net currently, so it should not matter.

May be one of you who has a similar kind of equipment can point me at the configuration setting to disable ip routing on internal network (if I'm saying this correctly). In other words: packets on the internal net should not be processed by the router, otherwise IMO it leads to the performance loss.

On the other hand I don't know whether it's achievable or makes any sense at all. Since outgoing packets for the internet traffic should be processed...

One idea could be to route packets for windows networking internally. Any idea what the port numbers for msnet? And how to configure router for that? And whether is it possible at all with D-Link 604+?

The kit seems to be at advanced level in some parts and totally Plug and Play at others, which is a bit annoying.

Thanks a lot again for answering my questions. And I do have a lot of 'em

Nitrox

The Specs say Switch ports, so in fact this could just be a switchable hub, not a real switch.
A switchable hub is just a 10 and a 100 Mbit hub in one and the 2 speeds can "talk" to each other.
I might be buying this product myself and i must admit i thought it was a switch also, but i might be wrong.
Quick way to test it is to hook it up against a real switch, if you see massive collisions and only about 3 megs a sec. then it is a switchable hub, if not it shoudl still be a switch.
Main and most easy to remember difference between switches and hubs is that a switch is fairly intelligent or at leats have memorry so it remembers which mac address is connected to each port. SO when a packet is send it does not need to broadcast it to each port, just send directly to that one port.
This is also the reason why Full duplex will only work on a real switch, a hub is just not able to handle this as you need a direct connection which only cross over or switch will give you.
Hope some of this made sence

bricks

Originally posted by B0rG

The thing is advertised as switch. However there are only 2 machines on the net currently, so it should not matter.

May be one of you who has a similar kind of equipment can point me at the configuration setting to disable ip routing on internal network (if I'm saying this correctly). In other words: packets on the internal net should not be processed by the router, otherwise IMO it leads to the performance loss.

The kit seems to be at advanced level in some parts and totally Plug and Play at others, which is a bit annoying.

Thanks a lot again for answering my questions. And I do have a lot of 'em

Firstly It is a switch.
Secondly you don't need to worry about packets that are not for your local network being routed. Think of it as a 4 port switch with a router attached internally to a 5th switch port. Any internal traffic that is local will go directly between the 2 local ports and not get sent to the router. You local PC makes the desicion of what goes to the router. i.e. it sends everything non-local to the default gateway.

irishguy

i have an SMC switch from komplett.ie [8 port x100mbps] when i got it i put 200gigs over the network in one go and i move mabey 100 or 200 gigs over the switch a week [video editing to a server] and i am very happy with the speed but i might upgrade to gigbit [using a direct x-over link to the server] but anyway its was only about €30 for the 8 port switch so i would recomend that