Thread: Is your Network Card holding you back?

Are you not getting the speeds you think you should be getting? You're network card could be getting in the way. I'm going to start this with a story.

I have cable internet and had about 12mb connection or so my ISP said. I was downloading at about 600KBps. So I pushed it up to the highest connection speed they had. Well I was only getting 5mb down on speedtest and was really frustrated. I called my router company and they said to change a few settings, boy am I glad they told me how.

Tutorial:

When you have Computers hooked up on a network (Ethernet) they send packets and data across the network back and forth to each other. These data packets travel across the same wire and the same medium. SO what is to stop them from transmitting at the exact same time?? Nothing really, only beside some protocols and algorithms that say, HEY I AM TRANSMITTING HANG ON A SECOND.

So half duplex only allows half the speed of the network, and uses the entire WIRE when transmitting, so only one host can transmit at a time.

Full Duplex give us the full access of the network, and instead of using the wire as basically a TWO way street, it separates the medium (so to speak) into 2 one way streets, one to the other Host or PC and one directly to it, so that it will not have any collision if another host is transmitting.

Now if you are using a HUB you can only operate in Half Duplex mode, because hubs do NOT support full duplex mode. Only Routers, Switches, and Bridges offer the full duplex mode.

How To:



First you want to go to My Computer's Properties.



Next, go to Device Manager under "Hardware"



After this you need to find your Network Adapters, then right-click and go to properties.



Lastly, go into your Advanced Tab, and find *, change this to either Auto or 100mbps/Full Duplex (unless you are using a hub [as stated in the quote above]).



Click OK. And RESTART.

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Many users have experienced no Advanced tab.

Here is a link to fix that problem. Intel Communities: Missing Advanced Tab ...


If it is already on this setting or auto, this might not be your problem.

I don't get the Duplex option. But I think I get my full speed anyway.

Since posting this, I noticed that this also helps streaming with Ps3. Before this, I was not able to stream HD video to a Ps3 through a wire connection. Now I am able to =D.

Honestly this is almost always automatic. Should only need to do this for stupid hardware that does not properly auto-negotiate.

checked mine and set automatically in Vista 32 bit

Originally Posted by abr27440

Honestly this is almost always automatic. Should only need to do this for stupid hardware that does not properly auto-negotiate.

Thanks for making fun of my stupid card >.>. Seriously though, it's helped a few friends. If anything it's worth it to check.

Originally Posted by SpaceAce

checked mine and set automatically in Vista 32 bit

Eww Vista. From XP to 7 I will go :laugh:.