Ethernet connection speed question

[JonathanEngr]

I have a linksys wireless G router that has 4 10/100 ports on the back. This router serves as the internet gateway and DHCP server. I also have an attached 5-port 10/100/1000 switch to expand my overall wired capability. My questions is this:

Since my DHCP server is the linksys with the 10/100 ports, will this limit the speed of my 10/100/1000 switch? In other words, if I connect two devices that have gigabit capability to the 10/100/1000 switch, can those two devices communicate at gigabit speed, or will they have to pass through the 10/100 DHCP server causing a bottleneck? Is there a way to test the speed between the two? (One is a DLink DNS-323 NAS Raid array and the other is a PC). Thanks!

 

[MrNick0483]

The two devices attached to the 10/100/1000 switch will communicate at 1000, they will only transfer data at 100 with devices that are off that switch, say connected to the Linksys. DHCP just assigns the network addressing to the workstations on your network. I would suggest making the ip's of the devices on the 10/100/1000 switch static after DHCP assigns them.

 

[JonathanEngr]

Great! Thanks so much. And is there a way to determine what the actual transfer rates are? I noticed some people saying they achieve a 22% efficiency and so-on.

 

[JonathanEngr]

Okay--I ran the cable, plugged it into the gigabit switch, and it's only connecting the two devices (that are both hooked into the gigabit switch) at 100 Mbps. What's even stranger is the ethernet connection on my computer (brand new EVGA 780i nvidia chipset mobo with dual gigabit ethernet onboard) shows me connecting at 100 Mbps, despiute the fact that the connection properties show the computer's ethernet connection to be a gigabit.

Are you 100% sure the netowrk isn't choked down to the lowest switch speed?

 

[jimbopalmer]

Gigabit uses all 4 pairs of wire, where 100 meg only uses 1&2 and 3&6. If the cable lacks 4&5 and 7&8, it can't do gig, even though the elctronics can.

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[JonathanEngr]

Hmmmmm... well, I have all 8 pair of wires there and accounted for in the correct order. I even attached another cable to make sure it wasn't the cable. According to the light scheme, it is running 100 Mbps.

Question... I looked online and found a transfer time tool. According to it, transferring a file that I have (758 MB), should transfer from one computer to the other over gigabit ethernet in 6.2 seconds. Over 100 Mbit ethernet in 62 seconds. Is this correct? It did take about 60 seconds to make the transfer. Is there any other way to test and see if I might actually have the speed, despite what the LED's say?

 

[MrNick0483]

Are you sure that your NIC's support 100/1000?

 

[JonathanEngr]

I'm sure the ones on the back of this pc support it. It's a brand new EVGA motherboard... the nForce 780i SLI FTW. It has triple PCI 2.0 x16 for up to three videocards in SLI mode, 3 GB/s SATA, and full RAID capabilities. Supposedly, the two built-in ethernet slots have 10/100/1000 capabilities. Obviously, with the other "goodies" this thing comes with, there's no way the ethernet ports wouldn't be gigabit-capable. Below is a link to the user's manual (btw--the part # is 132-YW-E178-A1), and pages 17 and 18 have the mobo & port diagrams, as well as the ethernet LED descriptions:

http://www.evga.com/support/manuals/132-YW-E178.pdf

 

[JonathanEngr]

I should probably add that the manual is a pdf file appx 4.5 MB in size. Also, by saying pages 17 and 18, I mean from the pdf file standpoint. The actual page numbers on the pages (after the intro, table of contents, etc.,) are pages 5 and 6.