Only 10mb when I should get 100mb

[Seraphim974]

i took my desktop to school and for some reason only get 10 mb connection when they say that i should get 100 mb. Tech support ended up saying "well thats just what you can get then". I dont want a shitty connection.

My desktop's NIC is on the motherboard, Realtek LAN. I really dont know anything about networking so I thought I'd post this quick question here. Does anyone have any ideas as to what could cause a NIC to pick up 10 versus 100 megabytes? XP PRO SP1. Thanks.

 

[MN Scout]

Have you got 100mb using your computer before? There could also be a 10mb router/switch on the network and you are going through that. That would cause your connection to only be 10mb.

-MN Scout

 

[unhappy_mage]

Same here, except half-duplex. All my roommates too. If you're in a dorm where the wiring is coming down the outside of the wall in a plastic conduit rather than nicely integrated, that's probably why.

My dorm was built in 1970, so they didn't wire it for cat5. Thus, the network stuff is all an afterthought, and crappy. I imagine you're having the same problem.

OTOH, 10 megabits is no slouch. Your cable at home is probably 3 or 6 megabits; when you think in these terms 10 doesn't sound so bad. If it gets bad enough, you can set up wireless with a couple of your roommates' connections aggregated together. This is my plan Get all 4 of our connections going, hook up $MASSIVE_STORAGE, and cruise

 

[Kaiga]

there are so many reasons that you won't get 100MB.
and let me tell you something 10MB is not a shitty connection.
there might be reasons like the routers or even the entire network won't support it. that or something like something as little as an ethernet cable could be the reason, what about net traffic? yeah, 10MB is nice not shitty.

 

[SmokeRngs]

I would also check the NIC config and make sure it's set for autonegotiate. You will find this under the NIC properies from Device Manager.

btw, 10 megabit is not a bad connection at all. Many people are lucky to get that. I don't mean any offense but I doubt you were supposed to get a 100 megabit connection. That seems a little high for net access. Although, if you are talking about regular LAN access, 10 megabit can be a real pain. I had to transfer 5 gig of files back and forth between a couple computers over a month ago on a 10 megabit connection and it was annoying. I really wish I had not misplaced my crossover cable.

 

[Mohonri]

Like others said, it could be either an old hub/switch, or they're using Cat3 wire (which only allows up to 10Mbps). I had the exact same thing when I was in college--10Mbps. I couldn't complain, though. There were times when I actually saw over 1MB/s coming down the pipe--impressive, considering the age of the network.

Now I'm stuck on stupid Sprint DSL at 512kbps, and it's nowhere near as good.

 

[Maniacmous]

I'd assume its about the same at most colleges, I know it is at OSU. They'd never give me a defined reason for why it was happening, then I heard that they were using 10mb switches...that'll do it I'm sure. I suppose its a good thing that they capped my bandwidth, though I never did the illegal downloading thing, I downloaded legit files by the ton.

 

[ZROUT]

what kind of a ghetto school runs 10MB ethernet... I bet there's an ancient hub at the end too and a NT4 PDC with probably no backup BDC either

it's time to deploy that sniffer and see what others are up to, not that I would condone such thing but it helps to make the lazy IT helpdesk realize that it's time to get with the program and maybe, just maybe join the 20th century.

I'd have so much freaking fun with that place

you could be constructive about it though, start collecting information on other people. I am not going to go into details right here, but if it truly is an old hub there are very easy ways of picking up logins of all kinds, including online bank accounts etc... then forward it all to the dean and you may just get a new network out of it. Often it takes real proof of how weak their security is before they are forced to upgrade.

or at least have fun and sniff out AIM conversations of other students, you'd be surprised the crap people talk about

 

[KodiakStar]

what kind of a ghetto school runs 10MB ethernet... I bet there's an ancient hub at the end too and a NT4 PDC with probably no backup BDC either

it's time to deploy that sniffer and see what others are up to, not that I would condone such thing but it helps to make the lazy IT helpdesk realize that it's time to get with the program and maybe, just maybe join the 20th century.

I'd have so much freaking fun with that place

you could be constructive about it though, start collecting information on other people. I am not going to go into details right here, but if it truly is an old hub there are very easy ways of picking up logins of all kinds, including online bank accounts etc... then forward it all to the dean and you may just get a new network out of it. Often it takes real proof of how weak their security is before they are forced to upgrade.

or at least have fun and sniff out AIM conversations of other students, you'd be surprised the crap people talk about

10mbs is enough for anyone, and maybe they do it to try and cut down on people doing "bad things" like file sharing which really kills a network.

 

[ZROUT]

I'd assume its about the same at most colleges, I know it is at OSU. They'd never give me a defined reason for why it was happening, then I heard that they were using 10mb switches...that'll do it I'm sure. I suppose its a good thing that they capped my bandwidth, though I never did the illegal downloading thing, I downloaded legit files by the ton.

there is a 99% chance they were hubs, it's common practice when you don't care abour security, speed and you want it as cheap as possible.

Problem is that combo does not belong in a school of any kind. Schools are the worst places for terrible security like that

 

[ZROUT]

10mbs is enough for anyone, and maybe they do it to try and cut down on people doing "bad things" like file sharing which really kills a network.

And that's why I get in arguments over here, the level of misinformation present on this board is astounding.

I won't even bother going into a rant as to why it's retarded to run that kind of network in that environment but whatever, I hope the tuition is cheap

 

[KodiakStar]

And that's why I get in arguments over here, the level of misinformation present on this board is astounding.

I won't even bother going into a rant as to why it's retarded to run that kind of network in that environment but whatever, I hope the tuition is cheap

Misinformation? The faster the net speeds, the faster people download, the more they download... the more the bandwidth costs (when exceeding monthly limits etc) = Admin cutting down on the size of the pipe and how much you can use.

There is nothing to argue about here. Except you telling someone to use something they should not use

 

[ZROUT]

i took my desktop to school and for some reason only get 10 mb connection when they say that i should get 100 mb. Tech support ended up saying "well thats just what you can get then". I dont want a shitty connection.

My desktop's NIC is on the motherboard, Realtek LAN. I really dont know anything about networking so I thought I'd post this quick question here. Does anyone have any ideas as to what could cause a NIC to pick up 10 versus 100 megabytes? XP PRO SP1. Thanks.

to answer your question, you have no choice in the matter. They run a 10MB ethernet and that's what you're stuck with, if I were you I'd learn a bit about etherreal or other network sniffers, you'd know right away if they are hubs or switches and if they're hubs I'd be real careful doing anything on that network, all it takes is one script kiddie wannabe haxxor-retard to screw you all over.

 

[KodiakStar]

I believe this is even the wrong subforum for this.

Shouldn't it be under "Networking" ?

 

[ZROUT]

Misinformation? The faster the net speeds, the faster people download, the more they download... the more the bandwidth costs (when exceeding monthly limits etc) = Admin cutting down on the size of the pipe and how much you can use.

There is nothing to argue about here. Except you telling someone to use something they should not use

and at which point did you put the crack pipe down?

that's LAN speed we're talking about, good admin could easily throttle bandwidth for external access, T1/T3's whatever they have depending on the size and needs of their network. you do not throttle bandwidth by limiting LAN speeds with ancient technology. It may sound good in your head, but it makes no sense in the real world.

All people with common sense stop P2P at the firewall.

Find me someone who deployed a "new" 10MB ethernet network because they wanted to and not because it was cheap and I'll point you out a complete 'tard ;-)

 

[marty9876]

I believe this is even the wrong subforum for this.

Shouldn't it be under "Networking" ?

Nope, if Zrout is right about something than the topic must be in the DC forum.

 

[ZROUT]

I believe this is even the wrong subforum for this.

Shouldn't it be under "Networking" ?

sure, someone should move it.

I'm just pointing out your ludicrous comments. I'm sure the kid is paying good money for college and should get good service, there's nothing wrong with 10MB links , but you know what? like I said a few times it comes with more crappy equipment which opens HIM up for security risks and a lot of them.

He should be aware of it and act accordingly.

 

[ZROUT]

Nope, if Zrout is right about something than the topic must be in the DC forum.

that's right, make it into a sticky!

I'm always right, you just haven't caught on yet

 

[KodiakStar]

that's right, make it into a sticky!

I'm always right, you just haven't caught on yet

I don't know about always right. More like always posting flame-bait

 

[MustangWorld]

You should really update to SP2

 

[unhappy_mage]

there is a 99% chance they were hubs, it's common practice when you don't care abour security, speed and you want it as cheap as possible.

I don't know about his school, but here they use managed layer2 switches. Set to run at 10 mbit. All pings anywhere are blocked at the switch level (makes network debugging pretty tricky; you can't tracepath either).

You're right, nobody in their right mind would use hubs. That's why nobody does. Imagine 300 students (that's how many are in my dorm) sharing 10 megabits of bandwidth. That just would *not* work, and they'd be pissed and move off campus. The University in question would quickly rethink their policy.

 

[ZROUT]

I don't know about his school, but here they use managed layer2 switches. Set to run at 10 mbit. All pings anywhere are blocked at the switch level (makes network debugging pretty tricky; you can't tracepath either).

You're right, nobody in their right mind would use hubs. That's why nobody does. Imagine 300 students (that's how many are in my dorm) sharing 10 megabits of bandwidth. That just would *not* work, and they'd be pissed and move off campus. The University in question would quickly rethink their policy.

what's the reasoning behind slowing individual ports down?

It just seems that they are more concerned about their workload rather than about users security as they should be, they are still open to layer 2 ARP spoofing but god forbid they allowed 100mbit links? I don't see the point.

IMHO it would make more sense if they did their job and actively monitored bandwidth usage. 10mbit link still won't throttle it all that much, college kids don't care whether something is downloading at 56k speeds or not, they'll leave it on 24/7 if they have to. Why even worry about it anyway? just kill all P2P at the firewall and be done with it. If people are running something like DC++ on the LAN then that will show up in network logs real quick.

You may have misunderstood me, I was saying that I bet his school does use hubs, 99% of the time when you see 10mbit links it's because admins just don't care, don't have enough budget etc... which ends up leading to hubs in place, crappy outdated and unpatched servers, no security and total mayhem in general. I see it all the time

 

[Seraphim974]

wait. i am in a build up with 3 people in a two person room. they had to give us a hub to use since there was only 2 ethernet jacks and one wasn't working. I get 10MB out of the hub. says, "10baseT Ethernet Hub NETGEAR" Is that the problem?

 

[KodiakStar]

wait. i am in a build up with 3 people in a two person room. they had to give us a hub to use since there was only 2 ethernet jacks and one wasn't working. I get 10MB out of the hub. says, "10baseT Ethernet Hub NETGEAR" Is that the problem?

BINGO

 

[OSUguy98]

yup... that be it!

you can get a 10/100 router or even just a switch and then you can work on your folding farm


Keep on Folding!! For the [H]orde!!

 

[ZROUT]

wait. i am in a build up with 3 people in a two person room. they had to give us a hub to use since there was only 2 ethernet jacks and one wasn't working. I get 10MB out of the hub. says, "10baseT Ethernet Hub NETGEAR" Is that the problem?

we need the DOH smiley

 

[ZROUT]

PS: put the other two on a hub and steal one walljack for yourself ;-) lol

 

[unhappy_mage]

what's the reasoning behind slowing individual ports down?

I'd guess so they don't have to monitor as actively, and so one person can't hog all the bandwidth. A good BT will suck up a lot, quickly. So, they limit it to 10 mb/s to prevent that from happening. And also, then people's connections last longer so they can notice them more easily. It's all fine and good to log everything, but that leaves a crapload to dig through. It's much easier to just pick on connections that are open.

 

[ZROUT]

I'd guess so they don't have to monitor as actively, and so one person can't hog all the bandwidth. A good BT will suck up a lot, quickly. So, they limit it to 10 mb/s to prevent that from happening. And also, then people's connections last longer so they can notice them more easily. It's all fine and good to log everything, but that leaves a crapload to dig through. It's much easier to just pick on connections that are open.

it seems as backwards management to me, that's all.

IMHO it's not a good idea to limit your users, ever, not when you (or in reality in a school environement THEY paid..) paid for equipment that *could* do a better job. That's a waste of money.

There are many packages out there that will spit out at you bandwidth usage per IP etc... even with DHCP they hardly ever change. Take top 10 IP's and see what they were up to in the past month soon enough the word will spread around the school/business that you can't misuse the resources.

forget about IP's on a managed switch, you KNOW where each cable goes to and any half decent switch will spit out stats too

 

[marty9876]

at the end of the day, what does the line benchmark at to the web? If your getting 5 down and 2 up even, sure beats the hell out of most of us...

 

[joeb0b]

Another interesting point is. If they did upgrade their switches to be 100mbit switched which should be a pretty standard network at this point. If he is connecting at 10mbit he'll probably never notice a difference unless he's trying to download something big from the LAN as we've been saying you really can't get more than a few mbit on the internet. If on the hand he is on a really old 10mbit hub, he will be sharing that bandwidth with probably like 24 or even 48 other people (Assuming the backbone itself is upgraded at least). In that situation he might actually be pretty limitted during peak times.

-joeb0b

 

[KodiakStar]

Another interesting point is. If they did upgrade their switches to be 100mbit switched which should be a pretty standard network at this point. If he is connecting at 10mbit he'll probably never notice a difference unless he's trying to download something big from the LAN as we've been saying you really can't get more than a few mbit on the internet. If on the hand he is on a really old 10mbit hub, he will be sharing that bandwidth with probably like 24 or even 48 other people (Assuming the backbone itself is upgraded at least). In that situation he might actually be pretty limitted during peak times.

-joeb0b

10bt hub shared between 3 people

 

[SmokeRngs]

10bt hub shared between 3 people

Trust me, this really sucks. I have to have my old 10 mbit hub hooked up at my friend's house for now since there is only one drop coming into my computer room from the router. I then have to split that between my system, another system and whatever else I happen to have in the room at the time. For internet access it doesn't really matter but when trying to transfer files between the systems it really sucks. I just don't have the money to get a decent switch or anything.

 

[unhappy_mage]

My internet connection just benchmarked at 3129 / 1246. That's not too great... but this was with Azureus seeding at 170 KB/s up. Then I tried it without Azureus running, and got the same result. Tried the Speakeasy one with A running, 5446/2816 to WDC, up to 6mbit up to elsewhere.

But I can't find a ping test. Too bad.

 

[rogue_jedi]

My internet connection just benchmarked at 3129 / 1246. That's not too great... but this was with Azureus seeding at 170 KB/s up. Then I tried it without Azureus running, and got the same result. Tried the Speakeasy one with A running, 5446/2816 to WDC, up to 6mbit up to elsewhere.

But I can't find a ping test. Too bad.

dslreports has a ping test. haven't tried it yet, but it is there.

actually, scratch that (unless you can borrow a roomie's comp) uses a windows program to test. wine might do it tho... hmm...
i'm invincible!

 

[ZROUT]

those tests are flawed by their very own design, they are intended more for some e-penis contests on message boards than for any real testing purposes.

but that's a rant for another day ;-)

 

[marty9876]

all I can say is I've downloaded more porn @ 300 bps than any one person ever should have. Ahh, the good old days.

 

[unhappy_mage]

Well, at least I'm winning...

 

[clean_me]

I'd like to hear the rant personally I'm not toooo educated on networking and would like to maybe learn some more about architecture.....so bring the rant

 

[joeb0b]

all I can say is I've downloaded more porn @ 300 bps than any one person ever should have. Ahh, the good old days.

Best porn you can get at that speed is ascii porn time to break out thedraw.exe