Painfully slow receiving, but fast sending

could be lots of things
what antivirus are you using, and is it set to scan incomming files?
you also could have a bad NIC, or cable resulting in numerous resends (corrupted packets)
could be a bad (imporoper) MTU or recwin setting
could be the machine doesn't have much cache, and so has to write to the disk alot
your hard drives could be running in MS dos comaptablitly mode

Check you NIC, set its mode to Auto or Half-Duplex.

rgds

Yos

Possibly the cable also.. if the receive pair is damaged (pins 1 & 2).... long shot but worth the look.. just swap out the cable if there is no visible damage.  More than likely, though, it's the NIC as mentioned in the above replies.

- dan soto -

sorry to sound stupid but what do you mean when u say 'check your nic' and 'bad nic'?

NIC= Network Interface Card...  Network Card. the card your LAN cable is plugged into.  Try swapping it out with another that you know works.

i dont have access to any others. Is there no other way to test it?

Some NIC manufactures include diagnostic utilities on the CD with the drivers.  That's the best way to test it since they are written specifically for their NIC's.

Why can't you switch it with one of the other's?  You mentioned "all other computers".  You should be able to switch it out with one of those (assuming they are near by).  

Have you tried switching the cable yet?

Thanks for the help...
Have switched the cable without any change.
I am on a desktop and all other computers are laptops - meaning i have a pci network card and all the others are pcmcia so there is no way of swapping them.
Got to restart in ms-dos mode to use the diag program, so gonna do that now...

Cool.... laptops answer my question :-)...
Let us know how the diag works.....

One other thing I thought of....
Try plugging in one of the laptops to the Network Drop that you have your PC on.... and vice versa.... PC > Laptop network drop.  If this makes a difference, it could be internal wiring.

Just more in the process of elimination.

D'oh!
Running XP so no ms-dos mode.
Will try the network socket with another pc...

ok, the socket it fine.
is it likely to be a problem with the card? transfers from the internet still occur at a fast pace - can download at 60k/sec on sites that allow it, so if this is the case can the card still be at fault?

Good info...

No, if you are able to receive faster transfers from the Internet than you can internally then the NIC is probably not your problem.  While it does seem that it is only particular to your machine it won't hurt to try some other tests.

********************************************************
Extra thought added after typing this whole thing but better placed here.  When you mentioned that the 'socket' was fine.  Did you test both machines after you swapped them?...meaning... did you also test the desktop from the new location to see if it was still slow?..Please let me know.. thanks....
*********************************************************

Here are some next steps you can take.. assuming you can get to your patch panel and hub/switch.   Somewhere in  your office there is a patch panel that all the cables from the walls and ceilings come into.  From that patch panel there is usually a cable that goes to a hub or switch.  The easiest things to check/do are....

1) Find the cable between that patch panel and hub that connects your LAN drop.  On you LAN drop (where the cable is connected from your desktop to the wall) there might be a number identifier.  If so, this would correspond to a number on the patch panel.  From the patch panel, follow the cable to the hub.  This is your hub/switch connection.  To verify this, pull the connection from the hub and go back to your desktop to see if you have a connection.  If not, then this is your connection.  

If this is it, try replacing that cable bwetween the patch panel and hub (regular straight through CAT 5 cable).  Check if this makes a difference.  If not, change the port on the hub (not patch panel) that the cable is plugged in to.  Sometimes the port on the hub could be the culprit.  It doesn't matter which port on the hub you plug it into as long as it's empty.

2)  Another point of failure could be the cabling on the back of the patch panel (though unlikely because these are punched down pretty well).  Also hard to change unless you have a punch down tool.

3)  The last thing I can think of off-hand would be the cable from the LAN drop to the patch panel (that runs through the wall and ceilings).  But this is also less of a culprit than the hub cable or port.  Also, I think we elimnated this as a culprit by switching laptop/pc locations earlier.

As Steven Lewis mentioned in his first post, there are many variables that can cause this.  Since, I think we have eliminated the NIC we must no look at internal set up.

If these steps don't reveal anything then it must be something on your machine though it is strange that you can receive faster downloads from the Internet than you can internally.  Sounds like packet collisions possibly.

- dan soto -

ok, the socket it fine.
is it likely to be a problem with the card? transfers from the internet still occur at a fast pace - can download at 60k/sec on sites that allow it, so if this is the case can the card still be at fault?

k, think that the problem may be more widespread than i originally thought. It seems that i am limited in all internet access stuff as well.
I cant use talk or video in msn messenger, it causes an error on the other computer:
The network or computer you are trying to reach is experiencing a problem. Please try again later.
This is quite a problem!
Any ideas? Cheers

k, think that the problem may be more widespread than i originally thought. It seems that i am limited in all internet access stuff as well.
I cant use talk or video in msn messenger, it causes an error on the other computer:
The network or computer you are trying to reach is experiencing a problem. Please try again later.
This is quite a problem!
Any ideas? Cheers

Maybe not more widespread but more than likely the same point of failure.  Think about this, it could still be your incoming internet connection problem that is causing everything (though we having pinpointed the root cause for the symptoms).  I will do some research and get back with you.
Meanwhile.. stevenlewis... you around somewhere? :-)

Dan Soto

Follow up question to my last post to clarify...
Are you using messenger and video internally or externally?  If externally then my last explantion might not be valid.

it doesnt work either way - people on the network or people not on it...

what speed is your NIC set at? auto sense? try forcing it to 100mbit, full duplex and see if it helps

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