Slow wired connection
 

First post so Hi all and thanks for all the info I've gained whilst lurking.

My friend has an Old Compaq EN (Pentium3) desktop with IBM chipped NIC 10/100, both lights on and 100MBps full duplex in control panel.
Connected by good CAT 5 cable to Virgin router with 10MBps connection tested by Virgin.
He is getting anything from .4 to 3,5 MB/s using www.speedtest.net looking at Maidenhead and a ping of 26ms, upload speed around .25MB/s.

BUT if I connect my laptop to the same cable I can get a consistent 9.6 to 10.3 MB/s
All of this is under XP Pro SP3.

The machine is old but has it's max amount of RAM and handles normal tasks well and at the sort of speed I'd expect.

Am I missing something simple or do any of you techno wizards have any bright ideas?
Thanks in advance
Dave

Re: Slow wired connection
 

have you tried TCP optimizer ? it might help - do a search its easy to find - other than that your on your own :)

ian

Re: Slow wired connection
 

Try changing to half duplex, the NIC might not be able to handle it.

Re: Slow wired connection
 

Thanks very much both for your replies.

I have run TCP Optimiser with no obvious improvement.

I will try half duplex. Do you think a newer NIC in one of the spare pci slots would be better than the one incorporated into the mother board? If so can you recommend one or suggest what I need to check in it's specification?
Thanks
David

Re: Slow wired connection
 

Try NOT using Maidenhead. I always get very low readings from there. Even sites in Eastern Europe gave higher readings than Maidenhead. Though if your PC is OK that's not likely the issue.

You could try moving files from one PC to the other via the router. See what speed that gives.

Re: Slow wired connection
 

Sorted!
Thanks for all your help, for the benefit of anyone else with this problem this was my solution.

Tried another NIC with little change.

Checked Task manager. CPU at 100% Network at less that 2%. Changed from I.E. to Chrome and removed "Rapport" a Natwest online security program which was using anything up to 100% of CPU.
With all that done I can get 4-5 Mbps although the CPU is still at 100%.

Just goes to show modern broadband is so fast (and I.E. such a resource hog) that the poor old Pentium 3 isn't up to the job any more.

Oh P.S. Maidenhead gives me the best reading down here in sunny Dorset.