Network Speed Problem

If the networking on your computer is "on board", meaning built into the motherboard, then you will need to go into your computers BIOS, and disable the onboard LAN controller. Then you will need to purchase a new Ethernet card that will plug into the PCI bus of your computer. The new card will need to be 1 GB/S (also known as "Giga-bit" Ethernet). If your current network card is already an add-on card plugged into a PCI connector, you need to remove it and replace with the new card.

Now, having said that, are you sure the network you are connecting to is Giga-bit Ethernet? Having a faster network interface in your computer won't do you any good if the network you are connecting to does not support the higher speed.

So, do you know the speed of the network you are connected to?

Tom D.

This particular model comes with onboard Gigabit LAN. It may be the network device he is connected to.

Dear Sir,

Kindly check my pc network card adapter type & some other setting. I want to tell you about one more pc whichis model Dell Optiplex 620. this computer working on window xp but it is connected on 1Gbps that is the reason I want to connect my 380 on 1Gbps. kindly help

Both computers LAN CARD built in type.

Are both computers on the same network? Are they both connected to the same (network) switch?

Who administers the network? You should confirm with that person that there is no network limitation that would prevent both computers from connecting at 1 GB.

Or, if it is fairly easy to do, interchange the computers (or the cable to the network) to try each computer with the other network connection. Confirm that the computer currently connected at 1 GB can also connect via the other cable at 1 GB.

Along the same lines as Mr. Kramer, you can check the port settings on the router. If you have a switch, all ports should act the same, but you may have inadvertently plugged into a low speed port if your device has one.

If there is bus priority, try booting up the "slower" computer and get it on the network first, then the "faster" computer. See if there is a speed assignment hierarchy.

Dear Sirs,

Thank you very much for your replies,

I have make some test which are mention belows,

1- Dell 620(XP) pc connect was 1Gbps. I disconnect & replace on router port which was connected my Dell 380(Win7) computer then computer showing connected speed 100Gbps. I was confused then I restart this computer now pc immediately connected on 1Gbps.

2- I connect Dell 380 pc open cable connect connect with that port which was connect with 620 pc then check connection speed that was showing 100Mbps. I restart pc but was still showing 100Mbps.

Both computer connected with same router & router model is

CISCO CATALYST 2960-24. I feel one difference between 620 & 380 PC. 620 pc away from 30meter from router & 380 approximately 60meter. is it ok or can create problem in this regard?

Please guide me.

I should state that I've never used 1 GB ethernet, so I'm not on firm ground here.

The test you did was helpful.

According to the chart in this article on Wikipedia, there is only one variety of Gigabit ethernet that has a distance limitation less than 25 meters, that is 1000BASE‑CX which uses twinaxial cabling. I don't expect that the network is using twinaxial cable.

But, is your network at home, at work, or somewhere else? If at work, there should be someone you can ask to find out the exact type of ethernet being used. More likely, I'd expect the ethernet to be 1000BASE‑T or 1000BASE‑TX.

I'm also wondering how important it is for you to get a 1 Gbit connection? I don't expect that you'll see any difference in your connection to the Internet or anything else. The one place where I'd expect you *might* see a difference is if you copy large files (or do backups) over the ethernet, there you might see a difference.

There will be other bottlenecks in your system, including in the network, that make most connections (like your Internet connection) much slower than 1 Gbit.

But, if you still want to try to get 1 Gbit, the next thing I'd try to do is get another 1 Gbit ethernet card (ideally, one that you know is good) and try it in your computer. If, as somebody else mentioned, the Ethernet interface you are now using is built-in to your motherboard, you will have to find the way to disable that.

Is the cable going to the Dell 380 at least CAT5e cable? If it's plain CAT5 it may not be up to the task. Also keep in mind that any wall jacks, couplers, and short patch cables from a wall jack to the computer all need to be rated for CAT5e as well.

I would say the next test to perform would be to swap the location of the two computers (if possible). See if the Dell 620 can connect at 1GB using the same cable(s) now being used for the Dell 380.

The distance from the router should not be a problem if the proper cable is being used, but if the cable is not Giga-bit rated, it certainly could be the problem.

If your 620 can connect at Giga-bit where the 380 won't, you have isolated the problem down to the 380. It could be a problem with the drivers or the chip set. Have you checked to be sure you are using the latest drivers for your Ethernet chip sets? You can check the Dell support site to see if any updated drivers are available.

Hope that helps,

Tom D.

Did you try to leave the 620 off and boot the 380 up to the network first? There may be a precedence issue there.

Also, the 380 comes with onboard GigE according to the Dell site, so I wouldn't expect you to buy a new card for the machine.

Dear Sirs,

yes I can test your said procedure,I will check & give you feedback.

Yes I already searched latest drive on dell web sit but its confirmed existing driver is updated.

Tell me one thing how to check my cable is cat5e or not??

I check my Ethernet cable which is directly connected my pc to router with RJ45 connector, no any wall socket between pc & router. I read something on my cable which is mention below, please check,

AMP NETCONNECT CATEGORT 6e CABLE E38034 1714 24AWG (UL) CMG ETL VERIFIED TO CATEGORY 6

Re: AMP NETCONNECT CATEGORT 6e CABLE E38034 1714 24AWG (UL) CMG ETL VERIFIED TO CATEGORY 6

That is Cat6 cable, and is just as good (or maybe somewhat better) than Cat5e cable.

But, you've already determined (by switching where the computers are connected (post #6)) that the problem is in your computer, not in the router, cable, or plug connected to the computers. (Well, most likely, anyway. There's a slight chance there is something marginal in the cable or plug combined with something else marginal in the computer, but I wouldn't concentrate on that yet.)

Sounds like you have CAT6 cable, which is as good as you can have for Giga-bit Ethernet. There is still a chance the cable is not up to specifications. I would follow through with swapping the computers (you could also just swap the cables, but it doesn't sound like the shorter cable will reach the computer that is farther away). See if the Dell 620 can connect at 1GB using the same cable(s) now being used for the Dell 380. You just need to swap things around a bit, to use the process of elimination to narrow this problem down. Keep us posted.

Tom D.

Dear Sir,

Please clear my confusion about network speed setting in network adapter.

why not showing 1000Mbps in this setting?

Check in picture.

Dear Sir,

you are giving me 160 dell model network driver & I am using 380 model. is it OK?

my pc installed driver which i have download from dell web site is showing in attached picture. now tell me what to do???

Dear Sirs,

I need your assistance please

Ahmad,

The picture in post #13 is too small to be of any help. If you don't have a choice for "Gigabit" in the speed setting for the device, I would have to agree that it seems like a driver issue. What happens if you use the "update driver" option, and let the system check for an updated driver? Does it find any suitable driver updates? Even though I cannot see all the details of the picture in the post, it does look like the dialog box does have the word "Gigabit" in the title. You can also use Windows Update to see if it offers any possible updates for your networking devices. You need to check the "Hardware, Optional" section of the Windows Update page, to see if it has any updated drivers detected for your chipset.

Do you know anyone who has more experience in computer hardware, that can help you troubleshoot this problem? It's very hard to troubleshoot computer issues through a forum, the best solution is a local source of knowledge that can assist you.

Tom D.

Dear Sir,

I have solved lot my issue with the help of this forrum member which was still pending of local services unavailability or short time of mine intersting to found.

I always put my request here & get answer

anyway, Please check attached picture of status when I press driver update tab(here is showing driver is already updated). I will check hardware option also & give you replay very soon.

Yeah, I got confused with the two machine names. If you downloaded the 380 driver from the Dell site, that should be fine. I would uninstall the old driver first, then reboot. When the plug-n-play tries to reload the driver from the .cab, you can cancel it or let it go, it doesn't matter. If you let it go, restart the computer again before you update with the one you downloaded from Dell. You can also just put the driver package on your desktop and after you remove the old one, redirect the wizard to your desktop to load that as the latest driver. If the driver package is an install package, the driver probably won't be found in it (compressed) and you will have to run the install package you downloaded manually. It is always a good idea to run install packages from the hard drive, not from a CD or DVD if you can. It runs faster and smoother on the install. This has paid off for me especially when installing drivers not part of an OEM install disk.

Dear Sir tdesmit

Your reply also needfull. please

It's a bit hard to read, but it looks like the update says the right driver is already installed. You could chose to replace or reinstall the driver anyway, and see if that helps.

Did you ever try to swap the locations of the two computers? See if the computer that does connect at Gigabit speed, can also connect at Gigabit speed hooked up where your trouble computer is now. If the one that is working in the other location will not connect at Gigabit, you may have a cable or connection issue.

As I said before, it's very hard to troubleshoot these kinds of problems via a forum. Do you have a "computer expert" friends that can help, locally?

Regards,

Tom D.