Poor Network Performance with Gigabit & Non-Gigabit

PsychoTherapistPsychoTherapist Posts: 2,687
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Just wondering if anybody has any ideas here.

I upgraded my network to Gigabit. Now the situation is, Gigabit computers can talk to each other quite nicely, but several old systems stuck on 100Mbps Ethernet, struggle with these new Gigabit connections.

An example, Computer 1, running at 1.0Gbps is sharing a 1080p HD movie. Computer 2, running at 100Mbps is struggling to receive the file - playback freezing. If I change Computer 1's NIC settings to Full Duplex 100Mbps instead, Computer 2 is now able to playback the HD movie perfectly.

So it appears as if running Gigabit is degrading the performance.

The new hardware consists of a Gigabit Router & an un-managed Gigabit Switch. It doesn't matter where I connect the old 100Mbps PC, either the router itself, the switch, or to another 100Mbps switch - same result if Computer 1 is set to 1.0Gbps, but works great if I slow Computer 2 down to 100Mbps.

Comments

  • TheBigMTheBigM Posts: 13,125
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    Computer 1 is trying to use jumbo packets maybe?
  • PsychoTherapistPsychoTherapist Posts: 2,687
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    Nope, that's disabled.

    I've solved this for now anyway, so I'll post what I did, in case it's ever useful -

    I've been digging through my setup, I think the issue is being caused by the unmanaged switch + router here, rather than my PC.

    I use DVBLink software to stream Satellite TV across my network and this problem with Computers 1 & 2 (with Gigabit enabled), occurred only whilst this was in use - I discovered this last night after rigorous testing.

    2 computers using Gigabit for the Satellite TV (we'll call em Computers 3 & 4), then streaming to an Xbox 360 (100Mbps capable only). 3 streamed to 4, then 4 to the Xbox, seemed to be hogging the network bandwidth (which it shouldn't be!) and causing this whole mess.

    Rather than go to the expense of purchasing a decent Managed Switch though, I've used a workaround - installed an old Realtek 100Mbps NIC in Computer 1, set with it's own IP (no Gateway or DNS, strictly LAN only and higher metric). Then I just connect to the shares on my old 100Mbps systems via that IP and hey presto - works great at all times.

    Plus, I can still use Gigabit on Computer 1 at the same time. :)
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