10Mb/s on a 100Mb/s LAN

digiman

I am connected to a LAN, and I have a 10/100 ethernet card but when I look in the networking tab of the Task Manager its says that I am only connected at 10Mb/s. How can I change this so I connect at 100Mb/s? I cannot find any settings that I change to do this. I am 99% certain that I used to be able to connect at a 100Mb/s before.
I have a steady green light and a flashing orange light at the port for the ethernet cable.

roamer

Is the hub/switch capable of 100 mbs?

digiman

I can't say for certain, but am nearly sure that it is. Is there anyway that I can test this?
I know for certain that I used to be able to download at speeds at 5MB/s or more so I had to be on a connection that was at least 40Mb/s, but I was connected to a different ethernet port the last time.

zAbbo

Have you noticed any network speed degradation ?

digiman

bazH wrote:

Have you noticed any network speed degradation ?

Well I just downloaded a file from ftp.heanet.ie and was maxing out my connection at about 1150kB/s, and task manager was showing that it was 90-100% of my connection which is about correct.
So does anyone know a way of changing the setting on your network card that would allow you to switch between 10Mb/s and 100Mb/s?

Karoma

i dunno if it'll work, but to answer your Q:
Start > run > devmgmt.msc
Expand Network Adapters
Right-click on the LAN card
Properties
Advanced > Link speed [select from dropdown]

digiman

When I selected any speed apart from Auto, it just switched of my network card, there wasn't even any lights at the network port. Any other ideas?

Karoma

well,yeah-stop doing that.
Re-install the network card driver or upgrade the driver.
Provide a more detailed explanation of the network setup.

Stephen

What kind of switch is it plugged into? Sounds like you're on a college lan or something like that. They're probably using managed switches (something like a Cisco 2950 maybe), where each port can be configured to do different things - speed, vlans and so on.
Are you sure there isn't a ****ty quality patch cable in the middle screwing things up?

Karoma

'cisely.
What "port" did you mean Digi? What happens if you recreate the original, previously working conditions-> does it work at the desired speed?

digiman

Stephen wrote:

What kind of switch is it plugged into? Sounds like you're on a college lan or something like that. They're probably using managed switches (something like a Cisco 2950 maybe), where each port can be configured to do different things - speed, vlans and so on.
Are you sure there isn't a ****ty quality patch cable in the middle screwing things up?

I'm connected to the residences network in DCU, I have no idea what kind of switch I am plugged into, any way I can find out?

digiman

Karoma wrote:

'cisely.
What "port" did you mean Digi? What happens if you recreate the original, previously working conditions-> does it work at the desired speed?

When I was certain that it worked before I was in a differenent room in Res so it could easily have been connected to a different switch.
I thought that I was connected at 100Mb/s in this room last week, but can't say that for certain.

stevenmu

If it's a dumb 10/100 hub you're connected to, then it's possible someone connected a machine configured to only run at 10 to it, dragging the rest of you down to their level as it were. Check with others around you are they connecting at 10 or 100, also is there some kind of IT/helpdesk you could ask ? It could simply be that whatever switch/hub you were on had a problem and they threw in an old 10 only one as a temp replacement or something like that.

Capt'n Midnight

Dodgy cable could also be the problem.
Also some combinations of autosensing card and hub/switch won't look for 100Mb if 10Mb works, so try setting your card to 100Mb only.

Out of curiousity - half or full duplex on the 100Mb ?

BTW: internet speeds probably aren't more than 10Mb anyway by the time you take into account contention so 100Mb would only be useful for local access.