What Xfer speeds should I expect with a home network (100Mbps) 2 computers and a router.?

Question

Running 2 computers XP Pro
DLink DI-524.
Both wired connections showing 100Mbps.
But when I Xfer 100MB at a time I see network activity
start off with a spike of 75-80% network usage,
then drop down to 5-8% for the remainder of the Xfer
Taking 20 plus minutes.
Should I not see network utilization at something closer to 50% or more?

Answer 1

what you are seeing is correct. unfortunately I lot of people are misunderstood how network devices truly operate.

here is an example:

you have 2 PC's both with 10/100 Mbps NICs installed and connected by a segment of CAT5 cabling. the "link" between those 2 PC's can accommodate 100 megabits per second of traffic. you will never see the network utilization rate anywhere even close to 100 Mbps because a desktop PC can not "offer" data to the network at that rate.

Lets say that you have a brand new 3 GHz system with 2 GB or RAM and a Segate hard drive that spins at 7,500RPM with an internal sustained transfer rate (STR) of 20 Mbps. It might only be able to offer data to the network at 4 Mbps because of disk fragmentation.

Answer 2

100mbps is the speed of your network card, not your internet. They are not the same. Upgrading from a Cat-5 cable to a Cat-6 cable will do nothing because Cat-6 cables are rated for 1000mbps, and Cat-5's are 100mbps. Your network card is a 100mbps ethernet card so upgrading the cabling will do nothing if you don't have the hardware to back it up. The speeds that your router reports are your actual internet speeds you get from your internet service provider.

Answer 3

I would think so. You might want to check the duplex settings of your router and Nics. I know there is a lot of network over head with the protocols used to route the traffic, but indeed, 5% utilized is low. Also, make sure cabling is correct type and not damaged as well. Good luck.