GIG Ethernet Support

  • Thread starter Thread starter Andy Welcomer
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A

Andy Welcomer

I have what might be an easy question. I have a gig nic cards. When I go
into the properties, I cannot set the speed to 1 gig. My only options are
10 or 100 half/full. Does Windows 2000 support setting a NIC to 1 gig? I
do achieve the speed if I have the speed set to auto, but would like to set
it specifically.

Thanks
 
I have what might be an easy question. I have a gig nic cards. When I go
into the properties, I cannot set the speed to 1 gig. My only options are
10 or 100 half/full. Does Windows 2000 support setting a NIC to 1 gig? I
do achieve the speed if I have the speed set to auto, but would like to set
it specifically.
Click to expand...

Have you installed the correct driver for the NIC?

Jeff
 
yes, the driver is the most up to date, all firmware and BIOS are the
newest. I've noticed this on different types of systems.
 
Andy said:
yes, the driver is the most up to date, all firmware and BIOS are the
newest. I've noticed this on different types of systems.
Click to expand...


Andy,

To answer your original question, yes, Windows 2000 itself supports GigE
NICs with no problem. We have them (GigE NICs) on a bunch of Dell
servers running Window 2000 Server.

Since you indicated that you have the latest driver, have you ensured
that you have the proper cabling (GigE requires Cat 5e, I think) and
also is the NIC going into a GigE-capable switch or router? Or, if
you're connecting from this GigE NIC directly to another computer via a
cross-over cable, does the other computer also have a GigE NIC?

Which GigE NIC are you using BTW?

Jim
 
They are 3com cards. the problem is I can "force" them to communicate at 1
gig.

In the NIC properties where you can set the speed and duplex settings (note
these options are different depending on NIC manufacture) I can only set the
speed 10/Half, 10/Full, 100/Half, 100/Full and Auto.
If I set the card to Auto, I do achieve 1 gig throughput. Best practices
dicatate not to use auto negotiate, so I would like to force the speed.
This is happening with every type of NIC I have, 3com, HP and Intel.
One other note, on a identical hardware platform using Server 2003, I can
set the speed to 1 gig.

On your dell boxes if you check the speed and duplex settings, are you set
to auto or are you set to foce 1 gig?
 
Andy said:
They are 3com cards. the problem is I can "force" them to communicate at 1
gig.

In the NIC properties where you can set the speed and duplex settings (note
these options are different depending on NIC manufacture) I can only set the
speed 10/Half, 10/Full, 100/Half, 100/Full and Auto.
If I set the card to Auto, I do achieve 1 gig throughput. Best practices
dicatate not to use auto negotiate, so I would like to force the speed.
This is happening with every type of NIC I have, 3com, HP and Intel.
One other note, on a identical hardware platform using Server 2003, I can
set the speed to 1 gig.

On your dell boxes if you check the speed and duplex settings, are you set
to auto or are you set to foce 1 gig?
Click to expand...


Andy,

On the Dell boxes, we have Broadcom GigE NICs, and they're all set to
"Auto". From my testing, depending on what they're plugged into, they
negotiate correctly.

For example, I plugged one NIC into a 10/100 switch, and it negotiated
to 100 Mbits/sec, based on some throughput testing that I have been
doing with Netperf, Iperf, and TTCP/PCATTCP.

When I connected two of the Dells with these NICs via cross-over cable,
the NICs negotiated to 1 Gbits/sec, again based on the same network-only
throughput tests.

I've also beeen doing some testing with some IBM servers with Intel GigE
NICs, and the same happens there, and those don't have a setting for
speed in the NIC properties.

BTW, my understanding, and I've seen several posts that say this, is
that for GigE, you should generally let the NICs auto-negotiate, and
that seems to work for the systems that I've been working with.

Jim
 
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