Internet Speed - Oh what great guru can shed some light.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Confused
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Confused

Situation:
I have a laptop, newly configured with both W2000 Pro and
Windows ME (Duel Boot). Both OS's are security and service
patched to date (as of today).
With this laptop, I connect to the internet via ICS. The
ICS PC is a W/98se PC (also patched to date).

Problem:
All works except for one major difference...connection
speed. The problem is that when I connect to site A (for
example) and download a 10MB file with Windows ME loaded,
my connection is significantly slower than if I connect to
the same site with the same laptop booted under Windows
2000 pro and download the same 10MB file.

The difference is as follows:
Windows ME download of a 10 MB file took 26 minutes.
Windows 2000 Pro download of the same 10 MB file took 8.5
minutes.

I have also tried other OS's on the same network and all
are as slow. Only the W2000 pro OS is faster. I have
looked at the protocol's, network settings, etc. I have
also removed all other connections from the switch,
leacing only the ICS pc and my laptop physically
connected. The W2000 Pro PC is significantly faster.

Oh what great guru can shed some light...

thanks,
Bald from scratching my head.
 
Okay I will start, you will probably get a dozen answers.
1st...ME is a pig! It was abandoned for a reason! Only use it if you
have to and then only because you don't want to upgrade!
2nd...you are going thru ICS to download, of course it will be slower!
You are making a computer work to download and then transfer the data
THRU another computer! The actual downloading computer will be slower
because it has to tell the other computer what to do with each and
every packet of data that is transmitted. When a packet is bad the
computer has to tell the program, the program has to go thru the other
computer and then back to the web site or whever to tell it to
redownload that packet. That all takes time!
3rd...Win2000 is designed as a more internet friendly OS, meaning that
the OS itself handles connections more efficeintly than other OS's.
XP not withstanding.
4th...Win98SE is not designed to do what you are doing to the extent
that you are doing it. It is maxed out and probably an older cpu to
boot. Maybe something like a 500mhz or so cpu? Running ICS takes mucho
cpu time and an older computer just doesn't have it to spare.
I used to do what you are doing and switched to a router and every
computer connected to it and all connections are MUCH faster!
Even the machine that was running the ICS returned to its original
speed.
 
Put NAT32 on the PC that connects to the internet and quit
using ICS altogether. NAT32 works very well. I use it with
8 computers looking through one to the internet and it is
very transparent.
 
I understand that ICS with W98se may not be the best fit
for Internet connection sharing however it works great
when connected to it with W2000 pro - speed is good.
However when I connect to it with ME or XP pro or w98 on
the same switch/port as the 2000 pro OS, speed still
bites. Does W2000 pro have any special configuration
options that would make it communicate so much better on
the client end?
 
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