Well, first off, don't expect 100Mbps out of Cat 3. Here's the scoop with speed/duplex settings:
If both ends are on auto, they will negociate the best setting that they (as a couple) are capable of. So if you connect a 10/100 NIC to a 10/100 switchport and both are on auto, you will get 100-Full. There is one problem with autodetection, which only occurs when one end of a connection is set to auto and the other is forced to Full duplex (regardless of speed). If you have one end on auto and the other forced to (either 10 or 100) Full Duplex, you will end up with a duplex mismatch (i.e. the side on auto will fail down to Half-duplex, so you end up with one end at Half and one at Full). This would definitely cause "slowness" that you describe. It's tricky at first because you have link lights, you have connectivity, and can even ping things, but I've seen file transfers that would take 3 minutes take over an hour because of a duplex mismatch. The best solution for this is to make a decision and stick to it: 1) Set all switchports and NICs on end devices to autodetect (the only problem being it may attempt 100Mbps over a Cat3 cable) or 2) Force all switchports and NICs to the desired speed AND duplex. This method gives you control over which devices go which speed (i.e. you can have devices using Cat3 doing 10Mbps while devices using Cat5 you can set at 100Mbps). As far as suggestions, if you aren't connecting to hubs in any way, I'd recommend setting your duplex to Full. There no reason not to. Here's a link (that I found a long time ago and have held on to since I can't seem to find it again using Cisco's search) that has some good information on Ethernet Autonegotiation. http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/473/46.html#why_do_auto HTH, Mike W. Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=64487&t=64482 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
