Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Gigabit networks with low quality cables

I have 2 computers attached to a Gigabit switch and both these computers have NICs that support 1 GBPS speed. However, I noticed that transferring files between them was slow so when I inspected the speeds I saw that one of them was operating at 100MBPS and the other at 1GBPS.

At first I went into the driver config setup and fiddled around with half and full duplex to see if that would make a difference. After a bit more research I found a comment that a network cable might be the culprit and that some network cables (e.g. Cat 5) do not support speeds over 100MBPS. I didn't believe that could possibly be the problem but it was easy to test so I switch the cables and the slow speed moved with the cable. So replacing the cable did the trick. Apparently Cat 5e and Cat 6 are what you need to get the higher speeds.

I'm now transferring data at 10 times the original speed.

Mouse without Borders

Do you have 2 or more PC's on your desk that each have their own keyboard and mouse? Do you want to control it all from one keyboard and mouse without using a KVM and have the mouse float from one monitor to the next and allow copy and paste between them? Then Mouse without Borders is for you:

http://aka.ms/MouseWithOutBorders

I've been using it for a few days now to link my two desktops together and it's working very well. The only hiccough is that I need to sign in to my primary computer first and then the secondary computer second (with its keyboard) if I want them to work together. After that it's all controlled from the primary keyboard and mouse. If I sign in in the other order then I have to use their own keyboards and mice to control them.