The background is I want to transfer files between machines on my LAN. Basically taking advantage of free space and access to a burner as resources come available. The network is a wired 10/100 network running off a home router. Just about any machine I connect to the LAN works fine. My main machine doesn't (FC 2). Upload speed to a server is fine. Download is quite a bit slower. I've been ftping from an OS X Mac to my Linux box for the last week. I've been peaking at 5Kb/sec per connection. Sustained rates are around 2.0 - 2.3 Kb/sec. I *thought* HTTP was faster. I tried using HTTP from both the Mac and a Linux server and got similar speeds. Certain LARGE files take 2 hours to transfer from the Linux box to my machine. From the Mac it takes over night (it's a LAN - I don't mind leaving it on for hours if the job gets done). I can open multiple connections resulting in more files coming down in the same amount of time. Friends occasionally bring their machines over and get really good transfer rates. Five minutes or so for one of the LARGE files I mentioned.
I tried an experiment. I booted into the M$ side of my machine. Went to the DOS prompt. I ftp'd a large file (120 MB) after about 5 - 7 minutes I stopped the transfer and checked the size. It was almost done. Back to Linux and it's slow again.
So far with this experiment I've eliminated some possible problems. The cables should be fine. The port on the router is fine. The NIC is fine. Since it works with M$, the router is fine (although I have to check if it is limiting based on the DHCP address of the Linux box - I set up a static IP for the M$ side and won't let it have net access).
I've also followed up with a suggestion to look at mii-tools. It generates an error as if the card were too old to be used this way.
The Mac is refusing active connections so I'm in passive mode.
Any suggestions?
Later Mike