Ethernet via ExpressCard not running fast enough.

[AMATX]

Hi all - hoping someone out there with networking expertise can clue me in here:

* Z61p, running off of onboard ethernet port get ~3.5k on internet speed tests.

* Bought an ethernet card to use with the ExpressCard port:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWNX:IT

It's billed as running up to 1000Mbps, which oughta be a nice improvement over my default setup.

* When I run speed tests, the best I can do is marginally better than my 3.5k speed; pushing 4.0 speed.

* The ISP/network I'm on is substantially faster than that(max of 107M), so is not the network.

* When I run speed tests on a W700 which is connected through the same router, it pegs the dial on speed test right out of the shoot. Speed tests can't adequately measure how fast the network is

* Tried swapping ethernet cables between the two with no effect, so I don't think it's hardware.

* Ran the test via Firefox 2.0(old version on Z61p) and Internet Explorer 7.0. Don't think software is the problem, but don't actually know. Firefox 3.6 on the W700...

Appears to be something in my Z61p that's throttling this. I'd guess the ExpressCard ports are fast enough, as there's plenty of these type of cards for sale.

Ideas ????

[RealBlackStuff]

Did you disable the onboard LAN in your BIOS?
And uninstall/disable it also in Device Manager?
They might be getting into each others hair!

[AMATX]

Did you disable the onboard LAN in your BIOS?
And uninstall/disable it also in Device Manager?
They might be getting into each others hair!

Good ideas. Just finished trying your suggestions...nada, no change. Add in ExpressCard works fine, just not any faster.

I don't know networking all that well, so hard to say...am wondering if there's some other circuitry limiting factor in the Z61p platform(getting a bit old now) that's getting in the way.

[RealBlackStuff]

Ethernet ports are either 10Mb, 100Mb or 1Gb and newer ones are downward compatible.
The speeds are theoretical ones only, and could only be attained between e.g. 2 machines directly connected, not via internet speed.
Internet speed has no influence here, most ISPs only give you 1Mb, 5Mb or maybe 10Mb. You'd need to go to Europe to get (much) higher speeds.
The bottleneck in your case is probably a wrong or old driver for the LAN card.
Go into Device manger of the LAN card, and click on Update Driver, and let it go online.
What are the card P/N and FRU, or brand/model?

[AMATX]

Ethernet ports are either 10Mb, 100Mb or 1Gb and newer ones are downward compatible.
The speeds are theoretical ones only, and could only be attained between e.g. 2 machines directly connected, not via internet speed.
Internet speed has no influence here, most ISPs only give you 1Mb, 5Mb or maybe 10Mb. You'd need to go to Europe to get (much) higher speeds.
The bottleneck in your case is probably a wrong or old driver for the LAN card.
Go into Device manger of the LAN card, and click on Update Driver, and let it go online.
What are the card P/N and FRU, or brand/model?

Thanks. I'll try a driver update. The card I bought is a generic off of ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWNX:IT

As mentioned above, I actually do have a really high speed ISP connection, > 100Meg and I can get much faster response through a W700 using the same connection.

[lead_org]

the Z61p has a native Gigabit ethernet port. Did you check the ethernet port setting in your hardware manager?

[RealBlackStuff]

The LAN port (on my PC) says connected at 100Mbps, (even though it is a Gigabit port), but that is ONLY the speed between my router (which is only 100Mbps) and my PC.
I doubt very much that your ISP gives you "100 Meg" (of whatever abbreviation that is).
See also this: http://tom2network.com/the-fastest-isps-in-the-u-s/

[AMATX]

the Z61p has a native Gigabit ethernet port. Did you check the ethernet port setting in your hardware manager?

Hmmm; interesting - here's what device mgr shows:

Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet

Driver is dated 6/19/2008, which is fairly late for the Z61p series; would guess that's good enough...


So, maybe you're right, in which case I dunno why I'm stuck at a slow speed. As mentioned above, I have a W700 hooked up to the -same- router and it hums along at a much faster speed. Speed tests just peg the needle immediately, so I know this is really fast. And, as part of a swap test, I plugged the W700 ethernet cable into my Z61p slot(change one thing at a time...) and it was the same old slow from before. Therefore, I believe this problem is isolated to something in my Z61p. What that may be, I have no idea.

Found some more current drivers for the ExpressCard I just bought, but none of 'em will work the card correctly. At this point, unless I come up with some other ideas, I'll just shelve this for a bit, and maybe try buying a U.S. based card, such as Belkin and give it another shot. Sometimes the cheap Chinese stuff is junk; worth a try, but not always effective. For $16.79 I'm not out a lot for a quickie test...

[AMATX]

The LAN port (on my PC) says connected at 100Mbps, (even though it is a Gigabit port), but that is ONLY the speed between my router (which is only 100Mbps) and my PC.
I doubt very much that your ISP gives you "100 Meg" (of whatever abbreviation that is).
See also this: http://tom2network.com/the-fastest-isps-in-the-u-s/

Yes, Suddenlink ISP is rolling out a 107M speed service. Here's an announcement early on:

http://suddenlinkfyi.com/2010/05/18/max ... ix-cities/

I think 'Tom' needs to update his web doc...

I just signed up a few weeks ago(went from 20M to 100M) and it's very nice
Casual surfing is not that much faster, as latency/delays in the network are the primary slowdown there. Occasional pages update so fast I miss it, but mostly it just feels a bit faster. However, I just do vanilla surfing, so can't compare to others. BUT, this thing is wayyy fast on downloads. They're almost done before they start. Kinda reminds me of standing by an Interstate and watching cars zip by, then transporting to Indy and watching the race cars blow past. BIG diff.

[RealBlackStuff]

I'd do the following:
-take out that external ethernet card
-uninstall any drivers for it
-re-enable onboard ethernet in BIOS and DM
-update driver for ethernet port in Device Manager, letting it go online for update
-or try a matching driver from Vista if no improvement

Both onboard and external ports are Gigabit, so there shouldn't be any difference between them!
Run PC Doctor on the onboard ethernet port to ascertain it IS working.

[Neil]

This kind of thing can be very frustrating indeed. Reminded me of a similar problem I was having a few years ago with a 770E. I can't imagine that you are having the same problem, but... My problem was caused by my not having the correct motherboard chipset drivers installed, so the PCI bus speed was severly throttled. The computer seemed to work fine otherwise, but my network connection was extremely slow.

Thing is, I've never seem that kind of problem with any newer ThinkPads I've worked with, so not likely to help here, but there it is anyway...

[AMATX]

Thanks for the ideas, folks, but right now during holidays, I'm burnt out on fiddling with network hardware, so gonna shelve this for a bit. Not my main work box, so not a disaster, but would've liked to crank it up a notch. Depending upon when I can do a Thinkpad refresh(sooner??), I may just wait it out and go w/newer stuff.