windows/linux ethernet speed difference

[nishtya]

Make a long story as short as I can, finally got cable. I dual boot (ok, it's triple actually) kanotix and win98SE. Had to set up my onboard ethernet adapter on an ECS K7S5A after all these years (old board, not the newer pro this a rev 3 or so). Used the driver on the CD for windows. Used rtl 8150 module on linux. No probs with linux. My provider's little java applet "test your speed" deal shows in the neighborhood of 8760kbps in linux. Windows wasn't even registering (and felt it). Couldn't bring up the router config in any browser on windows either so I set it up with linux (which is my main o/s anyhow).

Did a fresh install of windows since it was totally too old on there had only done restores of backup images in years now. Got an updated driver (sis900 with led's in the tray no less) and windows connection flies (relatively speaking) to what it was. It shows 4700kbps. Little more than half as fast as linux though I don't really discern a difference any more. And I can now get into the config for router if I wanted to from windows.

Any thoughts why the difference in speed? Has to be the adapter driver, no? Everything in windows is fresh and installed from scratch. It is hard to believe that a linux driver is giving better performance. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth but am now wondering if maybe the speed is misreported under linux. Advice?

[rusty]

Dunno, try for comparison:

http://www.bandwidthspeedtest.com/

Perhaps you have the Windoze firewall betwixt (Zonealarm or somesuch) ?

[nishtya]

same results, rusty. (it did say my linux 8.7 megabits was unbelievable?)

So possibly there is just some misreporting from linux? I do not have the firewall installed on windows, yet.

[Durand Hicks]

You're not alone in seeing big differences in download speeds between linux and windows. However, you would need to tweak the tcp/ip settings in the registry in windows to get to 95% of the speed reported by linux.

Durand

[nishtya]

don't hold back on me, durand...what is it I need to tweak? I had previously neutered IE and ripped out the networking (was on dialup and I preferred IE in chains in the basement

So I went for a fresh install figuring the mtu settings were hopelessly fubarred (for a networked puter) if nothing else.

I don't mind messing with the registry. This is 98SE. I will make a backup image as it is now and won't be much bother to restore if I do mess up something.

[Durand Hicks]

Nishtya,

Here's a link to the utility that does it for you. It worked for me on winXP and it does make a difference when you choose the optimized settings for modem, cable or dsl.

http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

In linux, I consistently get 450k sustained download speed and in windows I was able to achieve 410k with the tweaked settings. Prior to that, I was lagging at 300k without the tweak.

Edit: Whoops, forgot to mention the utility's name is tcp optimizer. It's pretty safe and you shouldn't need to make a backup of your registry, windows does that after every successful boot anyway. Look for it in c:\windows\backup, it's a hidden folder that contains compressed backups of the registry and boot files. The only way to restore it is to use the command prompt.

HTH,

Durand