Question - Fast LAN connection yet high lag, whats the deal?

[Peach84]

I've got a problem with the LAN at my dorm, my connection says its running at 10 Mpbs and yet when i try to play a game, download files, go to webpages or just log on to aim the connection drags like a 36k and i ping at around 1000.

Specs:
My OS is WinXP Professional
2Gig Intel P4
Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection
Lucent Win Modem by Microsoft

Is there some kind of network settings or preferences that i don't know about that i could enable or disable to fix the problem? HELP! : (

[JWynn]

I dont have any "real help" but here are some things to keep in mind:

You might have a 10Mbps connection (ie: your card and cable speed can handle 10Mbps) but, you will not get those values in almost all real life network situations.

Your download speed more often then not is not limited by your download speed, but the other person's upload speed.

Broadband connections have fast downloads and relatively slow uploads. If a person is only sending you a file at 30K thats only how fast you can get it whether or not you have 300K of bandwidth available.

It also depends how the network in your dorm is set up. If everyone is online pulling music, playing games, etc.. you have that many people all sharing the "pipe" into your dorm. Where as if everyone is out and its only you, you can get faster speeds.

So while you still dont know how to fix it, at least you can understand why. I know it doesnt help, but hey. :)

[qball15j]

I agree with what JWynn said, while that won't help you it atleast explains what's going on.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Your dorm may or may not have 10 meg connections, even 100 meg connections, in your campus area network.

But...what type of connection does your school have...and how much of that connection is sliced off for use by the dorms, where the rest is dedicated to office and classroom networks.

How many computers all together are sharing that connection?

And...most schools are now prioritizing traffic, using packet shapers, that limit data from P2P sharing apps, games, etc...because they don't want their bandwidth abused and sucked up by that kind of traffic.

Add to that...dorms full of computers in bad shape, broadcasting junk, viruses, ad/spyware clogged machines, tons of students trying to run game servers, FTP servers, pirate sharing software, etc.

[Addict]

YOSC hit it.

Your school may not be managing their pipes at all. In which case, it will make the internet experience very poor. Its really pot luck sometimes in dorms. Most schools are managing their pipes now, but some haven't gotten to it or lack the funds to do so.

[Peach84]

I can safely say that the people in my dorm aren't sucking up all the bandwith b/c most of the p2p filesharing programs are blocked by the campus with the exception of ares. not a lot of people play games here either just because, well they just don't because they're weird :D um to answer the computers using this connection, there's probably 450 of them total in my dorm and no clue how many there are using it on campus. i also don't know what the campus is using for a connection sorry. r there any programs that can allow me to modify my broadband so i can send/receive packets or data faster online? i saw something about that on this site with the connection analyzer so i figure there's more that can be done about this (and NO im not talking about stealing cable Mr.Administrator) : P

thanks for all the input so far guys :D

[cyberskye]

YOSC - take a look at her Analyzer results. Could this result from running off-speed?

http://forums.speedguide.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=137085