Router Speed Issues

[illestdynasty]

I have the Linksys 4 Port router. Until recently I've been able to achieve speeds of 2.5MB+ on both machines,but a while back my slowest machine a 133mhz laptop(ancient I know) can't even seem to make the 1mb barrier. Both machines and the router have been tweaked for broadband. Both PCs have 10/100 nics and each PC shows a 100MBPS connection to the router. Both PCs/Router/Cable modem have the exact same brand RJ45 cables.

Router has the lastest Firmware. Latest Drivers for both NICS. Both Machines freshly defragged.

The main machine my XP(one listed in signature) has been the only one to touch my connection's normal 2.5+MBPS speed. Why!?!?!

Tweaks :
Speed Guide XP Patch for XP machine (modded RWIN to 513920)
Speed Guide Win98 Patch for laptop (modded RWIN to 513920)
Linksys's Internal MTU set to 1500 to match LAN PC's MTU

Here are the TCP/IP Analyzer Results from both machines (they are exactly the same for both machines) :
MTU = 1500
MTU is fully optimized for broadband.

MSS = 1460
Maximum useful data in each packet = 1460, which is equal to MSS.

Default Receive Window (RWIN) = 513920
RWIN Scaling (RFC1323) = 3 bits
Unscaled Receive Window = 64240
RWIN is a multiple of MSS
Other values for RWIN that might work well with your current MTU/MSS:
256960 (MSS x 44 * scale factor of 4)
128480 (MSS x 44 * scale factor of 2)
64240 (MSS x 44)

bandwidth * delay product:
Your RcvWindow limits you to: 20556.8 kbps (2569.6 KBytes/s) @ 200ms
Your RcvWindow limits you to: 8222.72 kbps (1027.84 KBytes/s) @ 500ms

MTU Discovery (RFC1191) = ON

Time to live left = 56 hops
TTL value is ok.

Timestamps (RFC1323) = OFF

Selective Acknowledgements (RFC2018) = ON

IP type of service field (RFC1349)= 00000000

What could be the problem?????? Remember only untill recently has this issue came up. I have made no changes to the laptop. Just booted it up one day and I couldn't even make 1mbps throughput.

[MosDef112]

Laptops run comparatively slower than desktops. Needless to say with a laptop running at 133MHz, the bottleneck is your CPU. I have a 200MHz Compaq Deskpro at home with Win98SE installed, and tweaked, and I could never get that sucker to hit anything higher than 900k downstream. Smithsonian hardware had it's time to shine during the era of the great dial up modem hype. Those great times are now past us, and so is that laptop's ability to be a usable item with today's software.

[illestdynasty]

Originally posted by MosDef112
Laptops run comparatively slower than desktops. Needless to say with a laptop running at 133MHz, the bottleneck is your CPU. I have a 200MHz Compaq Deskpro at home with Win98SE installed, and tweaked, and I could never get that sucker to hit anything higher than 900k downstream. Smithsonian hardware had it's time to shine during the era of the great dial up modem hype. Those great times are now past us, and so is that laptop's ability to be a usable item with today's software.

It can't be the CPU speed, the problem has just accured in the past 2 weeks.........

[MosDef112]

Interesting. Did you do any software/config changes on it recently?

[illestdynasty]

Originally posted by MosDef112
Interesting. Did you do any software/config changes on it recently?

Nope, just powered up one day and internet was dragging.

[MosDef112]

Interesting. Perhaps others that own Linksys routers can share anything. Yet another reason why I opted for a NetGear RT314. :D

[YeOldeStonecat]

Switching ports that each machine uses on the router would rule out the router having a port that's start to flake out. I doubt it's the router at all though.

On the lappy top....something has to have changed on it at that time. Dunno what your household is like...any kids that use it?

Can you think back to anything you may have possibly installed recently, or upgraded? Windows updates? Newer anti-virus? Change the configuration of your anti-virus to real time file protection? Any anti-virus at all, perhaps you picked up a virus that affects websurfing, like many of the kak.hta variants do.

Hard drive getting full?

I've found on some machines that start surfing slow, by going in through explorer, and manually deleting all the contents of the C:\Windows\Temp, C:\Windows\Temporary Internet Files, and all but index.dat in C:\Windows\Cookies.

And, well, the 133....may be getting tired. Some machines, when they start to go, it isn't always with a pop and a puff of smoke, it can be a slow painfull death.

[illestdynasty]

Well its definately something wrong with the laptop, its not the router. I just tried hooking the laptop directly to the modem and still the same problem. Reinstalled NIC drivers, the whole nine, still the same problem, nobody else uses the laptop cept me. So i dunno, any other ideas people?

[YeOldeStonecat]

///taps is heard in the background///

[BlackSword]

How much free REAL RAM do you have available?

I have see cases that you update drivers and windows and bla bla bla and it takes you just over the point to where you have too little free RAM available; Doesn't take much and the next thing you know you are trying to run up HILL.

Since you are talking and old laptop 120mhz,,, some only had 32mB of RAM,, the worst thing for performance is swapping in and out of virtual memory,,, add that to the possiblity that your harddrive is getting full and you are Killing your performance.

if that isn't the problem then I would try swapping the NIC out. Hopefully you have a friend with a NIC you could try.