I am getting a very large amount of collisions while transferring files using samba. My network consists of only two computers connected by a hub. One is RedHat 7.1 and one is Win98. I have read that this may be due to the nic cards being in full duplex mode without a switch. Should full duplex mode not be used with a hub, only a switch? How can I check what mode my card in the linux box is in and set it, if necessary? Thanks.

seriously, if you've only 2 machines... why use a hub? i'd assume it's a 10base hub and 100base cards? well just get a sharp knife and go to work on the cable. you'll speed your network up 10 fold. (well 10ish).

as for checking modes, if your card is a rtl8139 generic then check http://www.scyld.com/network/rtl8139.html other cards may well have similar programs.

Can't do that. The reasoning for the hub is that, once the linux box is set up, there will be four machines on the hub all being served by the linux box.

The card in the linux box is a 3Com 900. It uses the stock 50x/90x driver. I've read that there are some problems with this card/driver, although I don't really understand what the problem actually was. The Win98 box has a cheap NetGear card.

I used mii-tools to check the 3Com card. It says it's in half-duplex mode. The Win box says it is in half duplex mode.

When I play an mp3 file off of the linux box, there are not really any collisions. The problem is only really evident when I am copying a file from one box to the other. When I do this, the collision light on the hub lights up solidly. The speed is not bad though, so perhaps it is normal. I worry that performance will be degraded when I add two more machines to the hub, though.

The problem is that your using a hub. With only two computers a hub is fine. More that two lets say four Then collisions are all over the place. What you need to do is get a switch( less than a $100) That can help alot. I was suprised nobody knew that.



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tarballedtux -- the CCNA dork.

I'm getting the collisions whith only two machines, though. I haven't tried all four on the hub yet.

Of course there are collisions, collision always happen. I was asying that it will get worse when four machines are on the network. So a switch is neccesary to minimize the collisions. Also, full-duplex doesn't happen with hubs, I belive only switches.


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CCNA Geek

I have a switch, and still get mad collisions. I want to turn my NE200 (ne2k-pci) compatible Kingston NIC to Full Duplex. How do I do that?

Use the program mii-tools if you don't have it, you should get it. It is usually in the /sbin/ directory. If you have it and need to know how to use it, look at the man page with "man mii-tools"