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Posts Tagged ‘network cards’

by lungstruck

Question by Robert: What is the best way & equipment to speed up a network to share devices?
I need to share Maxtor 1TB & 2TB external hard drives between 2-4 desktop pcs. I found the only way to do this was to put the hard drives on the network.

I’ve tried using Network Magic and a Buffalo Tech 1 TB NAS hard drive, but they are both too slow. The Buffalo tech transferred a 4.4 GB dvd file in 12-13 minutes (same as reading/writing from a DVD disc), Network Magic about 45 minutes. USB takes 6 minutes, but obviously can only use one hard drive per pc and I need any or all pcs to be able to access all drives at any one time. I also found USB and Firewire switches, but as expected can only use one pc at a time.

All pcs are Windows Vista Ultimate, 4 GB RAM (Maxxed) with AMD 64 X2 Dual Core Processors 4200+. The network cards vary,,,one is a D-link and the other is onboard. Router is a Linksys WRT54GS with Speedboost.

So I’m wondering how I can speed transfer rates up or is that possible? Getting a better router and network cards are options I would use if I knew it would help. That and any adjustments. All will be hard wired into the router. nothing wireless.

Thanks for the help and enjoy your Sunday.
Update:

I upgraded to a Linksys WRT350N (with storage link) router, 2 Linksys 10/100/1000 network adapter and Cat 5 cables.

Much to my disappointment the Storage Link is way too slow. It takes 45 minutes to transfer a 4.4 GB movie file (stored on a USB Maxtor 1TB drive plugged usb into the router, however I can hook the drive up usb in my 2nd computer and transfer it thru it, the router, to my first computer in 9-10 minutes. Go figure. Makes no sense to me.

I originally couldn’t do that but I used Network Magic and replaced my network adapters with Linksys 10/100/1000 and that alone made it faster going through 2 computers. I was hoping adding a Linksys 10/100/1000 router and Cat 6 cables would help with the storage link, but it didn’t. Looks like I will add hubs to each pc and just transfer back and forth that way for now. My next experiment would be to add a NAS Hard drive to see if it’s faster.

Thanks for the info.

Best answer:

Answer by SonicD
You need to replace your router and all of your network cards. You’re running a 100MB network, and you can upgrade to a 1GB network. Make sure you buy a router and network cards that support the 1GB transfer rate. For routers, the LinkSys WRT350N would work. Also, upgrade your network cables from Cat5e to Cat6 (Cat6 supports faster data transfer rates and better shielding from noise).

If you really need blazing fast speed and have the money to spend, consider setting up a file server with multiple network cards connected to a professional grade router (Cisco or equivalent).

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by goodrob13

Question by Datsyukian_Style: what does backwards compatibility for computer network adapters?
what does this mean? And what is the best network adapter to get for around $ 40? it will be for a PC that is on wireless.

Best answer:

Answer by JustOncek
Over time connectivity for the internet has gotten faster. backward compatibility means that even though the device is newer and runs at a faster speed it still can connect with older devices with a slower speed. your network adapter depend on what you are trying to connect to and what connection that device has. look for a ethernet connection, usb connection or wireless. linksys and dlink are good network cards with decent support. you can get in touch with them through the internet before you purchase and they can give you the exact specifications of what you need to purchase

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by ruiwen

Question by warlord: What software are there to track which websites a wireless router user has visited?
I am looking for software that can track the websites and webpages a user has visited. For example, I am operating a wireless router that connects 5-7 users to the Internet. I am interested in what are these people are doing with my wireless service, as in are they abusing the wireless service that I am providing to them?

I am interested in how much time they are spending on the Internet, what websites they have visited or the webpages they are surfing and if they are downloading materials.

I know that such software are available on the open market but so far, I’m not sure where to find them. I am hoping for examples of such software that I can use.

Furthermore, I also wonder if the users on my wireless router can block such tracking software or If they can tack my attempts to follow them or if they will be aware if I am using such software to track them.

I undertsand that large networks and corporations routinely use such software. Are such software very expensive?

Best answer:

Answer by tj
One solution is to setup a transparent proxy.

http://www.squid-cache.org/

This can be done as to not interfere with access but can provide all sorts of data including every web access or you can restrict certain sites if you really want to. There are several add-ons that have been done for squid to provide reporting from the logs that it can keep. A side benefit is that using caching you can maximize bandwidth and make browsing effectively quicker for sites that are visited frequently or by multiple users.
This is basically a free solution. Any, say, old pentium machine with decent network cards, a fair amount of memory, HD space and Linux loaded on it can handle this.
You could also use something like tcpdump (a packet capture utility) which can monitor *all* traffic going through the network. This too is a free program.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tcpdump

http://www.tcpdump.org/

The average user would have no idea if you were using any type of ‘tracking’ method. And all but the most knowledgable would be aware of certain methods (eg tcpdump can be quite difficult to determine if it is being used depending on how it is used). While it would be pretty easy for someone to realize that they are going through a proxy (eg. a random error with the proxy accessing a page) this can be excused as being in place for the speed benefit.

Many corporations probably use some commercial software, mainly because they have a budget and don’t care so much about cost as they do prettiness and nifty charts and reports that a program can make for them with ease. There is plenty of open source software that can do just as much. For more possibilities do a search on freshmeat or sourceforge.

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