I am having some problems with speed on my home network and was wondering if someone could tell me if I'm doing something wrong or need to do something further. I am not good at drawing pic's so will describe my setup. PC 1 - IP Address 192.168.1.200, Netmask 255.255.255.0 Gateway 192.168.1.1 DNS1 192.168.1.1 PC 2 - IP Address 192.168.1.201, Netmask 255.255.255.0 Gateway 192.168.1.1 DNS1 192.168.1.1 Both PC 1 & 2 Connect via gigabit ethernet cable to a non managed gigabit switch. The gigabit switch then connects to an ADSL modem with 4 100mb connections on Port 1 The modems ip address is 192.168.1.1, it has its own gatway which is on the ip address provided by my ISP port 2 contains a WAP WAP - IP Address 192.168.1.254, Netmask 255.255.255.0 Gateway 192.168.1.1 DNS1 192.168.1.1 The problem is that whenever I try to transfer files from PC 1 to PC 2 or PC 2 to PC 1 that I am only getting a transfer rate of 10mb's not arround 40+ as I would expect, I suspect that the pipe is decreasing in size as traffic is being forced to travel to the ADSL modem where its limited to 100mb/s does anyone have any insight on this, do I need to add a couple of static routes to force traffic from A-B and vice versa unless its and unrecognized IP address - or do I have to do the same thing with a managed switch? I'm confused because I thought that the switch would have shaped the traffic from A to B not let the modem do it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Try to divide your system in more manageable parts and use some tools to pinpoint your problem: 1. To test PC1 and PC2 only use crossover cable. For doing the structure more simple, use fixed IP addresses and minimum name to IP resolution mechanisms: PC1 IP=192.168.1.200, DG=192.168.1.201, MASK=255.255.255.0, no DNS PC2 IP=192.168.1.201, DG=192.168.1.200, MASK=255.255.255.0, no DNS For sharing use notation with static IP address(s): \\192.168.1.201\Share2 \\192.168.1.200\Share1 This setting will exclude name resolution and impact of switch. Disable services that are not important - to name one - QoS Install network monitor on one (or both) computer(s). Traffic analysis will give you insight what happens and more importantly, what are time lags. Remember that there are important differences in protocols, configurations and functions: xcopy is faster that copy SMB 2.1 is faster then SMB 1(in Windows XP) Size of files may play the role and that is why size of packet directly influence the speed (look for jumbo or giant packets) Use performance monitor to find queues Type of hard disk influence the speed of transfer. SSD or hybrid SATA III disks belongs to the fastest in SOHO environment. 2. If you properly acquire the influencing parameters, you can proceede to switch. For dumb swich you have not chance to tune parameters. However there are reasonably prices switches with slight management and perhaps logging capability. 3. Support of ADSL is usually under the scope of Internet provider. In addition to this, there are specialize forrums and communities which can help. 4. There is frequent misunderstanding in distinction of speed in MBps and Mbps (it is 8:1 ratio here) Regards Milos

Not quite where I was heading. I already know that my switch is working, tested with a cross over cable with no DFGW or DNS iit works great for file transfers ; the problem arises when you want to have internet on this connection as well. Traffic leaves PC1 bound for PC2 but ends up hitting the modem as a DNS transaction or a DFGW transaction slowing the network to the speed of the slowest component I.E the 100 megabit connection on the modem, what I am trying to figure out is barring the Modem IP and the default gateway IP how to ensure that the traffic destined for PC2 only go's to PC2 and thus is not slowed down by the modem. Cheers in advance. All the worlds a stage and the people only actors.. Here's the rub the people suck at acting and this things a re run.

Your computers run on the same subnet and the common speed is set by the slowest device, which is in your case Internet modem. Theoretically there are two solutions: 1. Use different subnets for communication 2. Use managed switch and virtual LANs. Your problem is not on the side of Windows 7. Regards Milos