Gigabit speeds not gigabit

[jack1993]

I have seen this issue posted elsewhere but there haven't been any updates for a while.

I bought a gigabit pci card for my desktop pc to enable direct crossover connection over ethernet between it and my PS3. I can transfer files but at a max speed of about 7MB/s and the gigabit speeds should allow up to 125MB/s. I know the hard drive obviously wouldn't support that but I should still be getting 30-40MB/s shouldn't I? I'm pretty sure I got more than 7MB/s when using the 100 megabit ethernet port built into the motherboard. Vista seems to think that it is working at gigabit speeds, the light on the network card says it's running at gigabit speeds, on the PS3 settings I've tried auto, 1000mb half duplex and 1000mb full duplex so I don't know where the issue is. I'm using a cat5e cable which is supposed to support gigabit, but I've ordered a cat6 cable just to see if there is any difference and will post my results here, but according to wikipedia, cat5e cables in theory are capable of over 10 gigabit speeds. The card is a realtek RTL8169SC. I don't have any other devices with gigabit to check how fast they work but I shouldn't think it is the card as many others have the same issue.

The answers I have found while searching the issue include: the encrypted PS3 file system restricts the speed at which it can be written to, or there is network throttling from vista, or sony have not allowed speeds higher than 100mb in the firmware. Some people have said that they get higher speeds when not using ps3ms and that it could be a software issue.

I'm really stuck on this one but it's a bit stupid including gigabit ethernet on the PS3 if it won't work.

Thanks in advance for your answers,

Jack

[shagrath]

depends what are you copying... if it's a mkv, don't expect blazing fast transfers, because you are doing an encoding in real time

[jack1993]

No, I convert mkvs first always anyway. I tested it only on files compatible with the PS3.

[shagrath]

I got 50Mb/s on my 100Mb LAN so I don't know if this software related (or maybe in particular cases)

[jack1993]

Sorry I'm a bit confused because of the capital letters. You are on 100 megabit LAN yes? And you say you're getting 50 megabit or megabyte speeds? If you are saying megabyte, 100 magabit lan can only allow up to 12.5 megabyte can't it?

[shagrath]

yep sorry Mb = Megabit
so it seems I got the same speed than you. same speed with Twonky btw

[blackbird79]

Hi jack,

bought a gigabit pci card for my desktop pc to enable direct crossover connection over ethernet between it and my PS3

probably the crossover-cable is the problematic thing. If you connect two devices on 10/100MBit Ethernet, there is a need for a crossover cable. But due to changes in the way how data is transferred in Gigabit Ethernet, there is no need to use a crossover cable. Please remove the crossover cable and use a 'normal' patch cable. But be sure that it is a fully connected cable with 4 cable pairs, Gigabit Ethernet uses all 4 cable pairs, where 10/100 MBit Ethernet uses only 2 pairs.

cheers,
blackbird.

[jack1993]

I've ordered a standard cat6 cable off ebay for about £2.50 so I'll post my results back here. What are "cable pairs"? I've never heard the term used before.

[blackbird79]

A standard network cable consists of 8 cables, but they are not just 'flat' inside, they are twisted to pairs to avoid electromagnetic interference.

On 10/100MBit Ethernet, Pins 1 and 2 are used for transmit, Pin 3 and 6 are used for receive.
On Gigabit all Pins 1 through 8 are used simultanously for transmit and receive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twisted_pair
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_cable

.. I could explain it more detailed in german, but it's hard to translate to english ..

Cheers,
blackbird

[jack1993]

Oh right cheers. But does cat5e count as gigabit? Because it's meant to do 1gb speed. My cat6 cable's been dispatched so I should be able to post my results soon