[trbarry]

I have an Internet gateway server machine. Other computers in my home have the address of that machine specified in the TCP/IP properties as a gateway.


But I copy a lot of large ATSC files recorded on my HTPC to other machines. I used to just use NETBUI and so I don't think the gateway made any difference. But now I'm also using TCP/IP for file copying. Does that mean that all inter-box file copies in my home have to got through the gateway machine? I don't think that would be good.


Also, a few months ago my switch died and the local discount computer store sold me a 100 mbps "switching hub" for my emergency replacement. Is that a switch? Or slower?


- Tom

 

[Troubleshooter]

Tom, The only time your local machines go through your 'internet gateway machine' should be to access the internet. Copying from local PC to local PC shouldn't go through there at all (you'd have to go through major contortions to get it to do so in fact, so I'd say theres no way it is). Dump netbui altogether . As for your switching hub, I'm pretty sure its a switch. One way to check is to see if your network link is 'full duplex' or look for 'full duplex' anywhere on the switch/hub (there's probably a light for it). A hub can't do full duplex and a switch should only be doing fully duplex.

Good luck, sounds like you're running fine.

-Trouble

 

[trbarry]

Quote:

Tom, The only time your local machines go through your 'internet gateway machine' should be to access the internet.

Troubleshooter -


Each of my machines is configured to "Use Gateway" to 192.168.0.1 for Internet (or TCP/IP) communications. Do you have any idea how it distinguishes "Internet" from other TCP/IP calls. I though TCP/IP just made some service call to say 123.456.789.012:80 for instance for web browsing and to some other port for Microsoft file sharing. So I guess certain services would have to be excluded from the gateway use.


BTW, most of the machines are running Win/Me, largely from inertia, frugality, and laziness.


- Tom

 

[Grabraham]

Tom..


All of your machines should be on the same IP network, from your post I would say the "internal network" at your house is 192.168.0.0 with a 24 bit subnet mask -255.255.255.0. so that network includes anythink with an IP address of 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.254 . To make things (I hope) simple to understand as long as the IP addresses of the 2 machines that are "talking to each other" in the file transfer are on the same IP network they will not travel through the gateway machine for anything.

 

[ChrisW6ATV]

Tom-


I suspect the 'switching hub' is a 'hub', even if it is some kind of improved one... if it was a real, honest-to-goodness switch, why would it have the word 'hub' on it?

 

[stgdz]

When transfering files this is how it goes


Media server->switch->HTPC


Instead of


Media server->switch->gateway->switch->HTPC

 

[trbarry]

Okay, I looked at the fine printing on my "switching hub" for the first time. It was actually something I had to replace in a hurry one Sunday afternoon when my previous switch diied valiently fighting a stroke of lightening, which also toasted my Tivo modem.


I now apparently have an "Encore ENH908-NWY 8 port nway switch"
listed here . That web page doc says it does full duplex, so I guess it is okay. Everywhere except the small print on the case calls it a switching hub instead of a switch. But I guess they are the same.


And thanks everyone for the logic of 192.168.0.0/255 being recognized as a local domain by Win/Me TCP/IP.


- Tom

 

[bdraw]

Tom you should be able to achieve speeds as high as 80Mb/s with that setup. (lots of variables)


The correct way to express your subnet is 192.168.0.0/24 the computer sees this as


11000000.10101000.00000000.00000000

11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000


The /24 means 24 ones or 255.255.255.0


When it attempts to locate a resource it compares it's IP address to it's subnet mask. If the part with the ones is the same as the destination it does not use the gateway.

The term Domain when referring to networking commonly is either a common DNS namespace (avsforum.com) or a domain is a set of network resources (applications, printers, and so forth) for a group of users.


Networking is fun isn't it?


I hope I helped as much as your posts have helped me with A/V encoding filters etc.

Thanks.

 

[loraan]

Quote:

Originally posted by ChrisW6ATV Tom- I suspect the 'switching hub' is a 'hub', even if it is some kind of improved one... if it was a real, honest-to-goodness switch, why would it have the word 'hub' on it?

A good question, and yet one that has stymied my network troubleshooting efforts more than once. Many "hubs" out there (not even "switching hubs") are switches internally. Why would a vendor do this? I have no idea. My current best theory is that it's so cheap to make switches nowadays that, for some manufacturers, there's not a financial incentive to continue making hubs, but they know customers still want them, so they just sell switches and label them hubs.


If it says "switching hub", I'd say there's a 50/50 chance it's really a switch. But only a packet capture tool will tell you for sure which it's doing. Even the half-duplex/full-duplex trick mentioned earlier in the thread isn't sure-fire. Yes, only a switch can do full-duplex, so if you're doing full-duplex, it's a switch. But sometimes a NIC will auto-negotiate to a half-duplex connection even when it's on a switch (mostly due to sub-optimal auto-negotiation in the drivers). You could try forcing your NIC to full-duplex in the driver configuration and seeing if you get a link light and/or can send data.

 

[trbarry]

Quote:

You could try forcing your NIC to full-duplex in the driver configuration and seeing if you get a link light and/or can send data.

Just flipped over to try that and see the NIC is already set to force full duplex. So I guess it works.


- Tom