Extremely slow internet wired connection in Asus x101h, Ubuntu 11.10

Question

My ethernet connection is very slow (it was also with 11.04). It works fine with another PC with XP. Also, WIFI is OK in Ubuntu.

I've checked several help pages, but nothing seems to work:

The connection is slow for the Update Manager too, so the Firefox settings I changed obviously did nothing.

It is not the IPv6 (set to Ignore) either. The IPv4 method set to Automatic (DHCP) doesn't work at all. In manual method, with addresses and DNS copied from my other computer:

Address: 192.168.1.156

Netmask: 255.255.255.0

Gateway: 192.168.1.1

DNS servers: 203.176.128.10,203.176.128.11

It establishes a connection but then it is really slow. Sometimes it works fine for brief periods of time, then stops again.

I also updated the BIOS.

... and also installed bind9.

I'm connected to a apartments building's connection, so I don't have access to the router, etc.

The ethernet controller is Atheros AR8152 v2.0 (rev c1). At the network information it says that the driver is "atl1c", which I also updated (or installed, I'm not sure now).

My wife is getting really pissed off and I don't know where else to look.

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I believe what Igarzo is trying to do is to help you eliminate different problem areas.

To use his method you would either have to buy or make a "Crossover" Cat5 cable or purchase one as you will be connecting two like devices (computer ethernet port to another computer ethernet port).

To use a normal Cat5 patch cable will not work as the wiring is done differently (don't use the same one you connect your computer to the ethernet/broadband port).

In addition you will need to configure both IP addresses manually for both connected machines to something like 192.168.0.1 for the first machine and 192.168.0.2 for the second which defaults to a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 if I remember right.

Keep in mind that if you are trying to send the files back and forth between a Linux machine and a Windows machine you may have to have Samba or the like installed on the Linux machine.

If the two machines transfer files at descent speeds, then you can rule out the machine(s) themselves as the blame. If the file transfer still resembles the speed of which you were getting having it hooked into the Internet then you may be looking at a driver, software or firewall issue.

If you have a firewall installed on your Linux machine you may want to check it's restrictions to be sure it's not bottle-necking your speed. Another area to check would to be sure that programs such as torrent downloaders are not running in the background sucking up bandwidth on either machine as one can impact the whole network when connected simultaneously.

If you don't wan't to do without the torrent manager, you can go inside most torrent managers settings and turn down the upload and download speeds to allow more bandwidth for other tasks (just remember not to set either to "0" as most torrent managers recognize this as unlimited bandwidth allocated.

Last but not least would be to make sure you are using the right or appropriate drivers for your network interface card or NIC.

Also this address has diagrams of what a crossover cable should look like at it's terminations. If you have a normal cable handy you can look closely at it's ends and see that the ends match in color order as opposed to a crossover cable.

Hope this information helps.

Answer 2

In that case it could very well be a driver issue. Open your "Dash Home" in Ubuntu and type in "additional drivers". Click on the option and see if there is an option or up to date driver to install regarding your ethernet card.