I'm sort of a LAN and NIC dummy. But I've noticed lately that my download speeds are off to about 1.5 Mbit from my previous 3.9Mbit speeds on my cable modem. I've played around with this for a bit, here's what I've done:

Confirmed that my second system (XP laptop) is still getting 3.7 Mbit speed.

Swapped router ports, updated JAVA version on both systems (speed tests run with JAVA).

Bypassed router for direct to modem trial.

I've not added or changed anything to my knowledge on this system (Win2000) other than routine updates to Windows and such.

This NIC is an onboard NVidia, and since I seem to have ruled out router or modem problems, I wonder if this NIC is screwed up somehow. I'm debating whether to go pick up a PCI NIC and try that to see if it runs at full speed, but has anyone got any ideas what I should check first on this system?

I don't know how to test the actual NIC speed to see if it's running at 10 or 100 speed.

edit: Just looked at the LAN properties in control panel, and it reports the connection is running at 100. Also, speed is the same in both I.E. and Firefox

Go to www.dslreports.com. They have tools that will give you accurate speed tests, and forums that have recommendations for changing your RWIN settings to get the best performance from your service.

Been there, done that. That's why I'm posting this, the speeds are down on this machine.

Well I just went through something similar this week, I did a windows update on my XP and for some reason my download speed got cut in half after the updates. Did some searching and after trying a different HDD w/o the updates my speeds were normal. Could be related even if yours is Win 2000. Tried to uninstall the updates and it didn't make any difference so did a reformat and the speeds are back to normal. Mine is wireless so this info could be totally of no use to you.

I was pondering Windows update too, cause there's been a few lately.

Anyway: WOOOHOOO

I downloaded DRTCP.exe and changed my RWIN setting from the defaut to the recommended value and my speed nearly trippled!!! Usenet DL speeds doubled too.

Now seeing OVER 4 Mbit on some downloads and tests. So the question is: WTF is Windows update doing with the NIC settings to cause this? Anyway, the RWIN setting seems to be the ticket.


Edit: Also note that my XP system is fully updated and did not have this issue.