I have a desktop and a laptop. They are right next to each other at the moment.
I want to be able to transfer files from one to the other without using the wireless network.
They are both on the same homegroup so they can see each other.
I believe modern network cards can work with a straight ethernet cable (i.e. not a crossover cable) so I plugged one in.
Both computers detect it and say that there is now a local area network.
If I get the ipv6 address of one and browse to it on the other it can see it.
All good so far.
So I transfer a file. It moves at about 1mb a second (or less). This is about wireless network speed. The LAN says it is a 1gb lan so the file should go much faster.
Incedentally, one computer can see the other using the ipv6 address but not the other way round.
Is it possible/straight forward to make this work so that I can transfer files in future between these two computers that happen to be in close proximity (and the wireless router is in another room so no feasability of cabling via that) and fast?
One has a gigabit card, the other a marvel ukon. As I say, both seem to be able to detect that they are connected.
Well I’m assuming the gigabit (or other compatible cards) are simply sophisticated enough to know that when they see computery signals (rather than routery signals) coming through the ‘wrong’ wires it guesses that an ordinary ethernet cable is plugged in and re-routes the signal correctly.
Try temporarily disabling the wireless network one/both PCs. You may also need to check your firewall settings on each PC to make sure the new network connection isn’t blocked.
I’m 98% sure Lobsang isn’t running the desktop through wifi, so there isn’t a connection between the desktop and router if a network cable is leading to the laptop instead that the laptop could use to wifi through the router to the desktop with.
My guess is that you’ve an inappropriate duplex setting on the laptop (or maybe the desktop).
Because I don’t have one. I happen to already own an ordinary ethernet cable.
What do you mean by the overhead of a network? I’m plugging two computers together directly with an Ethernet cable. The only difference being it happens to be an ‘ordinary’ cable rather than a crossover.
Both are connected to the wifi router (situated downstairs).
I tried disconnecting both and the computers both still saw the lan connection (they said ‘no internet access’ which makes sense as I’d disabled the wireless) I tried the copy but it still went at about 1mb a second.
I would have thought that if the problem were lack of crossover cable, it wouldn’t work at all, rather than work very slowly. Someone nicked my office crossover cable a while ago, which is when I discovered that regular Ethernet cables work just fine these days.
I’m curious that you mention IPv6 addresses in the OP. Have you tried connecting via good old IPv4?
Note: a crossover cable for 100mbps is different than one for 1gbs. The 1gbps requires all pairs be flipped. The 100mbps requires only two pairs be flipped.
I’m guessing one or both of those NICs dont like using a straight cable. I’d try forcing them to 100mbps mode to see if it fixes the slow transfer issue. Might need a crossover if that doesnt work.
I only mention ipv6 because when I looked in the properties of the connection the ipv6 address was shown. I then tried to use it to browse the folders I wanted to copy the file from/to. I figured if I used the ip address specific to the wired connection it would force the computer to ignore the indirect wireless connection when doing the copy.
I literally just plugged the cable in, and the rest just happened. So if I can force it to be an ipv4 connection and have another go I will.
But I’ll either abandon the attempt or get a crossover cable.
You need an extra bit of kit that allows you to plug a usb cable from one to the other.
Unless you disable the wireless completely, youre probably going through it. Its weird that the speed is coincidental to wifi. Im guessing the laptop is still on wireless because its the active connection. Windows will not shift to a different interface just because its faster. It tends to stay on the same interface until you disable that interface. Disable wireless on both and try again. Manually assign ipv4 addresses. I wouldnt mess with v6 until youve figured out your network issue.
It occurs to me that even through a wireless network it should be able to copy a file much faster than one megabyte a second, hell, I can download a game on steam quicker than that!
My wireless network on both machines shows connected at 54mbps. If that’s bytes then unless I am mistaken that’s about 50 megabytes a second transfer speed.
If it’s bits then it’s just under 7 megabtes a second. Still much faster than 1 megabyte a second.
So how can I make it copy faster through the wireless network?
Umm… no The bandwidth is 54 Mbps (~ 5MBps) across all devices. So that’s 27 tops for each of your two. Take off a bit for signal attenuation and general overhead and you’re rapidly down to 1.
Network cards haven’t needed crossover cables for a while now. They do exactly what lobsang says. I actually have a cross-over cable I bought, and when I finally got a router, I tried pluging the cable into that, and it worked just fine. Heck, I’m using it right now.
As for your connection problems: Are you saying you connected the two computers directly to one another, and yet everything goes slowly?
Then I agree with with HorseLoverFat. Disable them completely. Go to network connections in control panel and right click on the wireless connection and disable them.
If this fixes it, there may be a way to force Windows to use the wired connection for certain things. I know you can do it in Linux.
What you are trying to do* should* work, if both NICs are gigabit capable. One thing you might try (after checking the settings on both cards to be the same speed) is to assign one of the PCs a static IP address. I was using a transfer program from Lenovo to do this at work a few months back (as a test) and I remember having to make one address static. I’ll see if I caan dig up the documentation.
ETA: Ok, I looked at the documentation and I was wrong about the static address. One thing they do say is to disable the firewall on the target PC.