[edge.it]

my local network is SLUGGISH! ill try to explain as much as i can so you all have an idea of where to start troubleshooting.

macbook pro
mac pro
airport (n/gigabit)

up until recently i havent been doing allot of network transfers, but im restoring my one machine and ive realized now the speeds im getting can not be right.

a 500MB transfer of mp3 files is taking 20 minutes. initially it started off saying 10minutes, and now has slowly risen to 20 minutes, and as im typing gradually rising. before i rebooted my machines/airport, the finder would crash when trying to transfer. so this slow copy right now is better then i usally get. it look slike im getting .5 MB / 500kb

i was messinga round in the netowrk settings, seeing if chaning my ethernet to 1000mbps(becuase my router and all machines are gigabit) but when i swittch to them, my ethenert goes RED, and all IP info is dropped.

i changed the drive that im copying to, to a raid 0 inside my macpro with the least amount of data on it. hoping the drive capacity and how full it is would make a difference.

[seanc]

You're hooking the machines into the airport base stations ethernet ports, not to each other, right?

I'm not familiar with the airport but I assume it must give out DHCP to ethernet as well. You could try setting a static IP address when you have the computer hooked up via ethernet and check that there aren't some settings already entered for the ethernet ports.

[edge.it]

i have the etherent cables plugged into the router not eachtoher

im not having DHCP issues (the IP comment was just a side note , not the main issue)

transfer speed is myproblem

[seanc]

Well you said when you tried to use ethernet, your ethernet interfaces went red (not connected).

I would recommend using ethernet if you can for time machine because it will be a hell of a lot faster.

Try downloading kismac to find out what your signal strength is from the computer to the router, if it's poor, try to establish the reason, such as walls, cordless phones, microwaves etc.

[edge.it]

system preferences - network - ethernet - advanced -ethernet tab - configure - manually - speed 1000basedT....

when i change my settings in there, from AUTOMATIC to MANUAL to see if i can run at a full GBps thats when the IP dropps and turns red. THATS ALL.

my issue is, why am i getting 500kbps over a gigbit network.

[seanc]

OK, for some reason I thought you were running on WIFI, sorry.

How long are your ethernet cables? Are there any available firmware updates for the airport base station?

[edge.it]

short 3ft or so.

no updates.

[mduell]

Sounds like you're getting 10Mb/s half duplex... try a longer cable (8 ft minimum).

[Big Mac]

You mean Ethernet actually works faster with minimum length cables? I did not know that.

[mduell]

I'm too cheap to buy a copy of the standard, but the (sometimes contradictory) information I can find for free online suggests that 100BASE-TX has a minimum length while at least one of the 10BASE standards does not (or it's shorter).

[dimmer]

Unshielded twisted pair (aka every Cat 5/Cat 6 cable you've ever run across, hopefully) does have a minimum attenuation point: offhand I don't remember what it is, but a couple of meters should work.

But I doubt that this is the problem the OP is having: his speeds are (as mentioned) almost exactly what you'd expect from a half-duplex 10Mb connection to run at. Sounds like the auto-negotiation isn't happening. OP, can you run an ifconfig en0 on each system and post the results?