[milhous]

Well the iBook's been great so far--have had it for less than 2 months now. For the most part, I use the iBook wirelessly in my apartment and at school and it works great.

Until I tried using Ethernet.

I tried playing several music videos on my Windows box. The videos are about 40 megs in size so after I authenticate to the Windows share, I launch the mpeg file. Problem is, QT takes about 30 seconds to get the movie opened and when I try to play it, it's unplayable.

Next I figured I'd try to simply copy the files over to iBook. Was I apalled to find that it's estimating a copy time of about 40 minutes to copy over a 40 meg file!

So there's something seriously wrong here. I've tried resetting pram, pmu, changing ethernet cables and changing ports on my desktop switch. Everything here on the LAN is running at 100mpbs. The terminal even reports that it's running at 100mbps full-duplex.

The ethernet problem is starting to make some sense now--when sending out large attachments, it's takes about 10 minutes to send a 1.7mb attachment.

It's really deceiving--you can browse the web fine, instant message your friends all without any problems. It's only until you start dealing with big files that you really start to notice it.

I even tested the same cable I was using with my 500mhz Pismo (which I was using as an Airport base station that unfortunately suddenly died tonight due to a bad hard drive) and it was able to stream movies and handle large transfers very well.

So my advice to you, even if you don't use Ethernet, make sure you test everything out on your portable even if you don't use the feature much. You don't want to find out the hard way after the warranty's expired.

I'm going to take it to the Apple Store as soon as I can get the next possible genius bar reservation. The screen also seems to be a little "muddy". I'll see what they say about that as well.

edit: The system also passed the Hardware Test on that came on CD and also removed the battery and disconnected the adapter plug for a few minutes to ensure that the system reset itself.

[MacGallant]

Originally posted by milhous:
Well the iBook's been great so far--have had it for less than 2 months now. For the most part, I use the iBook wirelessly in my apartment and at school and it works great.

Until I tried using Ethernet.

I tried playing several music videos on my Windows box. The videos are about 40 megs in size so after I authenticate to the Windows share, I launch the mpeg file. Problem is, QT takes about 30 seconds to get the movie opened and when I try to play it, it's unplayable.

Next I figured I'd try to simply copy the files over to iBook. Was I apalled to find that it's estimating a copy time of about 40 minutes to copy over a 40 meg file!

So there's something seriously wrong here. I've tried resetting pram, pmu, changing ethernet cables and changing ports on my desktop switch. Everything here on the LAN is running at 100mpbs. The terminal even reports that it's running at 100mbps full-duplex.

The ethernet problem is starting to make some sense now--when sending out large attachments, it's takes about 10 minutes to send a 1.7mb attachment.

It's really deceiving--you can browse the web fine, instant message your friends all without any problems. It's only until you start dealing with big files that you really start to notice it.

I even tested the same cable I was using with my 500mhz Pismo (which I was using as an Airport base station that unfortunately suddenly died tonight due to a bad hard drive) and it was able to stream movies and handle large transfers very well.

So my advice to you, even if you don't use Ethernet, make sure you test everything out on your portable even if you don't use the feature much. You don't want to find out the hard way after the warranty's expired.

I'm going to take it to the Apple Store as soon as I can get the next possible genius bar reservation. The screen also seems to be a little "muddy". I'll see what they say about that as well.

edit: The system also passed the Hardware Test on that came on CD and also removed the battery and disconnected the adapter plug for a few minutes to ensure that the system reset itself.

My guess:
Do you have firewall enabled and some filesharing services off and some ports related to filesharing closed?

[jamil5454]

Maybe it's the HD in the other machine you're copying files from. This exact same problem happened to me and I figured out that a HD was bad. It died two days later.

[milhous]

some good and bad news.

good news, went to the apple store today and did some file transfer testing on the lan. the transfers were smooth and fast so the ibook was ruled out as the culprit.

bad news, i've isolated the fault to the 5 port desktop switch that i'm connected to which thus connects to the main router. pinging to and from the ibook to my windows box which was also connected to the switch resulted in tremendous packet loss. i decided to directly connect the windows box to my ibook via crossover mode and was able to stream movies and do large transfers quickly.

i should've done some further fault isolation testing, but it's good that i don't have to send the ibook out for anything. the switch has served me well over the past 5 years. time for a new one.

so when in doubt, check your local network

[ghporter]

Originally posted by milhous:
so when in doubt, check your local network

Absolutely true. Now for the easy (and probably fairly inexpensive) fix. If it's just a switch, all you have to do is swap it out.

I just checked out a 5 port switch (the Linksys EFAH05W, because I'm most familiar with Linksys' products) and you can find it for as little as $30. I'm sure other manufacturers' products are comparably priced.

So instead of an expensive fix that leaves you without your iBook for weeks, all you have to do is hit WalMart (yep, it's on their web site) and drop $33 for a replacement switch.

[grand mufti]

i had the same problem last night after i installed netbarrier ... i was pulling my zip'ed "home" folder off my PC and it was giving me hte same speeds. i drop the firewall and poof it was ok. so i ahve to config it a little its all good now.