Quick question about Gb adapter speed

Holy Moses · 06 Nov 2010

Hi,

I have recently upgraded my 10/100Mbps router for a D-Link DIR-655 X-Treme "N" Gb router. This is connected to a DAP-1522 Access Point/Bridge for downstairs PC/PS3 setup.

Upstairs, my adapter on my Acer Aspire laptop is an Atheros Comm. AR8121 family adapter. I have a cat5e cable from my router to my laptop as well as a cat5e cable to my PS3. (running dual PS3 Media Server setups, one up and one downstairs with the DAP-1522 acting as an access point for the downstairs setup)
Now, I have looked into my advanced adapter settings, and as far as I can tell, it is only a 10\100Mbps adapter. No mention of 1000Mbps.

My question is this, why would Task Manager/Network be showing 1 Gbps speed? Wouldn't it want to display the "weakest link in the chain', meaning 100Mbps, the max speed of my Atheros.
Or is it showing the speed of the cable? or the router port speed?

I can't quite wrap my head around this one. Where is Task Manager getting it's value from?

WindowsStar · 06 Nov 2010

I have never seen Windows 7 report the network connection speed incorrectly. Are you sure your Windows 7 machine does NOT have a 1GB network card in it. So many machines do. It is the standard in machines less than 5 years old. Are you able to post screen shots of your system? network connection? device manager? -WS

Phone Man · 06 Nov 2010

Quote:
"Now, I have looked into my advanced adapter settings, and as far as I can tell, it is only a 10\100Mbps adapter. No mention of 1000Mbps."

The advanced adapter settings will not show the 1Gb choice. Set it to Auto Negotiate and it will set the speed to 1Gb if available. Don't ask me why cause I don't know but mine is running at 1Gb to my D-Link DGL-4100 router which has 1Gb Lan ports. I also have the Atheros AR8121 controller.

Jim

Holy Moses · 07 Nov 2010

Thanks for the replies guys. My computer was originally a Vista machine, though, I only purchased it about 2 years ago.

I do keep it set on "auto negotiate", I just figured it would show you a 1000Mbps choice, as my PS3 and other devices do.
Because I didn't think my adapter had that option, I figured either the router or the cable rating was giving the value. I have no issues with my LAN speed, I was just browsing thru there looking at tweaks for my media server setup when I noticed this. Kinda thru my head for a spin.

That explains why I am getting that speed then............because eveything is fine. :)