ResNet
Network Speed
The speed of an individual computer connection is dependent on a number of things, including the computer itself, the Ethernet adapter, other software on the computer, your personal network activity, and overall network activity.
Server software on your computer
Many of the file-sharing programs (such as Bit Torrent, UWGo, Morpheus, Limewire, KaZaa and others) actually turn a computer into a server, often without the user being aware of this fact. This means that other computers throughout the Internet will access your computer to download files. As you can imagine, this can drastically affect your network performance.
To fix this problem, you will need to uninstall these programs from your computer. Most programs can be uninstalled as follows:
- Select START - Settings - Control Panel.
- Double-click on Add/Remove programs.
- Find the program in the list and select Uninstall.
Spyware, malware and adware
Spyware is the primary cause of problems with computers that won't connect to the network or get slow service once they are connected. There are a number of free tools you can use to prevent and remove spyware from your computer. See: Spyware, adware, malware and pop-ups for details.
Your personal network activity
In order to ensure that network access is available for the University's mission-critical applications, some types of network activity, such as media file downloads, are limited, and you will see slow download times for these items. See Excessive bandwidth usage for details.
ResNet network activity
Network bandwidth is a limited resource. As the network gets busier, individual connection speed slows down. The residence hall network is an extremely busy network.
To ease the network congestion in the residence halls, ITSS continues to upgrade the network infrastructure in the residence halls this past summer. We have also implemented bandwidth shaping to help ensure that mission-critical applications will continue to run.
However, it is the responsibility of all who use the University network to do so wisely.
Your computer
Processor speed (Hz) and memory (RAM) will affect how fast network applications run. Obviously, a 1GHz computer with 258Mb of RAM will run faster than an older P90 computer with 32Mb of RAM.
While most Ethernet adapters will work on the UMD network, we have seen the best performance from the adapters on our recommended list: SMC, 3Com, and Xircom. Other, less-expensive adapters, such as D-Link and LinkSys, do not always handle network traffic as well.
Additionally, Windows will provide a generic driver for most Ethernet adapters, it is usually best to use the driver that came with the adapter. Using a generic driver can cause some network slowdowns. To check which driver is loaded for the Ethernet adapter in your computer:
- Select START - Settings- Control Panel.
- Double-click on System.
- Click on the Device Manager tab.
- Select Network Adapters, then select your adapter from the list and click the Properties button.
- Click on the Driver tab at the top.
Also, many adapters are set to "auto-negotiate" the network speed, but do a rather poor job of this. To check to see if you can set the adapter to run at 10Mb/half-duplex, rather than auto-negotiate mode:
- Select START - Settings - Control Panel.
- Double-click on Network.
- Select the Ethernet adapter from the list, then click on the Properties button.
- If listed (not all adapters have this feature), click on the Advanced tab. Check for a "link speed" setting and whether you can set it to 10Mb/half duplex.