Let's talk NIC's and LAN

[TOAD6147]

First of all, could someone please explain Wake On LAN/Modem and how it is supposed to work and do any of you use it? Also, all those settings in the NIC's properties - do any of you change/tweak them? For instance, on the properties, Advanced Tab of my NIC-> IPX/SPX I've read that the you get better performance if you set Frame Type to Ethernet 802.3 and that all cards should be set to the highest possible transfer rate possible with your hub or switch i.e., 100 MB, full-duplex and that ANY Auto Detect setting is a bottle-neck. Oh, and what are NetBIOS applications? Also, I'd like to refine the discussion of whether to use IPX/SPX, NetBuei, or TCP/IP for LAN communication. Who uses what and why? For instance, I've set up my LAN and ICS based on the info I read at Home PC Networks. Please feel free to add anything you deem pertinent and TIA.

[DES123]

I used the Wake on Lan feature on my some of my 3Com network cards.

How it works is, that you must have a nic and
motherboard that supports this feature. A cable that comes with the nic gets connected to the motherboard. If you pc is switched off and another pc tries to access your pc
via the network, the network card picks up
this request and automatically boots your pc.

des

[DES123]

IPX/SPX is mostly used on Novell networks.

For a small lan, I would use NetBEUI.
Its is a faster than TCP/IP or IPX/SPX and easier to setup. You don't have to worry about ip address etc...

For a larger lan/wan network I would use TCP/IP because it is routable. It can connect remote networks together, internet access, etc..

As for the nic settings, I disapprove that your nic must be set manually at the highest possible transfer rate, 100MB, full-duplex.

In fact your nic should have auto-detec turned on to prevent network connection problems.

If you manually set your nic to 100MB, full duplex and if you have a 10MB, half-duplex hub you will have network connection problems.

Rather let the nic to auto-detect your network speed, duplex and connection type.

des

[DVNT1]

WOL: can be used to remotely turn on computers for nighly backups or other specified functions. I use it to turn on the users' PCs before they arrive to save the boot up time.

Frame Types: for IPX/SPX 802.2 is better than 802.3. In fact, 802.2 is the newer specification.

NIC settings: IMO, don't change them unless you have a problem related to network communications. The small possible benefits aren't worth the hassle.

Auto-detect being the bottleneck: only if it is detecting incorrectly. Again, IMO, not worth the hassle...if the networking enviroment changes frequently (mine sure does!).

Which protocol:
As few as possible for performance freaks or networks > ~15 nodes. Of course that also depends on many other factors relating to the number of services on the different nodes and the amount of network usage.

IP: speed is medium, routeable, used for most common Internet communications.

IPX/SPX: faster than IP, routeable, but doesn't support as many apps & games (&trojans) as IP does and will continue to.

NetBEUI: fastest of these 3, not routeable, too chatty for larger networks, doesn't support many apps or games.

A point of interest regarding Windows ICS: using IP with file sharing on an ICS client is fine because the ICS host automatically filters ports 137~139 from going to the Internet.