Network hardware configuration

Once the latest drivers are installed for the network hardware, all the available settings and features will be unlocked. These settings and features are very often overlooked. Not only can they improve networking performance, but they can also improve general system performance by freeing up memory and CPU time by relieving the operating system of some basic tasks.

There are far too many manufacturers, device types and models to list all possible settings here. For a complete list of settings and features for your specific hardware, please consult your manufacturer’s website and documentation. Here is a quick list of settings that are common to almost all network adapter cards:

Speed settings

For 100Mbps and gigabit adapters, the speed will most likely be set to some kind of “auto detect” setting. The auto-detect feature generates a small amount of unneeded traffic to detect the speed of the network. If you know the actual speed at which your network is running, then make sure to select the same speed everywhere, instead of using the auto-detect feature. For example, if you have 100Mbps switches and adapters everywhere, then select 100Mbps on all your adapters and other network hardware you may have, such as switches, hubs, routers, etc.

Avoid “Throttling down”

Using components of different speeds on the same network or “Throttling down” generates a lot of overhead that will cause slower components to operate even slower than their nominal speeds.

For example, some newer network equipment supports Gigabit Ethernet (1000 Mbps), while some older equipment may still only support up to 100 Mbps. When working with such a mixed environment, make sure to use the highest common denominator, so that all equipment operates at the same speed setting. For instance, if a switch can operate at 10, 100 and 1000 Mbps but your main back-office computer can only support 10 and 100 Mbps, then configure everything to operate at 100 Mbps.

Duplex settings

Typically, available choices are Full Duplex or Half Duplex. An adapter working in Full Duplex can work at full speed while receiving and transmitting at the same time. An adapter working in Half Duplex can work at full speed while receiving, or at full speed when transmitting. If it is doing both at the same time, then the transmit/receive speed is cut in half.

For example, if you have a 100Mbps adapter running in half-duplex, it would be able to transmit at 100Mbps or receive at 100Mbps. However, if it is transmitting and receiving at the same time, then it would transmit at 50Mbps and receive at 50Mbps.

Adapters should always be set to Full Duplex. If that setting is not available, see if a driver update is available, or simply replace the network adapter with one that supports full duplex.

TCP/IP offloading

TCP/IP offloading should be enabled on all adapters that support it. This setting forces the network adapter to take care of TCP/IP transmit and receive checksums, instead of the operating system. This frees up CPU time as well as memory, and the adapter card performs much better than the operating system at these tasks. It can improve networking performance as well as general system performance.