I have a small home LAN with 4 computers. We share an ADSL connection from one of the computers which is using XP. The internet works beautifully. However browsing eachothers computers and copying files from one pc to another takes forever. All pcs have 10/100Mbps LAN cards and are connected by one 5 port 10Base-T Hub. For a 1MB file it can take up to 5 or 10 minutes to copy from one pc to another. Each pc is running a different version of Windows - 95,98,2000 and XP. And are reasonably fast computers. Any help with this problem will be appreciated.

Windows interoperability with preivous versions is very bad in this department. As far as I know, that's just how it is; there's nothing to do about it.

I am running a 5-computer LAN which includes 95, 98, and win2K, and conenctions speeds are blazing. Make sure you have the same protocls installed, ie. IPX/SPX and TCP/IP, NetBEUI is also possible but rather archaic.

Based on my experience: The first thing I would use would be a packet sniffer. Personally, I use Ethereal, although its up to you. Analyze the traffic during an SMB file transfer. Make sure nothing strange is happening, like all the computers replying to each packet. You should see a lot of packets between the two computer that are transferring, and not many other ones. If you find something strange, check the routing settings on the computers, and make sure that its routing local traffic on the local net. Secondly, I would consider the possibility of RFI. This has happened to me before on several occasions, and its A PAIN! Once, after spending hours with a spectrum analyser, I finally found the problem. I would also suggest unplugging all but two computers AT THE HUB, and trying to send a file between the two remaining ones. If it goes fast, try this with different pairs of computers until you find the one with the bad cable or NIC.

I would trash your hub and buy a 10/100 switch. I've seen the LinkSys 8-port for $100.