I'm running a Web (apache) and FTP (bpftp - gene6) server on the w2k-machine. When I access the server through a ftp client or a browser from a computer on the LAN, traffic is extremely slow (1-3kB/s). From shared folders on the server I get normal speed using explorer. I run a cable network through a router (Netgear MR814v2). The router has port forwarding configured for http and ftp (80, 20-21) to the server. Web/FTP speed from outside the LAN is fast (as fast as the VDSL connection is). I'd like the web and FTP access (to the local server) to be at least this fast from inside the LAN. Can anybody come up with any ideas of what might be wrong? tia

When you access the server from the LAN, are you using its LAN address or the external Internet address?

I'm using the external address. If I use internal address, FTP transfer speed is fine. However, I'm not able to use internal address for http (virtual servers) and I want to be able to test the websites on the server locally.

Using the external address is probably what is causing the slowness. By routing packets outside then back into your network, you're adding some uneccesary hops. Not all of which are, apparently, very efficient :) You can workaround the virtual hosts problem two ways. Are you running your own DNS server on the LAN? If you are, you can create an "internal" view/zone for LAN clients only. Use it to resolve www.yourwebservername.com to the LAN address of the server. If you can't do this with DNS, you can do it with the hosts file. Same thing, just create an entry for each virtual host pointing to the server's internal address.

I'm not running a DNS, but the hosts file tip sounds promising. I might even try to setup a DNS. Thank you for helping a network beginner...