I have a 100Mbps NIC on my laptop. I'm connected to my LAN via a hub that supports 100Mbps NICs. My lan is only a 10Mbps LAN. When I look in the Networking tab of Task Manager, my NIC's link speed is reported as 100Mbps. Therefore my Network utilization metric seems to be extremely low, usually less than 1%. I would like to "slow" down the NIC so that it either runs at 10Mbps or Task Manager thinks it is running at 10Mpbs so that I can have better numbers... Is this possible? I'm willing to "slow" down other NICs attached to hub to make this work if necessary. --Rajaat

You are barking up the wrong tree. Reduce the bandwidth so the numbers look better! Thats the sort of hype marketeers get up to without actually achieving anything. Work this out: which is better 1% of 100Mbs or 10% of 10Mbs. Asnwer, they are both the same. The only difference is that with the 100Mbs link, you have more capacity to spare should you ever need it. With a higher speed you will always get a lower utilisation figure for the same amount of data. Thats they way things work. Stuart

That's right! That's exactly what I want. I know their equivalent. I just don't want to do all the conversions myself. I mean, that is exactly what computers are for... to automate things. That's why I don't care if the "slowing down" is just imaginary. I know I can't use the whole 100Mbps bandwidth because it doesn't exist so I'm not fooling anyone. Besides, the information is just for me... there's no one to fool! That said, I expect that there isn't a way to do what I want, but I wanted to ask people that know more about networking to make sure! Thanks in advance to anyone who can actually help rather than critize motivations they know nothing about!!

>> I just don't want to do all the conversions myself. I mean. What conversions. Took me about .5 of second to the the conversion. Simple decimal arithmetic. >> know I can't use the whole 100Mbps bandwidth because it doesn't exist << It does exist, its just that you don't have the means to utilise it. It like having a car thats capable of 100 miles and hour, but you only want to do 10 miles an hour. You can keep to 10 miles an hour by keeping your foot of the gas, or you can cripple the engine so its no longer capable of 100 miles an hours. What you're trying to do is cripple something unnecessary. Even if did reduce the speed of the NIC and make to utilisation figure look better, you wont be transmitting any more data any faster. Stuart

You're right. I wouldn't be transmitting data any faster. That's not the issue. And the bandwidth really does not exist. With the car analogy I have the ability to go faster because the road lets me! I my case my road (the LAN) does not allow me to go faster so no matter how hard I press on my gas pedal I will only go 10Mbps. I want to be able to look at my real performance rather than having to perform mental calculations to get at my real performance. Anytime something must be done manually you are introducing the possibility for errors! Now, like I said before... I don't care if the card is running at 100Mbps or 10Mbps just as long as Task Manager THINKS it is going at 10Mbps so that the numbers come out right. That's all.

As I said at the beginning, you are barking up the wrong tree. The road is capable of 100 mph, its the vehicles that is slow, that is the ability of your hardware to push 100mbs over the network. To fully utalise 100Mps you would need about ten computers all trying to use the network at the same time. That's what is meant by bandwidth. The percentage figure is a relative number, not an absolute one which is what you are trying to make it. A percentage figure only means anything when you know what it is a percentage of. Stuart

Stuart, my friend... you don't understand... I'm not connected to a LAN that's capable of 100Mbps. The only reason my NIC is running at 100Mbps is because there is a hub which is capable between it and the LAN. If I connect my NIC directly to the LAN my NIC automaticaly runs "slower" because the LAN is not capable of the full capabilities of the NIC. The LAN I'm connected to is part of an intranet with thousands if not tens of thousands of computers. I don't know the exact network topology but I know what my computer reports when I bypass the hub.