On Jul 2,  3:38pm, Murray Armfield wrote:
}
} Why then do I notice better behaviour with EXACTLY the same equipment ?
} In fact nothing has changed except booting to a different disk and OS.

     Because the different OS isn't letting you misconfigure the
hardware (possibly because it doesn't support 10 Mbps full-duplex?).  A
major slow down is precisely the expected result of misconfiguring the
duplex setting.

} PS: As an electronic/electrical engineer, I find it very hard to believe
} hubs are half-duplex.

     You're credentials mean absolutely nothing unless you actually
know something about the device in question, and it is quite obvious
that you don't.  A hub is a simple repeater.  It takes an incoming
signal and immediately rebroadcasts it on all ports.  From a signaling
perspective it is the equivalent of physically tying all the lines
together.  Given this, it is obvious that a hub is incapable of
supporting multiple simultaneous data streams, which is required for
full-duplex mode.

} 		All help is greatly appreciated,

     Then why don't you try the suggestion given, instead of coming
back here with arrogant crap?

}-- End of excerpt from Murray Armfield