I have a home computer network that consists of a Windows 98SE desktop, a Windows XP laptop, and a Vista (business) tower. A Linksys wireless-n router connects all the pieces and is used to access the Internet. Unfortunately the Win98 box cannot handle the network encryption, so it is connected to the router via an ethernet NIC and wire.

All three computers have file sharing enabled. The problem I'm experiencing is in downloading files from the Vista system to the Win98 system. The transfer rate is exceptionally slow in the range of 30Kb/sec. Uploading from the Win98 to the Vista box is exceedingly fast, as I would expect. I'm having a difficult time trouble shooting this problem in that everything seems to be configured properly. However, yesterday it took 75 minutes to transfer a 120MB file from Vista to the Win98 share.

Any advice on how to proeceed?

Hi there Yogi and welcome to AMHD.

Now to better understand the issue I need some further information.

When you are moving files from the Vista box to the Win98 box which system initiates the transfer ?
Is the Vista box running NTFS or FAT ?
Is there any difference when moving single large files or multiple small files ?
For this set up have you considered setting up a simple NAS solution for all the machines to access over the LAN ?

Thanks for the welcome Ben. I see that I don't know as much about what I'm trying to do as I thought, but I'll try to clarify the situation.

Vista is NTFS by default. I understand that Win98 is FAT32, but never considered that to be an issue in that the transfers work fine from Win98 up to the Vista box.

The Win98 directory being shared is actually an external hard drive off that box. It is password protected and I must log in from the Vista machine in order to open the share. Given all that, I presume Vista is initiating the transfer in this case.

The transfer rate is the same regardless of file size or number of files. However, and this may or may not be significant, perhaps one out of twenty attempts seem to transfer at the expected rate.

I am not familiar with what you mean by an NAS solution. You will have to point me to some reference material so that I can investigate that one.

Also, while I haven't benchmarked it, it appears that transfers between the XP laptop and the Win98 desktop are what I would expect. This is disconcerting because the Vista box is a powerhouse by comparrison to either of the other two computers. I'm guessing Vista is overwhelming the other system in some way.

NAS is Network Attached Storage, basically a hard drive with ethernet connection.
Have a look here for furter information: Network_Attached_Storage

Here's an example of what I'm referring to: Insight UK - Plextor PX-EH16L - NAS - 160 GB - HD 160 GB x 1...

The reasoning behind the questions was to try and rules out any issues concerning system speeds/permissions/file systems.

This may be a simple case of the Vista box "pushing" the data faster than the Win98 can handle, especially if it is also being transferred to an external drive.

Could certainly be the case, especially if the external drive is of a lower spec/data transfer speed.
I have found that external drives tend to run nearer their rated speeds with multiple small files as they "burst" in information.

The Win98 box was my only computer until February of this year. I used the external drive initially for backup, but now it also has appllications for Win98 because the desktop has only a 4Gb drive built into it. You are correct in that the burst mode can slow down file transfers, but the other day a 110Mb file took 70 minutes to download from the Vista box to this external drive. Even considering the possibility of being overwhelmed, I don't think a file should take that long to transfer. That same file residing on the Win98 box would load to the external drive in under a minute. The limiting factor there is probaby the USB2 bus.

Thanks for the input regarding NAS. My tower has two dirves, one with Vista and one with Linux. It would be great if the NAS set up can handle all the systems in one handy box. I can run a RAID configuration on the Vista system, and that may turn out to be the ultimate solution. However, in the mean time, I was hoping I could take advantage of what already is in place. Perhaps I'm asking too much.