I have both Windows and Ubuntu installed on my system in parallel but the Internet speed in Ubuntu was bit slow because my LAN connection was best optimized at 10 Mb / Half Duplex. In order to change speed and duplex settings of your ethernet card in Ubuntu, i used the following terminal commands and now my Internet speed in Ubuntu Is much more faster than in Windows.
There are two tools which can help you to change speed and duplex settings in Ubuntu i-e mii-tool or ethtool. Usage of these tools depend upon which type of ethernet card you are using. So its recommended to install both of them by using the following command.
sudo apt-get install ethtool net-tools
Incase these tools are already installed, this command will update them with the latest version and if they are already updated then the above command would have no effect.
Use this command to check the current settings of your ethernet card
sudo ethtool eth0
OR
sudo mii-tool eth0
Turn Auto-Negotiate feature off by using the following command
sudo ethtool -s eth0 autoneg off
Now use the following syntax to change speed and duplex settings
sudo ethtool -s eth0 speed [YOUR DESIRED SPEED] duplex [YOUR DESIRED DUPLEX RATE]
Examples:
sudo ethtool -s eth0 speed 100 duplex full
sudo ethtool -s eth0 speed 10 duplex half
OR
sudo mii-tool -F 100baseTx-FD
sudo mii-tool -F 10baseT-HD
After the usage of any of the above command, your ethernet connection will be re-established, this time with new settings of speed and duplex.
Now use the following command again to the the settings of your ethernet card and this time you will notice change in your speed and duplex.
sudo ethtool eth0
OR
sudo mii-tool eth0
Here is a complete log of my Ubuntu terminal commands and their respective output
To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo".
See "man sudo_root" for details.jaxov@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install ethtool net-tools
[sudo] password for jaxov:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
ethtool is already the newest version.
net-tools is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
jaxov@ubuntu:~$ sudo ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
Supported ports: [ MII ]
Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Speed: 100Mb/s
Duplex: Full
Port: Twisted Pair
PHYAD: 1
Transceiver: internal
Auto-negotiation: on
Supports Wake-on: g
Wake-on: d
Current message level: 0x000000ff (255)
Link detected: yes
jaxov@ubuntu:~$ sudo ethtool -s eth0 autoneg off
jaxov@ubuntu:~$ sudo ethtool -s eth0 speed 10 duplex half
jaxov@ubuntu:~$ sudo ethtool eth0
[sudo] password for jaxov:
Settings for eth0:
Supported ports: [ MII ]
Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Advertised auto-negotiation: No
Speed: 10Mb/s
Duplex: Half
Port: Twisted Pair
PHYAD: 1
Transceiver: internal
Auto-negotiation: off
Supports Wake-on: g
Wake-on: d
Current message level: 0x000000ff (255)
Link detected: yes
jaxov@ubuntu:~$
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Excellent set of commands. My network connection was slow and hopping, and the tech support couldn’t figure out why. After many tries, I thought to changed the network card’s default setting from auto configuration. I went from 10/100 half/full down to 10 full duplex and now my network is working wonderfully!