Your machines should be capable of at least 2-3 MB/s (that's megabytes per
second) in a standard setup.
A properly set 10mbit lan can easily top the 1MB/s barrier.
This means:
1. Use proper CAT.5 cables (the correct wiring is not "straight")
2. Use good network cards (altough I get that speed from a junk rtl8139 too)
3. Use proper hubs/switches
Once the hardware is in place (wiring etc), try to decrease the transmission
window of the cards. Most of the cheap cards have a small amount of memory
on-boards, so to send a packet you need a few retransmissions.
If it still doesn't work.....
Check the bus-mastering stuff. Is it working?
Check that you're not sharing the irq of the card with another device.
Try to adjust the full-half duplex settings (you can only support full
duplex on a switch that supports it too).
And read the ethernet howto. There's some performance tips there.
HTH,
Dave.
