😀 Why hasn't anybody asked him what kind of machines we are talking about? Or have I overlooked something?
- If you are using ISA NICs (on your 98SE machines), this speed is normal.
- If you are using USB NICs this speed can be normal, especially if it's connected to a USB 1.1 port (USB 1.1 is all Windows 98 will do AFIAK)
- If you are using 10mbps NICs, this speed is normal.
- If you are using PCMCIA non-cardbus NICs, this can be normal, depending on the cards.
- If you are using Realtek RTL8139 based NICs, this can be normal depending on the CPU.
- SFTP uses a lot of CPU for an old machine, a Pentium/Pentium MMX is doing quite well to get 500kB/s with SFTP.
- If your machines are 486's with original harddrives (say 80MB - ~5GB), this can be normal, especially when transfering small files.
- Ensure that DMA is enabled on the HDDs in Windows 98 if possible.
- Use Intel EtherExpress Pro/100 or AMD PCNET PCI NICs with Windows 98, if you want good speed, 3com 3C905x are okay if the machines are high pentiums or better, try to avoid anything else (that uses PIO, or shitty DMA like the Realtek 8139, etc.).