[asuh]

I have a Macbook Pro 17" and a self-built P4 2.6GHz/2GB/500GB PC. My PC acts as a file server for music/videos/data. I want to connect my MBP directly to my PC using a Cat-5 cable, and be able to transfer files to and from using 1000Mbps ethernet NICs on both machines.

Currently, I have successfully connected my machines together using a Cat-5 and can share, but the connection speed at which each transfers is well below what a gigabit NIC should be able to transfer. I only know this from observation, not measured calculation.

1. How can I properly see the speed at which I transfer? Is there good software out there for this?
2. How can I speed up the connection between my computers?

[JohnWill]

You will not get true gigabit transfers in any case using SMB protocol between two workstations. First off, there is significant overhead using SMB. Also, a gigabit channel could theoritically transfer 125mbyte/sec, however it's doubtful your hard disks could read/write data that fast.

Try timing transfers in each direction using a stop watch and a large file and calculate the speed that way.