This is weird.

On my machine, I have a multiple boot setup. Both win98se (don't shoot me, please). Both started out identical but have, of course, diverged with different software. After installing a NIC, I had to set it up in both systems. So I went ahead and made Emplode available in both as well.

The problem is that in one system, ethernet is zippy quick. As fast or faster than USB.
But the other system just don't work that way. The USB is fine, but the ethernet is excruciatingly slow. About the speed of the serial connection - believe it or not. The initial Emplode database transfer and such takes forever.

I've made sure that all the network settings, IP subnets and the like are identical to both systems. But the one is still slow.

Any pointers to resolving this very annoying problem?

Well, it's good to know that you've got a multi-boot setup which rules out the hardware. Good first start.

Have you run any programs which modified the internet connection settings? A common one is a "tweak" utility which is meant to improve download speeds and ping times in Quake games. These modify things like the MaxMTU value in the system registry. These utilites are meant for modem connections only, and will totally screw up LAN connections.

Well I have a couple things you can check. First thing to do would be to boot into safe mode and check for any duplicate drivers in anything. (Safe mode shows installed drivers, Normal mode shows in use drivers.)

Anouther thing to check is to make sure both Windoze are using the same driver for the NIC card.

And last is to check Speed Guide's website. This information is geared toward cable/DSL modems, but it has a lot of useful information on utilizing network bandwith in Windoze.

Hope this helps.