Low speed in 100mbps network

Amirds,

Few weeks ago, I have faced something that looks like your problem. I have home something similar to you: one gigabit switch connecting most equipaments and one TPLink router connecting to a ADSL Modem.

While making some testings, I have discovered that my network speed was up to 65MB while transfering files from one laptop thru a server, and around 120MB while transfering files from server to server. So what? Whats the difference?

Lets have a look.
1) both servers are running Windows 2008 R2 and both with RAID 10 4 discs using a real RAID Controller with 512 MB RAM WITHOUT any Antivirus. Since there are RAID Controllers inside both servers, it has a very good transfer speed, with speeds up to 120MB.
2) while transfering files from laptops (even plugged to the same Gigabit switch) the speeds were ALWAYS around 10 - 12MB as yours. On my case at least, after I have disabled the Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS) the transfers have speed up to 65MB while transfering big files, which is basically the read time of a regular non fragmented 7200 RPM sata disk.
3) what are the size of these files you are trying to transfer?
4.5 - 6 MB should be more than enough to run most applications or even music/video streaming.

So, have a look if you have any antivirus that could be reading and "sniffing" all data comming in and out. In my case the antivirus was consuming the speed. It was not something related to ethernet speed, but a limitation of the antivirus itself. Thats why most fileservers do not have antivirus.

Hope this help.

BYE

Hi luiscloss,

the laptop has Trend Micro AntiVirus running on Win7 and the Streemer is Linux OS w/o.
The files I'm running are between 4-9GB mkv files.
few additional information:

The streemer HD is Samsung HD153WI (SATA with 32MB buffer) but with 5400rpm
When transferring the same files between my laptop to another PC with 10/100 card, the speed average was 11.1MB which it's close the max

Maybe the streemer HD which runs with 5400rpm cause the limit?
In addition, do you know how can I add this speed into the calculation of the whole transfer speed (right now I know that if the network is clear, when it's running on 100mpbs, the max transfer should be 12.5 = 100/8

Thanks again
Amir

If you are getting the issues only on the laptops, are you sure you are not connecting though it's wirless? Windows by default places the wireless connection above the wired in it's network order. If you have both the wireless and wired connctions on, you will end up using the slower wireless.

Amir,

12MB is really close to the max speed. Indeed you are right: 100 MB/8 = 12Mb, which is preatty close to your existing infrastructure speed.

As I used to post in some other posts, I myself really don´t see any need for speeds higher than 100MB for home applications, since almost everything inside your network usually wont get more performance.

Basically it is something like this: you don´t buy 60" TV to watch movies in Low Quality and in distances less than 1 meter. It just dont make sence. Keep your money. Hard Drive Read and Write speed is up today one of the biggest bottleneck in most networks, which I really presume is the case.

What hang-the-9 is saying make a bit sence, if you are using 802.11n Wireless connection, which is really close to the max speed using that kind of connection. 12MB would be average speed using 100 MB, and as I have home, 110 MB transfer rates between servers, but don´t forget, using RAID Hardware Controllers on both servers and 1GB Eth Connection. Just for knowledge, if you have a 1 GB connection using a regular SATA or PATA 5400 RPM Drive, even using so fast connection, you wouldnt get speeds higher than 30-45MB transfer, since thats the average speed of them. 60MB is the max speed, but not average.

Meanwhile:
1) if your bottleneck is wired ETH network (100MB) 12 MB average is good.
2) if your bottleneck is wireless G network, speeds around 800kB and 1,2 MB would be more than appreciated (but most common lower than 1 MB)
3) if your bottleneck is wireless N network, speeds around 4 and 7 MB would be more than everything you could get
4) if your bottleneck is SATA or PATA drive, speeds around 40MB are average.

Comments:
5) if you have GB connections AND RAID HW Controllers on both sides, you could theoretically achieve up to 120MB over copper cables network and something like 400MB running fiber optics networks, which I sincerely presume are much higher than your needs.

My personal choices for HOME APPLICATIONS:
6) Copper Cables cat5e running thru ETHERNET boards using 1GB or 100 MB speeds
7) Wireless 802.11n networks running up to 7MB transfers rate.

Hope this solve your question. Hope this help. Vote on best answer. Dont hesitate to post more questions if you have.

Bye.

LUIS

Hi again to all,

one thing I would like to clear, I'm not using WLAN on my laptop since I've disabled it and use a regular LAN cable. That's why I don't understand why do I reach 4.5MB when uploading/downloading from the streemer, perhaps it's related to the SATA with 5400rpm which it's the bottleneck as you mentioned above.
On the other Desktop, I have also 100MB card but a SATA with 7200rpm and the transfer rate average is 11MB

Thanks
Amir

What kind of HP switch is this? Are the ports on the switch configurable? Is it possible that there is a duplex mismatch?