Question Ethernet Teaming?

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
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So both of the desktops in my room have dual RJ45 ports, rated at 1Gb/s or higher. Both with at least 1 Intel port, so I can use the Intel Teaming software. But for some reason, after setting both up and connecting everything, I cannot get speeds higher than 1Gbps of transfer no matter the mode used (Static Link Aggregation, Dynamic, Fault Tolerance, Load balancing etc...) Odd thing is, when I go to task manager and go to the team ethernet adapter, it says the link is 2Gbps when right clicking on the graph and saying view network details.

I am running Win 10 Pro 1909 on both computers, and they are attached with a 5 port Gb switch, of which one port goes to my router. Could it be the switch? Or does windows just not like me and this setup?
 

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
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Sep 13, 2008
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Ok so after some research, looks like I need some more expensive managed switches which support link aggregation.
 
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razel

Platinum Member
May 14, 2002
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Played with teaming as well recently. Laptop's built in Gigabit Ethernet + USB Gigabit Ethernet adapter. Finally got it working with Netgear S8000's LAG feature however I only got it working as fault tolerant and not double bandwidth.

I was able however to get it working double bandwidth, IRONICALLY, if you turn off teaming and LAG and only with Windows FileShare. Apparently Windows Samba supports multi connection bandwidth. I forgot the exact feature name, but I didn't have to do anything fancy other than having multiple connections.

Which reminds me, that it ought to work WiFi + wired as well. Perhaps I'll play around with that on another rainy day.
 

Genx87

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Apr 8, 2002
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Link aggregation will only provide more than 1Gbps in a situation where two sessions use both adapters. Any single session will be stuck to the limit of line speed. SMB3 introduced multipath and can utilize every port on a segment to maximize bandwidth.
 
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mxnerd

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2007
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No managed switch required if both ends have SMB 3.0 multichannel but it doesn't always work.

(Windows 8.0 / Windows 2012 and up all supports SMB 3.0 multichannel)



 

Fallen Kell

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Oct 9, 1999
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Link aggregation will only provide more than 1Gbps in a situation where two sessions use both adapters. Any single session will be stuck to the limit of line speed. SMB3 introduced multipath and can utilize every port on a segment to maximize bandwidth.
^THIS^
The thing you also need to think about with link aggregation is it is a perfect analogy of a single lane vs 2 lane highway. The speed limit on the highway is still the same, there are simply 2 lanes on it. The only way to utilize the additional bandwidth is for multiple applications to be taking advantage of it, but a single TCP based application will not be able to go faster than 1gbps.