Faster router caused slower transfers! Help please.

[Fr33m4n]

I recently purchased a NAS for file storage and media streaming. It had been reviewed to reach average network transfer speeds of 25MB/s. However, I have a Gigabit LAN port on my mobo, but it was hooked up to my old D-Link DI-643M (or some such) which only had a 100Mbit max LAN transfer speed. I belived this was the reason that the max speed I was able to transfer to my NAS at was around 10-11 MB/s, but that was a nice steady speed.

However this speed would not do for some of the tasks that I had in mind, and so I purchased a D-Link DIR-655 N router which has Gigabit lan. I hooked it up and got everything running. I made sure to update the firmware as the one that came installed was quite old. Wireless was blazing compared to the older one and range seems terrific, but that was just a nice added bonus. But here's the funny thing.

When I started transferring files to my NAS the speed would start out around 15MB/s. Then it would quickly plummet down to about 6MB/s. It would then go up to about 12MB/s, before going back down again to about 6MB/s. It would then keep yo-yo'ing back and forth between these speeds. The result of this is that the average transfer speed is actually slower then the old 100Mbit router and things are taking considerably longer. This was when transferring larger files. Smaller files were even worse with speeds hitting no more then 3MB/s.

I don't have much experience with these things. Usually I just hook things up and they just work, but this just can't be right? Is there anything I can do? I'd really appreciate some help in working out these problems.

 

[Fr33m4n]

I wanted to try some speed tests on a different machine with a different cable but I have been unable to locate one yet. So I went for the next best thing. I tried some wireless transfer speed testing from a windows XP machine running a Wireless G card and sending files to my NAS. I was sitting just a few feet away from the router and getting excellent connection quality. I used Filezilla FTP to transfer files. It transferred 2 files at the same time for a total of 2.4MB/s transfer speed. This also seems really slow to me? Or is this speed to be expected? It would be nice with some input from other people with similar setups to see what kind of network speed you are getting.

 

[spidey07]

For wireless that is normal. For gigabit ethernet make sure you use store bought cat5e or higher cables, no homemade.

 

[Fr33m4n]

Originally posted by: spidey07
For wireless that is normal. For gigabit ethernet make sure you use store bought cat5e or higher cables, no homemade.

I don't care all that much about wireless, though a friend of mine claims he gets steady 6MB/s transfers on wireless.

When it comes to LAN cables all cables are store bought but I noticed that the one running from my pc to the router is labeled only cat5 and the one running from the server to the router is cat5e. Could this be the one and only reason I am getting such louse network performance?

 

[spidey07]

That could very well be it and would explain the varying performance.

 

[Fr33m4n]

Guess I should get some new cat.6 cables then. But the online store lists them as either UTP cable or Patchcable. Which exactly is it I need? I have no clue about the difference here.

 

[mc866]

Originally posted by: Fr33m4n
Guess I should get some new cat.6 cables then. But the online store lists them as either UTP cable or Patchcable. Which exactly is it I need? I have no clue about the difference here.

Any of these should work for you. Keep in mind you need cat6 for all the runs and that every end point has to have a 10/1000 NIC or be gigabit capable or you won't necessarily recognize the best speeds.