Gigabit Speed is too slow

[Raizinman]

I'm upgrading my home internet. I have Roadrunner Turbo. I have 4 computers. Three of the computers have D-Link Gigabit ethernet cards. My Router is the new Netgear Gigabit Router WNDR3700. I use Cat 6 cable throughout. In doing a transfer of data (about 250 gigs worth), between machines, the fastest speed I was able to obtain was around 9 mb/sec. The slowest speed was around 2 mb/sec. These are the same speeds prior to putting in new gigabit ethernet cards? Any thoughts on how to obtain faster speeds? The computers are:
1) Windows 7 desktop quad core
2) Windows XP dual core
3) Windows XP single core
4) Windows XP laptop single core

What things could I be missing?

 

[Crusty]

Are these factory made cables or did you crimp them yourself?

 

[shabby]

the fastest speed I was able to obtain was around 9 mb/sec.

Sounds like your ethernet cards are running at 100mbps and not 1gbps, go into device manager, click on your ethernet card and go into the advanced section. Scroll down to speed/duplex and set it to 1000mbps.

 

[Raizinman]

Thanks for the reply. The cables are factory good ones. As for the ethernets cards, perhaps that is the problem. I installed the D-Link Gigabit cards, ran their enclosed CD, and that was about it. Are there any setting that need to be set?

 

[Madwand1]

The desktop network status and router's connection light color (green) should show the connection speed. Check it / fix it before going any further.

Leave the network adapter setting at auto-negotiate.

Use something like the following utility to check the network transfer speed independent of the drive, file system, etc.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=29208454&postcount=11

If your network adapters provide that option, try enabling jumbo frames / setting the frame size to the maximum supported -- typically 7K or 9K, and then re-measuring using the above utility.

I also suggest reducing the variables and just measuring between two points to start -- Windows 7 to XP dual-core would be my suggestion as a probable best case.

 

[JackMDS]

Borrow a real Giga switch (or get inexpensive one) and try it with another switch.

 

[her209]

You can also check your network card (negotiated) link speed by going to Task Manager and clicking on the Networking tab.

 

[alyarb]

frame size...

 

[Emulex]

i'd guess the source and destination are not fast enough given overhead.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Thanks for the reply. The cables are factory good ones. As for the ethernets cards, perhaps that is the problem. I installed the D-Link Gigabit cards, ran their enclosed CD, and that was about it. Are there any setting that need to be set?

Like the post above you said, make sure they are running at 1000/100/10, not just 100/10. You're definitely getting 100mb speeds, not 1GB.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Borrow a real Giga switch (or get inexpensive one) and try it with another switch.

Learn your hardware. The 3700 was is a pretty darn good router. The LAN->WAN and WAN->LAN routing speeds were tested to be in the 400+Mbps range with 200 simultaneous connections. That is one heck of a good performance. There are many CISCO routers which do not do that well, let alone add firewall, switch, DHCP, DNS, and wireless support all into the mix.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Learn your hardware. The 3700 was is a pretty darn good router. The LAN->WAN and WAN->LAN routing speeds were tested to be in the 400+Mbps range with 200 simultaneous connections. That is one heck of a good performance. There are many CISCO routers which do not do that well, let alone add firewall, switch, DHCP, DNS, and wireless support all into the mix.

How did it do in the LAN<>LAN benchmarks?

 

[JackMDS]

The LAN->WAN and WAN->LAN routing speeds

I am talking about LAN<>LAN transfer and Not Routing.

.

 

[Krazy4Real]

I am talking about LAN<>LAN transfer and Not Routing.

.

I get around 950 mbps avg. on my equipment LAN to LAN transfer speed. I did not optimize at all, and I'm using cat 5e cables.

I have one onboard realtek gigabit nic in one pc and an intel pro 1000 gigabit nic in the other machine. My router is obviously the Netgear WNDR3700. I frickin' love this router.

 

[JackMDS]

I get around 950 mbps avg. on my equipment LAN to LAN transfer speed. I did not optimize at all, and I'm using cat 5e cables.

I have one onboard realtek gigabit nic in one pc and an intel pro 1000 gigabit nic in the other machine. My router is obviously the Netgear WNDR3700. I frickin' love this router.

That is very nice.

How much you get in actual File transfer?

Like how long it takes to actually copy 5GB File between two computers while mean time you are surfing on the Internet?

 

[Fallen Kell]

I have been seeing 700+ Mbps speed with LAN<->LAN on the 3700, but I am sure that the bottleneck on those connections has been my hard drives (this has been for file transfers where I typically see 90MBps transfer rates). Makes it pretty easy to transfer high definition recordings in the network.

It is possible that he got a defective switch/router. But the speed being what it is listed is very suspect of a 100mbps connection....

 

[Krazy4Real]

That is very nice.

How much you get in actual File transfer?

Like how long it takes to actually copy 5GB File between two computers while mean time you are surfing on the Internet?

I get 60 MBps sustained transfer speed. I'm limited by my media hard drive speed though. It's about 4 or 5 years old.

 

[JackMDS]

This is what Windows based peer-to-peer Network produces with a $24 Giga Switch.

http://www.ezlan.net/vista/Giga-Optimized.jpg

From every thing that I actually saw, or heard from people that I respect, give and take few GB, this is what is possible to get and using a switch that is a part of fancy too expensive Wireless Draft Router for sure is Not better.

That said, I am Not implying that the Router's switch is capable preforming only as the OP's does. However under the circumstances trying another switch seems to be a reasonable approach.

 

[her209]

I'm using a Netgear GS105 switch that is able to push ~950 Mbps.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=333685