LAN speeds inconsistent

[thestrangebrew1]

Just a quick question regarding my network speeds & file transfers.

Copying video files to my server, I get speeds up to about 120-130MBps. But I tried copying a video file from my pc to my stepson's pc upstairs (via wired cat5e) I only got about 3MBps and it took over 3 mins. Just curious what would cause this. Both pcs using w7, 7200rpm drives and onboard LAN ports. What kind of program can I use to troubleshoot network speeds or leaks?

 

[IGemini]

No idea for software, but it looks like your stepson's computer is only getting ethernet speeds instead of gigabit. What comes to mind is:

- The computer really only has a 10/100 adapter, or might be set to only negotiate 10/100 speeds.
- Chipset and NIC drivers are out of date.
- You might have a bad cable.
- Turning up jumbo packets may help.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

No idea for software, but it looks like your stepson's computer is only getting ethernet speeds instead of gigabit. What comes to mind is:

- The computer really only has a 10/100 adapter, or might be set to only negotiate 10/100 speeds.
- Chipset and NIC drivers are out of date.
- You might have a bad cable.
- Turning up jumbo packets may help.

Thanks for giving me a few ideas on what to check. His pc is a few months old so I'll check to see if there's anything to update. I didn't think the cable was bad because for the internet, he's getting almost exactly the same speed as I'm getting on my pc downstairs using speedtest. I'm not sure if this is a different thing than my local network or not though.

 

[IGemini]

The cable would be "bad" in the sense that if any of the wires in the cabling are bad, it'll throttle down the connection to 10/100 ethernet. And unless your ISP specifically offered you an internet package with gigabit, you'll both be connected to the internet at ethernet speeds regardless of your router. The fact that your internet speeds are the same suggests that's the case.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

The cable would be "bad" in the sense that if any of the wires in the cabling are bad, it'll throttle down the connection to 10/100 ethernet. And unless your ISP specifically offered you an internet package with gigabit, you'll both be connected to the internet at ethernet speeds regardless of your router. The fact that your internet speeds are the same suggests that's the case.

Ah ok, makes sense. I'll check it out later today when I get home and see if I can troubleshoot it further. Thanks.

 

[imagoon]

Just a quick question regarding my network speeds & file transfers.

Copying video files to my server, I get speeds up to about 120-130MBps. But I tried copying a video file from my pc to my stepson's pc upstairs (via wired cat5e) I only got about 3MBps and it took over 3 mins. Just curious what would cause this. Both pcs using w7, 7200rpm drives and onboard LAN ports. What kind of program can I use to troubleshoot network speeds or leaks?

You're getting more than 1gbps? Did you get yourself a 10gig nic and switch?

Seriously though I would test the patch cables and the in wall gear / patchpanel / keystones.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

You're getting more than 1gbps? Did you get yourself a 10gig nic and switch?

Seriously though I would test the patch cables and the in wall gear / patchpanel / keystones.

lol sry

So I did a LANspeed test and here are the results:

Stepson to my pc downstairs: Write/Reads were about 90Mbps.
My pc to his: Write/Reads were about the same

Stepson to server downstairs were about the same as well.

When I run a test from my pc to the server about 4' away I get: Write: 822Mbps Read: 639Mbps.

Obviously something to do with the line upstairs. I'll have to check his system and make sure everything is updated and check the cables/switch.

 

[Ghiedo27]

I'd take a moment to swap the cables around on the switch to rule out a bad port.

 

[Solomutt]

If you look at the status of the LAN connection, it will show what speed it is running at. It will not specify the duplex, however. If the speed is 1000, the try going int the properties of the card, and locking it to 1000 full duplex. If it is a gigabit ethernet card, and it is showing 100, then locking it may fix, but it could be downgrading link speed if the cabling is not up to spec, or if the run is over 300 feet. Also, badly crimped cable ends will not pass gigabit traffic, due to loss of signal, or too much RF noise entering the ends.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

If you look at the status of the LAN connection, it will show what speed it is running at. It will not specify the duplex, however. If the speed is 1000, the try going int the properties of the card, and locking it to 1000 full duplex. If it is a gigabit ethernet card, and it is showing 100, then locking it may fix, but it could be downgrading link speed if the cabling is not up to spec, or if the run is over 300 feet. Also, badly crimped cable ends will not pass gigabit traffic, due to loss of signal, or too much RF noise entering the ends.

Thanks. The run is only about 75' from downstairs to upstairs. I prob won't have time to inspect the cables and switches/patches till this wknd sometime but I'll check the LAN properties and look for updates to hardware tonight. I'm thinking there's a good chance I didn't crimp the cable ends good enough. I just used the cheap plastic punch-down tool that came with the leviton rj45's lol. I assumed those worked ok because whenever I punched them down, I would hear a click so I thought it was good to go. Maybe getting a proper tool would be better.

 

[dawks]

I have this problem too.. I have a Mac Pro with OS 10.6 and a Windows 7 Pro machine, both gigabit, both 4+ Core Machines... with a Gigabit Linksys in between. Sitting at the Mac, I tried to copy a 12gig MKV to the Win7 Machine.. it would only do 700kbytes/sec. Stopped it, and went to the Win7 machine and copied it from it.. It went at about 70megs/sec. Other times, it will work just fine on the Mac. Not sure why such a simple setup varies so much.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

I'm wondering if file size/type has anything do with the rate of transfer, ie 12gb video file vs say a 12gb word doc or a folder with 12gb worth of whatever in that folder.

 

[imagoon]

I'm wondering if file size/type has anything do with the rate of transfer, ie 12gb video file vs say a 12gb word doc or a folder with 12gb worth of whatever in that folder.

To the copy commands, data is just data. 12GB of word doc(s) vs 12GB of video would have speed deltas but not due to the performance of the network.

12GB of work docs is easily 12,000 to 120,000 files. The over head of moving 120,000 entries will be much slower than 1/2 or 3 video files that is 12GB.

 

[dawks]

To the copy commands, data is just data. 12GB of word doc(s) vs 12GB of video would have speed deltas but not due to the performance of the network.

12GB of work docs is easily 12,000 to 120,000 files. The over head of moving 120,000 entries will be much slower than 1/2 or 3 video files that is 12GB.

Yea the stopping and starting of many small files would mean a slower transfer rate, but beyond that, data is data. On the other hand, there are some file copy utilities that will do compression during transit, so technically large Word or Excel files could copy faster since they can easily be compressed. An h.246 MKV is already highly compressed so you'd see no benefit from attempting to recompress on the fly.

 

[imagoon]

Yea the stopping and starting of many small files would mean a slower transfer rate, but beyond that, data is data. On the other hand, there are some file copy utilities that will do compression during transit, so technically large Word or Excel files could copy faster since they can easily be compressed. An h.246 MKV is already highly compressed so you'd see no benefit from attempting to recompress on the fly.

Unless they are .docx/.xlsx then they are compressed from the get go.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Well the problem still persists so I'll just have to do some troubleshooting and maybe buy a punchdown tool and redo all the wiring and look for updates. I'll have to check how well the other rooms are doing with the wiring.

 

[kt]

Get a cable tester, it's a good investment if you do your own cabling. I had similar issues and found out the builder did a piss poor job at running the cables. Whoever did the wiring stapled the cable to the wooden frame to keep it from moving around but punched through the cable. That caused just enough interference to give us real slow transfer speed, but not enough to totally kill the connection.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Get a cable tester, it's a good investment if you do your own cabling. I had similar issues and found out the builder did a piss poor job at running the cables. Whoever did the wiring stapled the cable to the wooden frame to keep it from moving around but punched through the cable. That caused just enough interference to give us real slow transfer speed, but not enough to totally kill the connection.

What kind of cable tester? Are they typically available at HD or Lowe's?

 

[kt]

What kind of cable tester? Are they typically available at HD or Lowe's?

RJ-45 cable tester like this:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10524&cs_id=1052401&p_id=8128&seq=1&format=2

They may have them at HD or Lowe's.