Slow local wired network transfer speeds

[Cozarkian]

I decided to move my plex media to my nvidia shield and my transfer speeds average about 11 Mbps. My network is all gigabit Ethernet (fatal1ty z87 motherboard, netgear wndr4300, cat 5e cable, and the shield) and Speed test indicates 45+ Mbps download and upload speeds from the Internet. The transfer is from an internal Seagate drive to an external Seagate drive that I believe supports usb 3.0.

Is this normal, or is there something I can do to speed up the transfer.

 

[VirtualLarry]

USB drive connected to the Shield? That's really unsurprising. USB is CPU-driven, and ARM CPUs are much weaker at that than x86/x64 CPUs are.

 

[sdifox]

Cant you connect the target drive to the source pc and do local copy?

 

[Sean Kyle]

Cant you connect the target drive to the source pc and do local copy?

This would be really good for your setup!

 

[sdifox]

I decided to move my plex media to my nvidia shield and my transfer speeds average about 11 Mbps. My network is all gigabit Ethernet (fatal1ty z87 motherboard, netgear wndr4300, cat 5e cable, and the shield) and Speed test indicates 45+ Mbps download and upload speeds from the Internet. The transfer is from an internal Seagate drive to an external Seagate drive that I believe supports usb 3.0.

Is this normal, or is there something I can do to speed up the transfer.

another question, what exactly are you using to do the transfer of your media files?

 

[Cozarkian]

Cant you connect the target drive to the source pc and do local copy?

Actually, no. I'm using the drive as internal storage and the shield formats it in a way that makes it unusable on other devices without reformatting.

Even if I could, I'd also want to diagnose if something is wrong anyway. That's actually the real reason I'm asking, because the transfer finished overnight but I might add more in the future and want to make sure everything is working properly.

another question, what exactly are you using to do the transfer of your media files?

The last Shield update let's you change a setting to make it accessible by computers on the network. I just open file explorer on the PC, go to network, the Shield is there, click it, and enter the password.

USB drive connected to the Shield? That's really unsurprising. USB is CPU-driven, and ARM CPUs are much weaker at that than x86/x64 CPUs are.

Thanks, although that is not what I was hoping to hear. I hope that doesn't make it run noticeably slower, as I'd much prefer to have the media on the shield so I don't have to leave the computer on all the time.

 

[sdifox]

On the router, does the port the shield is connected to show it is gigabit? Though even at 100mbps you should be transferring at more than 11mbps. You are talking about megabit and not megabyte right? Cuz 100mbps does top out around 11MBps.

also shield is supposed to be able to use ntfs formatted external hdd so I dont know why you have to format it to fat32 (shield uses fat32)

 

[Cozarkian]

Both, apparently. I was comparing my wired local networks speed (in MB/s) to my internet speed test results in mbps and wondering why my internet was faster. Thank you for pointing out that blunder, as while I feel somewhat foolish, I feel much better about my network.

That said, I am still curious as to why my local network is transferring at only 11 MB/s. I would understand if I had 100 mbps maximum transfer speeds and was getting close to the cap, but I should be wired for gigabit ethernet (1000 mbps or 125 MB/s).

You are right, I could use the HDD as an external storage device for the shield, but I don't really plan on moving it around between multiple devices, so it made sense to set it up as internal storage so I can add the apps and games to it and never have to worry about running out of space.

 

[sdifox]

Both, apparently. I was comparing my wired local networks speed (in MB/s) to my internet speed test results in mbps and wondering why my internet was faster. Thank you for pointing out that blunder, as while I feel somewhat foolish, I feel much better about my network.

That said, I am still curious as to why my local network is transferring at only 11 MB/s. I would understand if I had 100 mbps maximum transfer speeds and was getting close to the cap, but I should be wired for gigabit ethernet (1000 mbps or 125 MB/s).

You are right, I could use the HDD as an external storage device for the shield, but I don't really plan on moving it around between multiple devices, so it made sense to set it up as internal storage so I can add the apps and games to it and never have to worry about running out of space.

So the lights on the router is showing you are running gigabit to the Shield? The port light in the front is green if gigabit and amber if 100mb.

 

[freeskier93]

What kind of hard drives? Sounds like 5400 RPM spinners, in which case 11 MBps sounds about right.

 

[sdifox]

What kind of hard drives? Sounds like 5400 RPM spinners, in which case 11 MBps sounds about right.

even 5400 RPM hdds are capable of more than 11MB/s. notebook 2.5" 5400rpm drives are capable of 100MB+ sustained write.

 

[Cozarkian]

So the lights on the router is showing you are running gigabit to the Shield? The port light in the front is green if gigabit and amber if 100mb.

See, that's why I come here, I did not know that. The port to the shield is in fact amber, while the port to the PC is green. There are three cables connecting the router and shield (router to wall, 40 - 50 foot run through the attic, wall to Shield). The cable through the attic says Cat 5e on the sleeve and the other two I purchased and are definitely Cat 5e? Do you think maybe the wall cable wasn't crimped properly on install for gigabit, or is there some other place I should start?

Also, the internal HDD is 7200 rpm, the external one is a Seagate Expansion drive that does use USB 3.0 but is probably only 5400 rpm.

 

[sdifox]

See, that's why I come here, I did not know that. The port to the shield is in fact amber, while the port to the PC is green. There are three cables connecting the router and shield (router to wall, 40 - 50 foot run through the attic, wall to Shield). The cable through the attic says Cat 5e on the sleeve and the other two I purchased and are definitely Cat 5e? Do you think maybe the wall cable wasn't crimped properly on install for gigabit, or is there some other place I should start?

Also, the internal HDD is 7200 rpm, the external one is a Seagate Expansion drive that does use USB 3.0 but is probably only 5400 rpm.

Couldnt tell you which cable is the issue. Hdd speed is not the issue. Try swapping in your pc's cable and test.

 

[Sean Kyle]

Try swapping in your pc's cable and test

also try disconnecting and reconnecting!