Slow upload to Server

[Katana]

Starting last friday uploading to Windows Server 2003 has slowed to a crawl. I can download at full speed but uploading to it I average only about 500KB/s on a 100mbps network. I've checked the network card and it seems to be fine, I've sent files to other clients on the network and they work at full speed so I don't think it's the switch, I've also pinged the server from a client and everything seems fine. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[spidey07]

Check or replace the cabling on the client side.

 

[spikespiegal]

Set the speed/duplex on the server's NIC card to manual 100/full.

If that doesn't help, manually try moving files around on the server to make sure it's not a write problem with the HD or HD controller.

 

[err]

also try to change the port on switch for troubleshooting purposes.

You might also want to grab a good laptop and use it to troubleshoot the physical layer. If everything is fast on your laptop, I doubt its physical issue

 

[Katana]

I changed the speed from auto to 100/full and the d/l speeds took a dump, even slower than the uploads were before. I'm going to try a different NIC today to see if that helps.

I also checked the drives using the raid cards software and it wasn't reporting any errors from any of the drives.

 

[Katana]

It did end up being the network card, thanks for the help.

 

[spikespiegal]

That's one way to flag problems like this real quick. If 100/full kills traffic, then it's either the NIC or the port on the switch.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: spikespiegal
That's one way to flag problems like this real quick. If 100/full kills traffic, then it's either the NIC or the port on the switch.

Or more commonly a duplex mismatch. You should never force one side of the link to 100/full and leave the other side at auto. The auto side will run in half-duplex and lead to performance worse than 10/half - think 1 Mbs.

So either leave both sides at auto or force the switch and the NIC to 100/full.

 

[spikespiegal]

I somwhat agree, although the common problem is usually on the modem side of things since these gadgets typically have the least capability (if at all) of negotiating duplex properly.

Or, go back 6-7 years when I saw Cisco Catalyst switches shut down entire divisions of corporate if the clients were using 3C905Bs in 'auto-mode' and the switch was also. Wasn't a problem with Intel NICs.

I'm otherwise leary of hardcoding duplex speeds in switches because of the limited number of consumer based switches that allow this. Or, the manual setting being forgotten and the user causing more problems down the road when they have to plug in said Toys -R- Us moden into switch port that's set to force full duplex.

Ah well....beats IPX on Token Ring....