Question Trying to connect 2 PC's at home issues

GameOverAus

Junior Member
Dec 22, 2022
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Sorry for the long winded post in advance, not sure how to condense

I have 2 WIndows 11 based systems, one is used primarily for backing up the other. Both have onboard intel based NIC's, and i'd bought 2xTPLinc TX401 10Gb nics with the intention of using those instead of the onboard options.

Now if i connect both motherboard NIC's to the router, all sweet. Can remote access the backup PC and can use the likes of freefilesync to backup between the 2, but those are only 1Gb speeds which is way too slow for me.

If i add the TX401's and connect direct PC to PC, i can still remote access and see the other PC's but can't access them for file transfers even tho file sharing is enabled. Further to that, it did work at one point (with no change) but other devices in the house could only see 1 of the PC's even tho they were both still connected to the router.

I tried not using the onboard NIC's and connecting each direct to the router and the TX401's wont connect to the internet at all on either machine, neither can i access the other PCs even tho they are visible. Latest drivers. They just both show as unidentified.

Clearly i'm missing something other then DON'T USE WINDOWS lol....
Thank you in advance:)
 

Tech Junky

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2022
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I'd say reboot the router and try again but, does the router support 10GE?

For PC<>PC you'll need to set a static IP and not gateway. Preferably a different subnet.
 
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GameOverAus

Junior Member
Dec 22, 2022
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I'd say reboot the router and try again but, does the router support 10GE?

For PC<>PC you'll need to set a static IP and not gateway. Preferably a different subnet.
First off, thank you for replying :)

Router was rebooted numerous times, and no it doesn't support 10Gb lan, but it's not even recognizing them for internet acces when just connected to the TPX401's it should still work at it's rated speed, it's just a conduit.

Setting static IP's makes it worse then the PC's can't file share, they can see each other but can't connect for file sharing purposes even tho it is set for file sharing in options. I know it SHOULD work but something is screwy.
Might just bite the bullet and buy a 10Gb router.
 

Tech Junky

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Jan 27, 2022
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PC1 - 1GE - router - DHCP
PC2 - 1GE - router - DHCP

PC1 - 10GE - PC2- 192.168.100.1 / 255.255.255.0
PC2 - 10GE - PC1- 192.168.100.2 / 255.255.255.0

This keeps your file sharing and enables 10GE between the PC's for backups.

When you connect the TPX to the router you only get 1GE because it's a 1GE port on the router.
 

GameOverAus

Junior Member
Dec 22, 2022
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PC1 - 1GE - router - DHCP
PC2 - 1GE - router - DHCP

PC1 - 10GE - PC2- 192.168.100.1 / 255.255.255.0
PC2 - 10GE - PC1- 192.168.100.2 / 255.255.255.0

This keeps your file sharing and enables 10GE between the PC's for backups.

When you connect the TPX to the router you only get 1GE because it's a 1GE port on the router.
No you didn't reead i meant the Router should still work at it's rated speed not the TPX's, but when i connect the TPX to the router and unplug the onboard and change to autoassign address i get nothing. It just sais theres no network access. as such onboard NIC is used for the internet. :)
as for the above settings, i do have those thanx and with the onboard NIC's for internet with FIle sharing unticked and the TPX's strictly with Filesharing for PC to PC and Avast software told off and exemptions put in TWICE, it seems to be working now.:)
 
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Tech Junky

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It gets funky when running dual NIC's and Windows. I run a quad port 5GE NIC on Linux though and very rarely an issue usually due to a kernel upgrade that missed the drivers for the NIC.

Sometimes you have to disable the adapter and enable it again to pick up the signal though when switching NIC's in use in Windows. Remembering to switch them back from static to DHCP is sometimes an issue though too. Why they don't work with the router in 1GE mode is a bit odd though. There could eb a variety of reasons though but, it's hard to say w/o more info from the PC / router as to why.
 

GameOverAus

Junior Member
Dec 22, 2022
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It gets funky when running dual NIC's and Windows. I run a quad port 5GE NIC on Linux though and very rarely an issue usually due to a kernel upgrade that missed the drivers for the NIC.

Sometimes you have to disable the adapter and enable it again to pick up the signal though when switching NIC's in use in Windows. Remembering to switch them back from static to DHCP is sometimes an issue though too. Why they don't work with the router in 1GE mode is a bit odd though. There could eb a variety of reasons though but, it's hard to say w/o more info from the PC / router as to why.

Don't care now about connecting them to the internet, thats too hard basket

But to add salt to the wound, now with actual PC-PC setup using the TPX cards. the Hard Drives are bottlenecking the transfers anyway LOL
Getting 250MB/s, with an average of 150MB/s. Oh well. Tho they have gotten upto 500MB/s
 

Tech Junky

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Jan 27, 2022
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@GameOverAus

Yeah, the disks /// I/O system tends to be a bottleneck at some point.

W/ Spinners in a Raid 10 I get ~400MB/s which is under the 5GE card that I picked up to make sure there was headroom for full speed transfers as needed. Adding another pair of drives would cause the bottleneck to be the 5GE NIC unless I bond 2 ports together for 10GE. Otherwise things get a bit ridiculous when you start talking SSD / NVME setups.

At least you have a sync bridge between the two PC's at this point that will run at full speed.
 

GameOverAus

Junior Member
Dec 22, 2022
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I didn't even realise i had much older IronWolf Sata 6Gb/e drives in the backup system that max out at 150MB/s each in a 5x6TB way raid. But the raid programme is now reporting one of the drives is showing errors.
The main PC has newer IronWolf but still only 6Gb/e drives but there theoretical speeds are 210MB/s each in a MSS raid of 5x8TB
 

Tech Junky

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Jan 27, 2022
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1672144874142.png

I threw this together for quick reference when building my LAN to see where I needed to be based on disk speed. Testing showed my disks hitting 400-450MB/s which puts it just shy of 4gbps. I then put in a NIC for 5GE to make sure I didn't have a bottleneck and left some room if I bumped the disks up another pair to hit ~600MB/s which is still below the 5GE speed.

So, looking at this 6gbps gets you 750MB/s which should comfortably fit ~3 modern SATA spinners at max speed ~225MB/s before hitting a wall. Now, if you need more bandwidth then it would be beneficial to use HBA's to unlock more capacity through the DMI. You could do raid cards but that's usually a waste of money and just adds more heat tot he system to deal with.

1672145499027.png

So, going off current chipsets you can unlock 8gbps per lane using a HBA which typically are electrically 2-4 lanes unless you go high end where you might find something that has more lanes. AFAIK though right now there's nothing available that is x8/x16 eclectically and well, for SATA that's a lot of drives to deal with and most cases won't have the room to get that many inside. The use case though would probably switch to using SSD's in which case 2.5" drives take up very little space but, you still need to space them a bit for temp control.

If I could stomach the prices I would pick up some of the HighPoint cards to play with.
https://www.highpoint-tech.com/rr800-overview - PCIE 3 / x8
https://www.highpoint-tech.com/product-page/rocketraid-840c - $250 - $300

https://www.highpoint-tech.com/gen4-nvme-m2 - $450-$1100 for 2-8 NVME drives @ Gen4 speeds.// pop this into the top PCIE slot for max speeds w/o dealing with the DMI as a potential bottleneck
 

Tech Junky

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Realistically, it's time to move away from sata.
I agree but, from the cost perspective it's not something everyone will want to do.

SAS complicates things with AIC / cabling. Adding a few hundred dollars for storage. If you're looking at the turbo diesel space heater you linked you're at least dedicating a space for that sort of pizza box to be mounted in. There are SAS cards though that can be slotted in a normal case. The drives though almost make a more convincing argument for just using SSD based options.

Just to get off the starting line...
https://www.amazon.com/HighPoint-Technologies-RocketRAID-Controller-RR3720C/dp/B08XG2BKF4 - $230 for SAS card
https://www.amazon.com/SHUYU-Server-SFF-8643-4XSFF-8482-12Gbps/dp/B0BMLDT9QK - $12 for cable for 4X drives / $24 for 2 cables to max card capacity
https://www.amazon.com/HGST-WD-HUS728T8TAL5204-12Gb-0B36400/dp/B07W4SL9C6 - 8TB similar to my current drives + $60/ea

So, all in all bumping to SAS would cost me another ~$600 which gets me what in return? ~30MB/s per drive? ~60MB/s in my current configuration... That's $10/MB/s premium over SATA.

I could easily just switch from spinners to SSDs for that kind of premium and triple my speed instead of dealing with the cards / cables / drives.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
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I agree but, from the cost perspective it's not something everyone will want to do.

SAS complicates things with AIC / cabling. Adding a few hundred dollars for storage. If you're looking at the turbo diesel space heater you linked you're at least dedicating a space for that sort of pizza box to be mounted in. There are SAS cards though that can be slotted in a normal case. The drives though almost make a more convincing argument for just using SSD based options.

Just to get off the starting line...
https://www.amazon.com/HighPoint-Technologies-RocketRAID-Controller-RR3720C/dp/B08XG2BKF4 - $230 for SAS card
https://www.amazon.com/SHUYU-Server-SFF-8643-4XSFF-8482-12Gbps/dp/B0BMLDT9QK - $12 for cable for 4X drives / $24 for 2 cables to max card capacity
https://www.amazon.com/HGST-WD-HUS728T8TAL5204-12Gb-0B36400/dp/B07W4SL9C6 - 8TB similar to my current drives + $60/ea

So, all in all bumping to SAS would cost me another ~$600 which gets me what in return? ~30MB/s per drive? ~60MB/s in my current configuration... That's $10/MB/s premium over SATA.

I could easily just switch from spinners to SSDs for that kind of premium and triple my speed instead of dealing with the cards / cables / drives.


I have two racks that's pretty empty xd. Used fiber gear is pretty affordable and I did install 240VAC feed. Only 30A though. My stack is in the basement so don't feel the noise nor heat.
 
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Tech Junky

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Jan 27, 2022
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I have two racks that's pretty empty xd. Used fiber gear is pretty affordable and I did install 240VAC feed. Only 30A though. My stack is in the basement so don't feel the noise nor heat.
Not everyone is going to that extent to simply do a NAS / backup solution. Being a nerd isn't a bad thing it's just an expensive addiction.

Folding in appliances to a single PC though does make sense when appropriate and skilled to do so. My "server" is silent w/ Raid 10 running on it and 24/7 as a router/firewall/dvr and some other stuff. But, like I stated going to SAS just doesn't make fiscal sense for the marginal speed boost the drives would produce.

Now, if I were hosting things for several users the objective would be different as would be the scale of the HW being used.