LAN / Computer-to-Computer Transfer Speed

wndsr · 18 Oct 2013 at 13:21

Afternoon. I have an Apple Time Capsule (4th Generation) with two Mac Computers plus my PC connected to it.

I seem to only be getting a maximum computer-to-computer speed of 10MB/s which is significantly lower than I expected. I was wondering if there may be any particular reason for this?

The speed is the same regardless of which direction I am transferring files.

Cheers

wndsr · 18 Oct 2013 at 13:26

What was I expecting, good question... I don't know really but I just thought it seemed quite slow. We're just about to get 120meg broadband so will be expecting 12MB/s download speeds and would have assumed that my local connection would be much faster than that?

Perhaps I just assumed that the transfer rate of files between computers on a local network would be much faster?

wndsr · 18 Oct 2013 at 13:36

The two computers I am transferring files between are both connected via an ethernet cable into the back of the Time Capsule.

wndsr · 18 Oct 2013 at 13:45

My iMac - which is where I am transferring files from - seems to have Gigabit according to the website: http://www.apple.com/uk/imac/specs/

My PC - the receiver - has this motherboard that does apparently have Gigabit too: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-234-MS

Sorry if I haven't answered the question, this is by no means by area!

Edit: According to Apple the Time Capsule has Gigabit ports too? http://support.apple.com/kb/sp627

wndsr · 18 Oct 2013 at 13:50

I'm using the Time Capsule 4th Generation to link all the computers together: http://support.apple.com/kb/sp627

Do you mean the router downstairs? I didn't think that would impact this at all because I'm connecting them through the Time Capsule in my room.

wndsr · 18 Oct 2013 at 17:34

bledd. said:
I've never used a time capsule, but does it have a screen you can log into to see what speed it's connected at?

Your PC will report what speed it's connected at in Windows.

Will either be 100 or 1000, 1000 = Gigabit.

Test each cable between the PC and the time capsule, if any of them report as 100, then replace that cable.
100 = 12.5MB/s max (nearer 12MB/s in real world)
1000 = 125MB/s max (nearer 120MB/s in real world)

I've had a look in Windows and it shows 100 as the speed. I'm not entirely sure how to change it. I've had a look around the (very limited) settings for the time capsule but don't seem to see anything that suggests changing the speed.

rpstewart said:
Just had another thought - what sort of size of files are we talking here? If it's a lot of small files it'll go slower than a small number of big ones.

These are all really big files, not small ones.

wndsr · 18 Oct 2013 at 17:56

Really? You think it's as simple as that?

wndsr · 18 Oct 2013 at 19:22

I've just had a quick look at my cable and the leaving the iMac and going into the TC is CAT5E but the one going from my PC to the TC is CAT5 - would this mean the maximum speed for the CAT5 cable is 10MB/s?

wndsr · 22 Oct 2013 at 12:32

My new CAT6 cables have arrived and transfer speed is literally 10x better!

Thank you guys :-)