speed up LAN file transfers?

katie279

katie279

katie279

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Hi folks,

I regularly have to transfer lots of large files at home between various pcs and networked drives.

On the Vista network I'm currently obtaining around 8.11MB/sec when moving them (usually around 100gb and about 10,000 thousand files).

Can anyone tell me if this is to be expected and if possible, how I can speed this up?

All the pcs involved are pretty meaty, all vista 64 ultimate - decent HDs (16mb cache min, 7200), Network is 100mb ethernet (though not sure exactly where the 100mb comes from!)

Finally it's going through a router (Netgear DG834PN).

If anyone can help me speed this up, I'd be most appreciative!
 
Thats a little slow, but is actually fine, it's not 100MB it's 100Mb, aka approx 12MB maximum theoretical. To transfer data much faster you'd need to upgrade to a gigabit network.
 
hmm I've actually got gigabit enabled on all pcs, not sure about the cables/router though - do these need to be upgraded?
 
Your router is unlikely to have gigabit switch ports so yes you will need to either upgrade that or buy a switch to connect your PC's to that is gigabit.

£45 on an 8 port HP gigabit switch should speed things up for you no end. Don't worry about the cables, as long as they are terminated correctly I doub't you will find any issues with them.
 
I'm currently using 1pc and a server through Linksys WRT54GL(DD-WRT)
doing maximum of 11mb/s when sending files.
and I'm currently sending 128 GB of files and it takes 3hours to be completed which is a bit long.

And my current setup:
Sky broadband ADSL Wireless Router for my wifi equipment
which is then outputted to a power line to my WRT54GL upstairs and then split to my main PC and my Server.
Is there anyway to speed up my WRT54GL?
Or is there any gigabt switch that has internet input so I can split the internet connection to 2 of my PCs as well.

Just wondering if this will work to save some of the cost
is to get a Ethernet PCI card into my server(mobo only got 1 Ethernet connection) and wire the powerline(internet)
to my server then output/sharingmode one of the Ethernet to my main PC for internet and gigabit transfer rate at the same time.
 
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you need to find out if your network cables are at least cat5e, then all you need is gigabit router/switch. that will enable your network speed up to gigabit speed :)
 
You don't need the WRT54GL or a router at all. Just replace it with a gigabit switch and you're done.

katie279 said:
so would it be simpler to get something like this then?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-000-SC

(presume that'd mean I could keep things to one router?)
Click to expand...

No, you'd need some kind of ADSL modem as well. The router you've got would do that, but you're then not improving anything by paying well over the odds for a device you'd use as a gigabit switch.

If so, is there any 'leading' model - that was just the first that popped up...
Click to expand...

ADSL routers with GigE are fairly rare. A separate switch with the router you've got is by far the better option.
 
Once you've got a Gigabit switch enable jumbo frames in your NIC properties for a ncie increase if the switch supports it and both NIC's support the same frame sizes.
 
AbsenceJam said:
Once you've got a Gigabit switch enable jumbo frames in your NIC properties for a ncie increase if the switch supports it and both NIC's support the same frame sizes.
Click to expand...
Provided the switch supports jumbo frames, for instance the Netgear linked above doesn't, however its 8 port compatriot does. Alternatively look at HP ProCurve.
 
This is an old problem and you need to ask some questions.
When transferring what is the cpu usage, what is the disk usage, what is the network usage?
It could be slow because the disk is buzy or the cpu cant cope or the network traffic is high.
The next problem is how you copy the files. You can use DOS, mapped drive ie coping to drive f: you can copy via a url ie \\myserver\myshare.
Dos is normally the quickest and Robocopy is the fastest way to do it.

The other problem is AV if the files are types which can contain virus then the AV on the sending pc will scan them and then the AV on the receiving pc will scan them this can drag the speed down dramatically
 
Make sure Vista is fully updated. There were updates which improved it massively. It still lags behind XP though.

A 100Mb switch is the biggest factor though.
 
Heh, you guys are awesome - best forums on the net for advice!

Right I'll try and answer your questions - shout if I've missed anything!

- Network cables definitely CAT5e
- CPUs - the minimum powered pc involved is a Q6600, 8GB RAM, with 4 x 500gb 7200rpm 16mb cache HDs (let me know if there's any other pc specs that'd help)
- All on vista, except one linux - though don't tend to do the massive file moves with that - but all Vistas up to date.
- Antivirus - that's a really interesting point, don't know how it'd test that - maybe just turn off - the files are always image formats - eg psds, jpgs, pngs, tifs, etc - so don't know if AVs generally interfere with these anyway?
- I keep all the drives with at least 100GB free and have a 100gb swap partition (for both vista and photoshop completely empty)

Samuria - yes thought about DOS (that's what partly triggered me to think about this), might doa speed test comparison - will look at Robocopy - thanks for the tip! ;)

gamesaregood - cool, that looks like an option! Your speeds sound great, big improvement - are there any similar models with more ports? (my current has only four and I've got 7 PCs, so might as well take the opportunity to get them all wired in!)
 
katie279 said:
gamesaregood - cool, that looks like an option! Your speeds sound great, big improvement - are there any similar models with more ports? (my current has only four and I've got 7 PCs, so might as well take the opportunity to get them all wired in!)
Click to expand...

You don't get routers with more then 4 ports (I just know some smart Alec will post one with 5).

Just buy a suitable sized Gigabit switch attach all your PCs and your router to it. HP Procurve stuff is very good, however they jump straight from 8 ports to 24 so it might be worth looking at something else.
 
katie279 said:
are there any similar models with more ports? (my current has only four and I've got 7 PCs, so might as well take the opportunity to get them all wired in!)
Click to expand...
Its 8 port brother (Netgear GS608) will allow you to connect the 7 PCs, along with the router. Alternatively the same money will get you an 8 port HP ProCurve, which is probably a bit better made.
 
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