100Mbps XP Network running at 20Mbps

[eno]

Hi,

I can see this is a common issue, but just wondering if there's
anything obvious I'm doing wrong.

I've got two XP machines, both connecting at 100Mbps, and going through
a Belkin router.

When I try and copy a large file across the network using Windows
Explorer from a Shared Network Drive, I only get about 20Mbps.

I've tried:
- Autonegotiation on both cards
- Force 100Mbps Full Duplex, both cards
- Force 100Mbps Half Duplex, both cards
- Microsoft TcpWindowSize regedit
- NetBIOS over TCP/IP explicitly enabled (and auto)

20Mbps is a maximum - usually getting around 15.

Anyone got any ideas?

Cheers

eno

 

[John Weiss]

I've got two XP machines, both connecting at 100Mbps, and going through
a Belkin router.

When I try and copy a large file across the network using Windows
Explorer from a Shared Network Drive, I only get about 20Mbps.

That's normal for small files. I/O overhead (writing the file tables) takes
up a lot of the time. Try a HUGE file and see where it goes. My LAN can
sustain 70-75 Mbps.

Also, HD performance can be a choke point. A 4200 RPM laptop HD will yield
miserable performance...

 

[eno]

That's normal for small files. I/O overhead (writing the file tables) takes
up a lot of the time. Try a HUGE file and see where it goes. My LAN can
sustain 70-75 Mbps.

Also, HD performance can be a choke point. A 4200 RPM laptop HD will yield
miserable performance...

Thanks for your reply John. I've tried various file sizes - the
fastest speed was with files about 1G. Also, my laptop hard drive is
7200RPM, so I reckon that's not the issue either.

Any other ideas?

 

[Bob Willard]

Hi,

I can see this is a common issue, but just wondering if there's
anything obvious I'm doing wrong.

I've got two XP machines, both connecting at 100Mbps, and going through
a Belkin router.

When I try and copy a large file across the network using Windows
Explorer from a Shared Network Drive, I only get about 20Mbps.

I've tried:
- Autonegotiation on both cards
- Force 100Mbps Full Duplex, both cards
- Force 100Mbps Half Duplex, both cards
- Microsoft TcpWindowSize regedit
- NetBIOS over TCP/IP explicitly enabled (and auto)

20Mbps is a maximum - usually getting around 15.

Anyone got any ideas?

Cheers

eno

For sure, that is horrible. XP-XP via my 100 Mb/s Linksys WRT54G router,
I get >9 MB/s (i.e., >70 Mb/s).

Could be that your datastream is looping out the WAN side of the router
instead of taking the shortcut on the WAN side. You could test this by
pulling the plug on the WAN side for a bit to see if STR gets better.

 

[eno]

For sure, that is horrible. XP-XP via my 100 Mb/s Linksys WRT54G router,
I get >9 MB/s (i.e., >70 Mb/s).

Could be that your datastream is looping out the WAN side of the router
instead of taking the shortcut on the WAN side. You could test this by
pulling the plug on the WAN side for a bit to see if STR gets better.

Thanks for your response Bob.

I've tried what you said. I disconnected the WAN side of my router,
and tried my tests again.

No change unfortunately - still as slow as always.

Any other ideas?

 

[eno]

Hi,

I can see this is a common issue, but just wondering if there's
anything obvious I'm doing wrong.

I've got two XP machines, both connecting at 100Mbps, and going through
a Belkin router.

When I try and copy a large file across the network using Windows
Explorer from a Shared Network Drive, I only get about 20Mbps.

I've tried:
- Autonegotiation on both cards
- Force 100Mbps Full Duplex, both cards
- Force 100Mbps Half Duplex, both cards
- Microsoft TcpWindowSize regedit
- NetBIOS over TCP/IP explicitly enabled (and auto)

20Mbps is a maximum - usually getting around 15.

Anyone got any ideas?

Cheers

eno

I've found more info on this issue, but not a solution.

My router is also a switch (rather than a hub), so, from reading other
posts, I'm led to believe that it should be able to handle 100 FULL
duplex (rather than Half duplex for a hub.)

However, when I set both machines to 100 FD that's the worst
performance - Windows Explorer estimates that an 800M file copy over
the network will take around 200 minutes to transfer!

Going back to Auto negotiation instead of 100FD, Explorer estimates the
copy will take 4 minutes - still only around 27 Mbps.

Anyone else got other suggestions - I'd appreciate anything at this
moment!

 

[Shug]

Hi,

I can see this is a common issue, but just wondering if there's
anything obvious I'm doing wrong.

I've got two XP machines, both connecting at 100Mbps, and going through
a Belkin router.

When I try and copy a large file across the network using Windows
Explorer from a Shared Network Drive, I only get about 20Mbps.

I've tried:
- Autonegotiation on both cards
- Force 100Mbps Full Duplex, both cards
- Force 100Mbps Half Duplex, both cards
- Microsoft TcpWindowSize regedit
- NetBIOS over TCP/IP explicitly enabled (and auto)

20Mbps is a maximum - usually getting around 15.

Anyone got any ideas?

Cheers

eno

To answer my own question, found a solution to this problem.

In two parts:

Firstly, changed my patch cables. Not sure the exact spec of the
previous ones, but the new ones were Cat 5E UTP. I thought the
previous ones were as well. Anyway, after changing to these new
cables, noticed an immediate increase - now getting around 70% network
utilisation = around 70Mbps!

Secondly - minor issue, but installed a separate PCI NIC rather than
relying on the existing On board NIC. This didn't appear to have a
massive effect, but it did smooth out the network traffic. In a test,
transferring a 1G file, using the on board NIC, the network transfer
rate, as viewed in Task Manager, was erratic, but still averaged 70%.
However, using the PCI NIC card, the transfer rate was very regular and
smooth, and averaged just over 70%.

Problem solved. New Leads. Less than a Tenner!

eno