Greg said:
Hi,
I have a desktop w/ XP Pro networked to a laptop w/ XP
home. Both are connected to a router which connects to my
cable modem.
When I transfer files from one computer to the other, the
transfer rate is around 2 M bits/s (i.e. my internet
connection trasfer rate), even though when I look at the
properties of the connection, it shows 100 Mb/s.
Is it possible to transfer files between computers at 100
Mb/s?
Thanks,
Greg
You won't get the whole 100 Mb/s, but you should get a lot better
than 2 Mb/s. Maybe your traffic is passing through the WAN
side of the router, instead of being confined to the LAN side;
check that both PCs use DHCP with the router set up as a DHCP
server (which will force both PCs to be in the same IP subnet).
And, check that both PCs have the same workgroup name, and that
both use TCP/IP.
When measuring network transfer rate, always use one huge file
instead of a folder full of small files; that will reduce the
per-file overhead.
The best I got on my home LAN was ~10 MB/s, which means ~80 Mb/s.
That was using Explorer's ^C and ^V to copy a big (268,435,457 Byte)
file between shares on a pair of XP HE PCs. The star <g> of the
LAN is a Linksys BEFW11S4v1), and those XP PCs (and my W9x PC)
are wired to the router with 100bTX cables.
Details: I got 8.7 MB/s pulling a file from the 5400 RPM HD on
the 1.46 GHz 256MB XP Athlon to the 7200 RPM HD on the 2.00 GHz
512MB Athlon, and 10.3 MB/s pushing it back to the slower Athlon.
I think the difference is due to more efficient transfers while
pushing than while pulling; I don't think the difference between
the hardware is significant.
Pushing and pulling between either XP PC and my W9x PC (a 500 MHz
256MB Athlon with 7200 RPM HDs) delivers roughly half the transfer
rate as the XP-XP transfers.
