Slow network speed transferring files from XP PC to 98 PC

[Jerry Rivers]

I'd really like some help from a Microsoft MVP on this
one. I've tried before in the XP news groups to get help
with this problem and no one replied. So, I'm trying
again.

I have a clean install of Windows XP Professional on one
of my PCs. The other has Windows 98 SE. I have a Netgear
router between the two computers so they both can share a
cable modem.

Network transfer speed PC-to-PC was excellent when both
were running Win 98. Since installing XP on my PC, XP-to-
98 data transfer is *very* slow. Using Win XP's Search
function is excrutiatingly slow.

Here is what I know: Windows XP is 100% up-to-date as far
as drivers and patches. Router is new. Internet
erformance from either PC is excellent.

It sometimes takes 30 seconds just to open up a folder
across the network on the 98 PC, even if it is empty or
has few files in it.

Simple file name searches that used to take 15-20 seconds
when both PC were on 98 now take 6-8 minutes.

Here are the results of transferring some files from one
PC to the other:

I took 1246 JPG files on my XP PC totalling 205MB and
transferred them to an empty temp folder on my 98 PC.
This was a FAT32-to-FAT32 transfer. It took Explorer 20
seconds just to open the folder on the 98 PC! I have a
LAN connection icon in my Systray that shows network
traffic- there was *no* activity for the entire 20
seconds, then Bang! got through.

As for the transfer, it took 4 min 5 sec. Pretty damn
slow.

I then set up my FAT32 extended data partition for
sharing and went over to my Win 98 PC and mapped a
network drive to my HD. Explorer on the 98 PC opened an
empty temp folder on my PC instantly, and transferred the
same 205MB 1246 files back to my PC via Copy-Paste in
Explorer in 1 min 20 sec. Not bad in my book for a
network file transfer.

To check on just the speed on my HD, I took the same 1246
JPGs totally 205MB and transferred them to en empty
folder on my own HD via Copy-Paste.

The test above was for files of moderate size 200-300KB
each. I then created a large 855MB Zip file from two CD
image files and Copy-Pasted them between the two PC
across the network. Results:

Time to transfer disk-to-disk on my FAT32 extended
partition was 2 min 45 seconds.

Time to open empty folder on Win 98 PC from Win XP was 25
sec.

Time to transfer 855MB file from Win XP PC to Win 98 PC
was 6 min 5 sec for a total of 6 min 30 sec (counting
time to open empty folder).

Time to transfer 855MB file back from Win 98 PC to Win XP
PC was 2 min flat! That's 45 sec faster than disk-to-disk
on my own HD!

I'm sure I am missing something obvious in how I have my
Win XP system set up. It could be a network setting or a
Win XP service turned on when it shouldn't be. Or lots of
other things. All I can tell you is that *all* of the
operating parameters of my Win XP O/S are *exactly* as
they were when the Win XP Setup program completed its
task and the Network Wizards created the network
connections.

I would appreciate some opinions/advice from a Microsoft
MVP or knowledgeable network expert lurking on this news
group. I ultimately plan to put XP on my other PC but for
now, I'd like to get my network speed back up to where it
was before I put a newer O/S on my PC.

If you need more details, E-mail me at
(e-mail address removed)

-- Jerry Rivers

 

[Rob B.]

I have an identical problem in my home office network
where the client is XP Pro. It is slow especially in
writing to my server. My server used to run Win 2000
server and now runs Win 2003 server - same problem. With
Win 2000 clients I have no performance issues - it appears
to be when the client is XP. I am running the server as a
domain controller. I'm seriously thinking about moving my
workstation back to Win 2000. I don't have internet speed
issues. Networking pinging is fast. The network itself is
basically idle when I try accessing the server's files.

The problem is especially notable when I use Visual Studio
running on the client to build a project that resides on
the server. Again - I had no problem when I used Win 2000
on my workstation.

I have not seen anything in the knowledge base as of yet.

 

[Bob Willard]

I'd really like some help from a Microsoft MVP on this
one. I've tried before in the XP news groups to get help
with this problem and no one replied. So, I'm trying
again.

I have a clean install of Windows XP Professional on one
of my PCs. The other has Windows 98 SE. I have a Netgear
router between the two computers so they both can share a
cable modem.

Network transfer speed PC-to-PC was excellent when both
were running Win 98. Since installing XP on my PC, XP-to-
98 data transfer is *very* slow. Using Win XP's Search
function is excrutiatingly slow.

Here is what I know: Windows XP is 100% up-to-date as far
as drivers and patches. Router is new. Internet
erformance from either PC is excellent.

It sometimes takes 30 seconds just to open up a folder
across the network on the 98 PC, even if it is empty or
has few files in it.

Simple file name searches that used to take 15-20 seconds
when both PC were on 98 now take 6-8 minutes.

Here are the results of transferring some files from one
PC to the other:

I took 1246 JPG files on my XP PC totalling 205MB and
transferred them to an empty temp folder on my 98 PC.
This was a FAT32-to-FAT32 transfer. It took Explorer 20
seconds just to open the folder on the 98 PC! I have a
LAN connection icon in my Systray that shows network
traffic- there was *no* activity for the entire 20
seconds, then Bang! got through.

As for the transfer, it took 4 min 5 sec. Pretty damn
slow.

I then set up my FAT32 extended data partition for
sharing and went over to my Win 98 PC and mapped a
network drive to my HD. Explorer on the 98 PC opened an
empty temp folder on my PC instantly, and transferred the
same 205MB 1246 files back to my PC via Copy-Paste in
Explorer in 1 min 20 sec. Not bad in my book for a
network file transfer.

To check on just the speed on my HD, I took the same 1246
JPGs totally 205MB and transferred them to en empty
folder on my own HD via Copy-Paste.

The test above was for files of moderate size 200-300KB
each. I then created a large 855MB Zip file from two CD
image files and Copy-Pasted them between the two PC
across the network. Results:

Time to transfer disk-to-disk on my FAT32 extended
partition was 2 min 45 seconds.

Time to open empty folder on Win 98 PC from Win XP was 25
sec.

Time to transfer 855MB file from Win XP PC to Win 98 PC
was 6 min 5 sec for a total of 6 min 30 sec (counting
time to open empty folder).

Time to transfer 855MB file back from Win 98 PC to Win XP
PC was 2 min flat! That's 45 sec faster than disk-to-disk
on my own HD!

I'm sure I am missing something obvious in how I have my
Win XP system set up. It could be a network setting or a
Win XP service turned on when it shouldn't be. Or lots of
other things. All I can tell you is that *all* of the
operating parameters of my Win XP O/S are *exactly* as
they were when the Win XP Setup program completed its
task and the Network Wizards created the network
connections.

I would appreciate some opinions/advice from a Microsoft
MVP or knowledgeable network expert lurking on this news
group. I ultimately plan to put XP on my other PC but for
now, I'd like to get my network speed back up to where it
was before I put a newer O/S on my PC.

If you need more details, E-mail me at
(e-mail address removed)

-- Jerry Rivers

First, a minor point: HD-HD copies on the same HD are never very fast
because of all the seeks involved. If you want to see what your HD is
good for under WinWhatever, then spawn a DOS (W9x) or CMD (XP) window and
copy a single large non-fragmented file to the NUL device. And, if you
want to verify your HD's speed without WinWhatever getting in the way,
then run HDtach (the free version will only measure read speed and will
not run on NTFS HDs under XP).

I suggest that you try measuring disk transfer speed when the W9x PC and
the XP PC are using identical credentials (username/password); it made a
*huge* difference on my home LAN. And, do the copies with a single file
that is large enough for you to measure transfer times with a watch, so
that you can calculate transfer rates by hand; I've found some software
that displays transfer rates to be inaccurate.

FWIW, here's what I found on my home LAN:

Results of pushing and pulling a large (499,999,971 byte) file
using Explorer's ^C and ^V between 98$ and XP$, where 98$ is a
shared folder on a 500 MHz 256MB Athlon Win98SE box and XP$
is a shared folder on a 1460 MHz 256MB Athlon WinXP HE box.
Both boxes use 10/100 Mb/s NICs running in 100 Mb/s FDX mode,
and each NIC is connected via Cat5 cable to a LAN port of a
Linksys BEFW11S4 Switch with no other LAN traffic. The
bandwidth observed was much better than earlier measurements
between 98 and XP due, at least in part, to setting the MTU
to 1500 everywhere and (perhaps) to setting the RWINs to large
values (46720 on 98 and XP); settings courtesy of DrTCP.exe.

- Pushing on 98 from 98$ to XP$: 86 secs => 5.81 MB/s
- Pulling on 98 from XP$ to 98$: 82 secs => 6.10 MB/s
- Pulling on XP from 98$ to XP$: 159 secs => 3.14 MB/s
- Pushing on XP from XP$ to 98$: 236 secs => 2.19 MB/s

These values were achieved with the same Username/Password on
98 and XP. When logged into XP with a different Username,
pulling took >11 minutes (<0.76 MB/s) and pushing was predicted
(in XP's Copying window) as ~126 minutes (~0.06 MB/s).

For comparison, local copy speeds, using Explorer's ^C and ^V:

- Folder to folder on the same IDE HD on 98: 80 secs => 6.25 MB/s
- Folder to folder on different HDs on 98: 40 secs => 12.50 MB/s
(Both HDs are IDE, each on its own IDE bus)
- Folder to nul on 98 (using a DOS window): 27 secs => 18.52 MB/s

- Folder to folder on the same IDE HD on XP: 59 secs => 8.47 MB/s
- Folder to nul on XP (using a CMD window): 13 secs => 38.46 MB/s

 

[rigster]

I'd really like some help from a Microsoft MVP on this
one.

<snip>

You & me both - I've had similar problems & have tried as many resolutions as
I can find on these newsgroups.

I did a fresh XP install & my network ran like the wind until I tried using
the Microsoft PST backup tool for outlook. All of a sudden the tranfer time
for a 360-ish MB PST across the network went up from around 60 seconds to
19 minutes !!!
The strange thing is that from my (linux) server to the XP machine a 26MB TIFF
file takes about 5 seconds - to send a similar file back takes around 11
minutes.
I have set up a wireless network & the traffic using this is consistent in
both directions & seems to be running at a reasonable rate for wireless ie.
22 mbit on a 54 mbit card.
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions please let me / us know as we can't
be the only people this has happened to.
Regards,
John