Network speed problems (1 Viewer)

[porky996t]

I'm getting more confused here... it turns out crossover cables for Gigabit networks use two pairs that are crossed... but then they don't have to be because the the network adapters on the PC's should be able to work it all out... (here)

@SpudR... Clearly you have much more experience with this than I - what kit would you recommend - my main HTPC/Server and both clients all have gigabit network adapters... I just want to plug them in and have better speeds, or am I being too simplistic?

@jay - The main HTPC has a static IP address, the clients do not.

I think I'll try with my laptop (HP) and kitchen client (Zotac) today. The GF is in bed with a broken ankle so I'll get no chance to try the main server as she will not want her TV shows interrupted.

Thanks for the advice so far.

 

[SpudR]

If you would like I'll get all technical here...
The main problem with Gb networking isn't really the networking bit at all - it's the HDDs and the speed that they can dump the data to the bus.
The PCI bus used can only go to the theoretical limit of 133 MB/s - GB ethernet max is 125 MB/s but you have to remember that everything is using the PCI bus in the PC. Every card you add in grabs some of the bandwidth = slower transfer speed.
PCIe gives 250MB/s to each channel - that's why its seriously faster.

To test you could always try transferring from a RAM disk - this eliminates the fragmentation and HDD problems.

Here's a few tips - hopefully something should work!

• Make sure ALL the NICs are PCIe - I have yet to get a good Gb network speed on PCI NICs for the reason above.
• Set the NICs to 1000/full
• Disable any QOS you have going on
• Make sure you have fast HDDs and are getting good throughput on them (5400 ain't too good for this, best with SSDs)
• Disable Checksum Offloading
• Disable any 'Green' or 'Eco' networking crap
• Try changing the settings for - Jumbo Frames and flow control
• Try disabling 'Auto tuning' - start >> run >> cmd >> netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
• Defrag your drives
• Make sure your derives are not compressed (right click drive >> properties)
• If Windows 7 - try disabling the 'Link-layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver'
• Check your cables runs are as short as they can be and are away from power cables.
• Try disabling SMB:
• start >> run >> cmd >>
  sc config lanmanworkstation depend= bowser/mrxsmb10/nsi
  sc config mrxsmb20 start= disabled
  (change disabled to auto to reenable SMB)
• Open the registry to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanworkstaion'.
  Check DWORDs 'MaxCmds','MaxThreads' and 'MaxCollectionCount' under this branch.
  Assign them a value of MaxCmds = 30, MaxThreads = 30 and MaxCollectionCount = 32 - make them if they are not there.
  After you restart your system, you should see an increase in the performance.

Don't forget that your drives will have a real speed difference for read/write performance. Slow read or write on one drive will effect performance.
Also - try RoboCopy - it uses some of the changed API of the SMB copy.
If you are getting a transfer speed of about 20-80 mb/s you are doing quite well!

 

[porky996t]

Thanks for that Spud, I'm very grateful for the pointers.

The main HTPC has both SSD and a Ramdrive. The client machines both have SSD's. I'm going to play about with my laptop and a client this afternoon, and laptop has SSD too.

All this is a precursor to setting up a central server in my basement and as part of that I will need a network switch - any recommendations? (anything with Yorkshire pricing would be ideal )

 

[SpudR]

Any of the Cisco 200+ switches would be fine - They grow on trees up here (on my networks you'd think so!)
I'd be using CAT6 cabling too!

#edit# you could get away with the Cisco 100's but I'd go 200's if poss...

 

[porky996t]

Cheers Spud! I'll keep an eye out for one... maybe I'll nip over the border to see which tree have 'em... if in season of course!

Just trying to get the laptop and kitchen client to connect... think I'll open a cold tin; looks like a long afternoon.

 

[Luca Brasi]

Hi,

the tips here concerning real file transfer rate are really valuable. But I would first check the rates only on network side, leaving hdds and sdds out of the equation in the first step.
There are a lot of command line tools out there to test your bandwidth. I didn't want to dig in so I went with this tool to test: link
Be aware that those tests can be limited by cpu, ram and bus speed...

Tested win7 vs whs2011 and vice versa over 2 switches and about 10-15m cat6.
Send speed is 908.500/940.000 kbit/s (110/114 MByte/s) (transfer rate conversion here)
The test includes receive speed too which is remarkable lower 400.000/120.000. Don't know what to think about that...

Edit:

The test includes receive speed too which is remarkable lower 400.000/120.000. Don't know what to think about that...

Forget about that grap... If you test sys1<>sys2 there is no point in measuring send and receive if you want to know your absolute transfer capabilities. The ratio send/receive is extremely depended on how the bench tool manages the data exchange and on flow control.

 

[porky996t]

I think I'll put this on hold until I have my dedicated server built and set up. I'm currently getting 100Mbps and TV plays fine etc with this speed, so it is not "essential" I get a 1 Gigabit network up and running - although it would be nice. There seems to be more to getting this working than just plugging and playing, so I'll park it for now and come back when I have set up everything else and bought a Cisco SG200-08 network switch.

Thanks for advice so far, this thread will be resurrected after the server has been built.

 

[SpudR]

Nice - good luck with the install

 

[krikkit]

with windows 7 on server and client you should get a maximum of about 70-80 MB/s when copying large files over smb (that rates i get with my setup at home, in corporate environment this value goes up to about 80-90 MB/s...

...for my home setup i habe a cheap dlink gigabit switch, so you don't need a cisco for gb ethernet

 

[SpudR]

Technically you are not supposed to need any funky kit - in the real world it's a little different.
Buy the best you can afford - that's the best advice!