Posted on 07/13/2021 4:27:43 PM PDT by chuckles
I'm transferring many files between 2 computers on my home network and it's running at 10mbs. Both network cards are 100mbs and the router should be at least 100mbs. Before I run a Cat 5 across a 100 ft distance crossing transmit and receive, is there something I should check now?
“Why are you running Cat 5 and hard-wiring the system?”
Toss everything into dropbox and then pick it up from there.
Why 100 feet apart? If this is a one-time transfer, why not move one of the computers closer to the other for the transfer? Or, better yet, storage is relatively inexpensive these days. Get yourself a 5- or larger portable terabyte usb3 disc drive for less than $150 and set your files to transfer onto it from one computer while you’re sleeping or doing something else, than transfer them from the drive onto the other one when done.
This. This right here. Speed from one HDD to another is impacted by a number of factors, including resources available on the sending and receiving computer to send, receive, ack and write data from one hdd to another.
Both drives are solid state and capable of Sata 3 speeds. They are both running at Sata 1 which is 1.5 mbs speed.
The router is SUPPOSED to be 100mbs switch. I cut out the router by running a Cat 5 to the other computer directly with a X over box. Started copying again and it was locked at about 10mbs. For me that makes trouble in the boxes. The HD’s are both capable of over 100mbs and I can copy files within one computer at 50+Mbs to a second drive. Even if I take drive C from one and put it in computer 2, my network speeds will still suck when I go back to normal. Putting the drive in the other computer will speed up this file copy job, but the network will remain snail slow.
I have USB 2,0 speeds on both boxes. That's slower than what I'm doing now as I would have to copy twice to get the job done.
I’m going to have to go to Pimsleur to learn all the new language in this thread.
If you have a multiport switch or hub, try moving the patch cables to a different port as well. I’ve seen that, too, in addition to bad cables.
One example: Had a client complaining about slow data transfer rates (long story, short on details, not relevant).
Short story: Their IT had installed a single patch cable from the VOIP system for their phones and the hardware adjusted their speeds to 10mbps. Apparently the VOIP cables are crap for anything but phones and have the tiniest print rather than some obvious label identifying them as such.
I should’ve billed the hell out of ‘em. PITA to figure that one out. Keep an open mind or, to keep your sanity, go peer to peer with a long cable and just do the transfer (iirc your prior comment). They also make handy cable kits to connect a hard drive to your other computer. Cable kit is only $30 or so and is universal (IDE or SATA).
But if you need the bandwidth you’ll have to solve the problem.
I have a newer I7 machine with 24 gigs of memory that is reasonably fast on it's own, but the motherboard Ethernet still runs at 10mbs. I will be upgrading a Pci-E slot with a USB 3.0 soon that would have given me another route to go this time, but still, I dream of transferring a 2 gig movie from the bedroom to the living room in a couple of minutes instead of 10 minutes and leave the USB drives in the drawer. I've even thought about building a NAS but why do that if files run at 10MBS or slower?
Make sure the speeds and data you are comparing are both megaBITS vs, megaBYTES. Some thing report them differently and it’s easy to confuse them. There are 8 bits in a Byte, so 50 megabytes is 400 megabits.
“I’m not using wire yet but that will be my last choice.”
you should be using wire for transfers like that ... period ... plug both computers directly into the router and make sure that both computers prefer wire over wifi, or even better temporarily disable wifi on both ...
also, slow hard drives and ANY active antivirus will slow things down, including Windows Defender ... if you happen to have more than one AV running (and that includes WinDef, you’ll be screwed anyway, so temporarily disable all AVs during the transfer)
You’re aware of these tools?
https://www.dslreports.com/tools
When I was in my last house, I made the mistake of believing I’d be there for more than a few more years and wired the whole house for gigabit and put the 24 port switch in a structured wiring cabinet in the hall closet. I did this for like reasons: I wanted a movie server instead of shuffling memory drives.
There’s a chance you might be able to isolate your problem with those tools.
Now I’m confused: I just reread your comment and saw that you wrote the following:
“but the motherboard Ethernet still runs at 10mbs”
You wrote in the OP,
“Both network cards are 100mbs”
What’s the story???
Any Windows version;
- Device Manager
- Network Card/Interface
- Properties
Dig into the various driver settings. You should find a setting somewhere that’ll afford opportunity to set from AUTO to 100Mb.
If Windows doesn’t ask to reboot AND you speed does not improve. Reboot both boxes anyway.
Other thoughts;
1) Physical Interface. You’ve indicated that you’re running a CAT 5 cable. Are all the pins terminated? Are the terminations clean? Split pairs? Have you swapped cables just for grins?
2) Traffic. Anything else running on your network? Some device spewing a bunch of packets? Wired or wireless, is something is crushing your router?
3) Common Point. When was you router/switch last updated and restarted?
A 100 foot patch cord would work fine. You need to cross TX and RX (4 and 5 I think). No distance issue inside of 300 - 330 feet.
Good luck.
One was on the MB and the other was a card. They both report to be 100mbs capable.
Anyway, My file transfer is done @ about 12:30 am. You know I feel like a fool, but just now I thought about our smart TV is on our router, but I was watching Direct TV and not using the apps. I would have cut it off the wifi if I had thought about it. I still think it would have been faster than exactly 10mbs even if an app was running. I'm changing my main computer to a faster one and am transfering 4 HD contents to new faster HD's in the newer computer. Anyway, its done. Thanks for you help.
gbs, not mbs. sata is fast.
Strange.
At least the job is done.
Until next time, best regards.
LEL
Suprised that no one has even mentioned cable attenuation. But they’re right, use a portable drive. Why even bother hard-wiring unless this need to be a repetitive use. 100 feet. Are you going out of the building? If so you need to consider lightening suppression.
If one card is hard set for 100/full, and the other is set for auto/auto (or 100/auto, or auto/full), it can cause issues as well. both should be set the same.
Unless the sending computer is not capable of hosting the receiving drive, the simplest way to do this is to install the receiving drive into the sending computer. Copy the files with the file manager or some other tool and move the receiving drive back to its own computer.
If this is just some geeky fun building cables, have a good time with the routers and Ethernet cable tools.
I’ve recently had to clone some drives and found it to be pretty simple with some of the free software tools available. I think the last one I used was EaseUS. It was a little tricky with the dual boot Linux/Win10 drive but it did the job.
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