Network Speed Problems (Win7x64)

[travist]

Been trying to track down some networking problems for a while now, and I'm starting to wonder if they are windows related. I have a gigabit network running through a cisco 3750. I have a windows 7x64 box that I can't get seem to get sustained throughput. I'm attempting transfers from this computer to an OpenSolaris NAS on my network. This NAS is running an IntelPro Gigabit adapter which is connected via the 3750 as well.

I initially thought the problems were related to the opensolaris box, but I'm starting to wonder if they are windows related. I tried updating the driver of my onboard realtek driver on the windows 7 box, but it didn't make a difference. The downloads often start real fast and then slow to about 5-10MB/s as shown in windows explorer. The file I'm attempting to transfer is a 1.2GB mkv file. Transfer is from a striped 2 disk array on the windows box to the solaris box. In task manager, my network connection spikes to about 10MB/s and drops to nothing. There is no sustained transfer.

Any ideas of what to look at? I'm pretty good in networking, but more on the infrastructure side as opposed to the client side. Thanks!

Travis

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

Been trying to track down some networking problems for a while now, and I'm starting to wonder if they are windows related. I have a gigabit network running through a cisco 3750. I have a windows 7x64 box that I can't get seem to get sustained throughput. I'm attempting transfers from this computer to an OpenSolaris NAS on my network. This NAS is running an IntelPro Gigabit adapter which is connected via the 3750 as well.

I initially thought the problems were related to the opensolaris box, but I'm starting to wonder if they are windows related. I tried updating the driver of my onboard realtek driver on the windows 7 box, but it didn't make a difference. The downloads often start real fast and then slow to about 5-10MB/s as shown in windows explorer. The file I'm attempting to transfer is a 1.2GB mkv file. Transfer is from a striped 2 disk array on the windows box to the solaris box. In task manager, my network connection spikes to about 10MB/s and drops to nothing. There is no sustained transfer.

Any ideas of what to look at? I'm pretty good in networking, but more on the infrastructure side as opposed to the client side. Thanks!

Travis

Do you have any other elements on your network? More specifically, do you have any other endpoints that you can run the same test with?

 

[travist]

I do, but not that are capable of the same speeds that my desktop (mentioned above) are capable of. The other computers are laptops or virtual machines. This machine theoretically should have the best throughput since it's running RAID and has gigabit ethernet. I have a mix of windows 7 and linux based clients, but the linux clients don't have local storage.

I currently have a couple of problems with my OSol file server. Large transfers start fast ~100MB/s and after a couple of seconds drop to 5-10MB/s then stall. I get an error that the network is no longer connected. I thought this was a windows 7 problem, but I also tried from a virtual machine (which had much slower transfer rates) and the same thing happened. I'm starting to wonder if it is a domain controller problem now.

My transfer speeds are just about the same from every windows box on the network. To rule out the OSol box, I built a FreeNAS VM and can't get more than about 5MB/s. I would really like to get a higher throughput on my LAN, and not sure which direction I should to to get there. The constant spikes and dips in my network transfers seem to indicate a problem somewhere...

 

[Zepher]

bypass the switch and run a cable from the windows box straight to the NAS and see if you can sustain 80-100MB/s.

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

bypass the switch and run a cable from the windows box straight to the NAS and see if you can sustain 80-100MB/s.

I really hate to correct but it would be more like 8-10MB/s given the 8x multiplier of going from bytes to bits and the overhead included.

 

[Zepher]

bypass the switch and run a cable from the windows box straight to the NAS and see if you can sustain 80-100MB/s.

I really hate to correct but it would be more like 8-10MB/s given the 8x multiplier of going from bytes to bits and the overhead included.

I really hate to correct, but he's running Gigabit, 125MB/s

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

bypass the switch and run a cable from the windows box straight to the NAS and see if you can sustain 80-100MB/s.

I really hate to correct but it would be more like 8-10MB/s given the 8x multiplier of going from bytes to bits and the overhead included.

I really hate to correct, but he's running Gigabit, 125MB/s

Touche.

 

[MikeS104]

Check your network cables. If you made them or had someone else make them, make sure the ends are on correctly. Are both the NAS and PC actually making a connection to the switch at 1GB? Check the setting for Jumbo packets (if on, turn off; if off turn on).