Speed problems when copying across network?

[probedb]

Hi folks,

I'm having some serious issues when copying files across my network. It's a gigabit network, both cards shown on the switch as green i.e. gigabit.

Both machines are Win 7 Pro 64-bit.

I've had a variety of problems with very slow copying. Currently copying 90GB stuff and it's going at 3.78MBps which is well short or even 100Mbps networking. I've tried it both ways, i.e. from A -> B from machine A and from machine B.

Sometimes it works fine one way and not the other.

Network card on one is an Intel Gigabit CT PCIe card, the other is a built in Atheros PCIe controller. Both with the latest drivers.

Any thoughts on how to speed this up? I was going to try jumbo packets but the cards both use different measurements for setting so I don't know how to match them.

Cheers
Paul.

 

[probedb]

I think I may have solved my own problem. I set the jumbo frames to 4K on each machine and now getting ~60MBps!

 

[Ztruker]

How did you do that? Might be helpful to someone else in the future.

 

[probedb]

It'll depend on the network card but basically:

Control Panel -> Device Manager

Open your network cards properties, then it'll normally be under advanced as Jumbo Frames. The value should match on all your network cards. You'll notice differences on different cards, i.e. Intel has 4088, 9XXX bytes and the Atheros one lists 2K, 3K, 4K etc MTU.

Also only do this on a gigabit network and make sure your switch supports jumbo frames.

 

[Ztruker]

I have a Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller, but there is no reference to Jumbo Frames in any of it's settings.

Thanks for the info though, I'll do some looking around and see what I can find about it.

Edit: I found this: Pchuck's Network

It's for Vista but works in Win 7 as well. Don't know if it will make any difference but I set it to 4078 (4096 - 18).

 

[Lomai]

It'll depend on the network card but basically:

Control Panel -> Device Manager

Open your network cards properties, then it'll normally be under advanced as Jumbo Frames. The value should match on all your network cards. You'll notice differences on different cards, i.e. Intel has 4088, 9XXX bytes and the Atheros one lists 2K, 3K, 4K etc MTU.

Also only do this on a gigabit network and make sure your switch supports jumbo frames.

Thanks for sharing your solution.
I'm sure it's going to benefit a lot of users on this forum.

Regards

 

[probedb]

No problem

Ztruker, just had a quick search and Broadcom.com - Ethernet NIC FAQs says

How can I configure Jumbo MTU?

1. In Microsoft Windows, right-click the Network Adapter in Network Connections, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Configure button and then the General tab. Jumbo MTU is set at 1500 bytes by default. To increase the size of the received frames, increase the byte quantity in 500-byte increments up to 9000 bytes.

Netware: Jumbo Frame is configured by adding the "Jumbo=XXXX" parameter to the driver load command line in the AUTOEXEC.NCF file, where XXXX is a value between 1514 and 9000 bytes.
Linux: The MTU can be changed on the device in which support this feature using the following command: "ifconfig eth<X> mtu <Value>". <Value> can be between 1500 and 9000, <X> is the device ID.
NOTE: Please note that not all Broadcom networking devices support Jumbo-frame. Please consult the respective product documentation to confirm that your device supports this feature.

I think the note at the end is the important part as your card might not support them.

I force my Intel card to gigabit rather than auto-negotiation as sometimes something causes it to pick 100Mbps when it's perfectly happy with 1Gbps.

 

[Ztruker]

My Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller only has options for 10, 100 or Auto. No way to force it to 1Gps that I can find. Bummer.

 

[probedb]

My Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller only has options for 10, 100 or Auto. No way to force it to 1Gps that I can find. Bummer.

That's a bit odd, does your card ever connect at 1Gbps? I.e. green light on a gigabit switch? If it's orange it's only 100Mbps.

 

[probedb]

Tell a lie, it hasn't solved my issues at all.

It appears Win 7 just can't cope with copying lots of files across a network. It just randomly freezes all the time.

Shite.

 

[probedb]

Well don't ask me why it didn't occur to me to use a crossover cable to take the switch out of the equation to make sure it's not that.

 

[Ztruker]

Ah, I forgot about the router and modem. My router is a Dell Wireless 2350 and only supports 802.11b ([FONT=&quot][/FONT]11 Mbps) & 802.11g (54Mbps). No Gigabit support. Maybe it's time to look for a new router???? Any recommendations?

 

[probedb]

Those are wireless specs which won't have any effect on your wired network unless it's part of the chain?

Most routers are 100Mbps. I've got a Netgear switch but it may actually be the cause of my problems so I'm not recommending it at the moment

 

[Ztruker]

Rats! You're right, it's a 100MB router, there stuff I posted is for wireless. Maybe time to look into a new Gigabit router.

 

[probedb]

No need for a new router, just buy a gigabit switch and plug everything including your router into that. That means yours PCs can talk at a gigabit but the connection to the internet will be 100Mbps which is way more than you'll ever get

 

[Ztruker]

Not a bad idea, thanks.

 

[probedb]

I thought I'd bring this back up as I'm having no luck.

It seems the actual speed is ok, it's the fact that every 10 seconds or so it can freeze for over 30 seconds. CPU usage is negligable etc so nothing is jamming.

 

[Victorwol]

I'm having the same issue, windows copy is just cra..... When using fastcopy to do the copy, speed is great and it does not tax the system at all, it does not randomly freeze, I can't believe Microsoft has not aknowlage the issue

 

[chev65]

The issue is with your own network, Windows 7 has no such problems I can assure you of that. I move files all the time and never have any problems getting 1GB speeds accross my network. Time for a hardware upgrade I'd say.

 

[Victorwol]

1 GB??? 1000 MB? Are you using 10GigE cards over fibre? or you meant to say 1gbit?

Windows 7 is full of problems with its own copy utility, how you explain that using utilities like fastcopy or teracopy can copy stuff much faster and taxing the system a lot less than windows own copy? Even microsoft website in some cases recommend to use robocopy.

Given perfect conditions, the windows copy works fine, but at the first minimal trouble, it falls apart compared with others.

In my case, I'm using hardware that is brand new out of the box, several HP Z800 with solid state drives, Sager 7280 with raid 0 of solid state drives.