Slow file copy problem - Windows - Linux machine

You may test the speed between the machines using a program like iperf it has both a linux and windows version and can be used to messure througput between to machines.

If you are getting much higher speed using iperf then the speedlimit is something in the linux machine
can be not enough memory or to slow disk.  
But if the speed is similar with iperf look at replacing the old network card with somthing more modern.

Also check that you are not haveing duplex problems on the network card using
mii-tool or similar to check the status of the ethernet connections.

Oops, sorry
I forgot to mention that I did most of the things you recommend
I also tend to think that the problem can be the old 3 com netcard itself

NewWest:~# mii-tool -v
eth0: negotiated 100baseTx-FD, link ok
  product info: vendor 00:00:00, model 0 rev 0
  basic mode:   autonegotiation enabled
  basic status: autonegotiation complete, link ok
  capabilities: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
  advertising:  100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
  link partner: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD flow-control


NewWest:~# ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
        Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
        Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
        Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
        Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
        Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
        Speed: 100Mb/s
        Duplex: Full
        Port: MII
        PHYAD: 24
        Transceiver: internal
        Auto-negotiation: on
        Current message level: 0x00000001 (1)
        Link detected: yes


NewWest:~# ifconfig eth0 mtu 9000
SIOCSIFMTU: Invalid argument

also I have no additional networking hardware - the Lin box has 2 net cards and Im using a crossed over  cable to connect them. then the other card is connected to the internet through a modem

I also tried iperf on both machines - the interesting thing is the fact that Im getting even worse results with that - the reported speed was just above 10mbits!

You could check if the realtek card is giving better performance

No way - it's a 10mbit one :(
Im using it for the Internet connection only

he

snips:
...speed of 3Mbytes per second. According to my calculations it should be close to 10 if not more...
Also when copying the files I get a CPU load of ~80-85%...

I would then think your problem is I/O :-)
your hard disk capabilities can be checked with
hdparm -i /dev/hda

it would be great to have that info here.

also to see resumed how is your disk configured, issue
hdparm /dev/hda

and to check performance (pls put it here)
hdparm -Tt /dev/hda

I think (as you can see) it is your hard drive that cannot handle the troughput, not your lan. however, is usual the IDE hard drives are configured for slow performance. hdparm -i can help us to put the best performance your drive can get ;-)

it this is the cause, it would be more because the IDE interfase on your old server than because of the drive speed, as it have turned out to be on many systems I have reviewed.

Sorry, I must have forgotten to post my hd results here, but I did test my drive before
Anyway, here they are:
NewWest:~# hdparm -i /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

 Model=Maxtor 6Y120L0, FwRev=YAR41BW0, SerialNo=Y32Q2PGE
 Config={ Fixed }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57
 BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=2048kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=1
 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=240121728
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes:  pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 *udma4 udma5 udma6
 AdvancedPM=yes: disabled (255) WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: ATA/ATAPI-7 T13 1532D revision 0:  ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6,7

 * signifies the current active mode


NewWest:~# hdparm /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 multcount     =  1 (on)
 IO_support    =  1 (32-bit)
 unmaskirq     =  0 (off)
 using_dma     =  1 (on)
 keepsettings  =  0 (off)
 readonly      =  0 (off)
 readahead     = 256 (on)
 geometry      = 65535/16/63, sectors = 240121728, start = 0

NewWest:~# hdparm -Tt /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing cached reads:   174 MB in  2.01 seconds =  86.72 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:   70 MB in  3.05 seconds =  22.94 MB/sec

So if we are to trust those numbers above my server could perform much better.
Any suggestions so far?

I forgot to ask that in my previous posting, but Im thinking of an easy way to check if the problem is with the hard drive /which I doubt/
How can I configure a dummy file in the RAM and tell the system to copy it over the network, so I can be sure no hard drive activity is slowing down the process?

As iperf was not giving a better result this is not due to lack of disk performance.

As Iperf does not use disk...

NewWest:~# iperf -s
------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 85.3 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  4] local 192.168.1.1 port 5001 connected with 192.168.1.11 port 3166
[  4]  0.0-10.0 sec  11.9 MBytes  9.99 Mbits/sec
[  4] local 192.168.1.1 port 5001 connected with 192.168.1.11 port 3169
[  4]  0.0-10.0 sec  11.9 MBytes  10.0 Mbits/sec
NewWest:~# iperf -s -u
------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on UDP port 5001
Receiving 1470 byte datagrams
UDP buffer size:   256 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 192.168.1.1 port 5001 connected with 192.168.1.11 port 3192
[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec  1.25 MBytes  1.05 Mbits/sec  0.212 ms    0/  893 (0%)
NewWest:~# iperf -s
------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 85.3 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------





[1920] local 192.168.1.11 port 3204 connected with 192.168.1.1 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[1920]  0.0-30.0 sec  92.9 MBytes  26.0 Mbits/sec
read failed: Connection reset by peer

Thats the best I could get, which is ~3 mbytes/sec, which is what I achieve copying files

Yep, I ended up replacing the network card with a gigabit one - I'm getting now twice that speed, but still far from the theoretical - turns out the problem is the CPU after all

Dear tlatev,
               
              If want speed up moving  and coping files in linux and windows  just disable windows xp firewall it`s work for me also