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Took 15 minutes to copy 25GB over the network

Is this normal, or is my network slow? Any recommendations would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Our network/shared folders are on 2 separate Windows 2008 servers.

bobox00

ASKER

Just to be clear, I am talking about my LAN. The computers are all on the same LAN, in the same building.

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Ken Butters

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Darr247

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Lee W, MVP

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bobox00

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When I right-click on my LAN adapter the property page says I'm connected to the LAN at 1GBps. I'm not sure whether most of our wiring is Cat5 or Cat5e (in the walls and such) but I do know that they're not Cat6. I will talk to other people that should have more information about the cabling and report back to you guys. Thanks for all comments so far.
LANspeed.JPG

bobox00

ASKER

At this point, I need to explain to my users that 25GB in 20 minutes is ok for a LAN. If you have any links that I can use to prove my point here, please send them. I greatly appreciate.

hypercube

What that means is that the NIC on your computer is running at 1GBps. That doesn't mean that links further on in the chain are doing the same. You need to check them all - at least in the sense of knowing how they are spec'd. So, if there's a Fast Ethernet (100Mbps) switch somewhere in there - that's the chokepoint from one end to the other (unless there's other traffic being aggregated, etc.).

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Gary Case

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bobox00

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Just trying to be thorough, for the sake of my job and responsibilities. Bear with me. I used LAN Speed Test to check my network speed. Please see attached image and let me know your thoughts. Thanks again.
LAN-Speed.JPG

Lee W, MVP

Perhaps you didn't see my comment?

Factors that impact performance (in no particular order despite numbering):

1. File Size being transferred
2. Network Adapter Drivers (could be an issue on one or both)
3. Disk Fragmentation (could be an issue on one or both)
4. Network utilization at the time of transfer
5. What OTHER services use the same spindles your data is being transferred to/from
6. Packet Size (as others have pointed out)
7. Hard disk type and configuration on EACH server (SSDs? RAID 10 15K RPM drives? Single 7200 RPM hard drive?)

There are many factors and if you want to improve performance you need to look at them all.

bobox00

ASKER

Thanks for your help

bobox00

ASKER

My apologies for misleading information earlier. I have checked and found that the network cables that run out of our main switches (in the server room) are CAT5e (not Cat5). Our 2 switches are gigabit switches and they are daisy chained.

bobox00

ASKER

There's a couple patch cables that I see, are Cat 5 (I don't know how many more cables are CAT5 or where they are). If there's a Cat5 cable anywhere in someone's connection path, to a network share, would they be able to download 25GB in 20 minutes?

Gary Case

If there's a Cat-5 cable anywhere in the path, that will be the limiting factor. 25GB in 20 minutes would probably still be possible, depending on the length of the Cat-5 cable.

As a simple experiment, get a pair of Cat-6 patch cables, and connect a couple PC's to the same Gb switch .... then do your 25GB copy and time it.

bobox00

ASKER

Yes! Thanks, will try that and let you know