Please help diagnose my network speed problems.

paulw77

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OK this is what I have :

HP Proliant Microserver N40L running Windows Homer Server 2011 (Gigabit NIC)
Zyxel NSA-220 NAS (Gigabit NIC)

both connected to a Netgeat DGN3500 router which has 4 gigabit network ports.

The cables used are all fully wired and all 8 cables check out when tested with a LAN cable tester.

The network port in the server shows as running at 1000gbps in Device Manager.

My problem is that transfer speeds between the server and NAS are only around 12MB/s, which, if I'm not mistaken, is only 100mbps speed i.e. only 1/10th of what I should be getting.

How can I get transfer speeds closer to gigabit ? I've tried the latest driver for the NIC in the server but it makes no difference.

Thanks for looking.
 
Last edited:
OK this is what I have :

HP Proliant Microserver N40L running Windows Homer Server 2011 (Gigabit NIC)
Zyxel NSA-220 NAS (Gigabit NIC)

both connected to a Netgeat DGN3500 router which has 4 gigabit network ports.

The cables used are all fully wired and all 8 cables check out when tested with a LAN cable tester.

The network port in the server shows as running at 1000gbps in Device Manager.

My problem is that transfer speeds between the server and NAS are only around 12MB/s, which, if I'm not mistaken, is only 100mbps speed i.e. only 1/10th of what I should be getting.

How can I get transfer speeds closer to gigabit ? I've tried the latest driver for the NIC in the server but it makes difference.

Thanks for looking.

OK, first, check the N40L's connection from "Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections", right click on the "Local Area Connection" and select "Status", this shows the actual connection speed (which should be 1Gbs).

But on looking at the performance figures for your Zyxel NSA-220 NAS in this SmallNetBuilder review, I think the probllem is probably your NAS. Even though it's got a Gigabit NIC, it can't transfer data at much more than about 14 MByte/sec.

Raw data transfer over a Gigabit LAN will max out at around 120 MByte/sec, but you need source/sink devices that can support those rates. Most domestic NAS units can't get close. For example, I've done some tests with a Netgear NV+ V2 which is a reasonably modern low-end NAS running 4 disks in a RAID 5 configuration. It can source data (sustained) at around 65 MByte/sec and sink data at around 39 MByte/sec. The previous generation of Netgear NV+ could only manage 18 MByte/sec and 12 MByte/sec, closer to the performance of your 5 year old Zyxel.
 
Thanks cjed.

To rule out the NAS I'm going to try transferring some files between the Microserver and Mac Mini.

I'll report back !
 
Its definitely the nas , with only 128MB of ram and 16GB of flash combined with a 500mhz processor it does not have the muscle to move data any faster.

I have a nas from around that time that has very similar performance benchmarks , its a Readynas duo , it also tops out at around 12-15 Mbps.

Later models with Intel atoms ( Readynas ultra and the like) top out at the limit that standard hard drives can move data , which is around the 50-70 MB/s mark.

Where you will get full gigabit speeds is when both devices have a lot of memory , ( I have 8GB in my N40L ) , or if you have SSD hard drives installed.
 
Cheers Andy - that's reassuring.

Hopefully I'll be in a position to test the performace between the Mac Mini and N40L in the next couple of days. At the moment I'm transferring all my data from my 2 NASs to the N40L.

This is taking some time !
 

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