Network Speeds
 

Hello All,

I hate networking. It is the Jake O'Connell of technology for me. Currently, I have a three PC setup. All are running Windows 7 Premium and are on the same Homegroup. Wireless N for the laptop and a wireless N bridge for the HTPC (w/ a gigabyte switch). Wireless N router w/ a gigabyte switch and a gigabyte card on the PC hooked up w/ a wired connection.

I get about 100MB/minute on a file transfer in network. Also, when streaming WMP content from one PC to another I get tremendously long hangs when scrolling through the song list (which isn't that large, only about 500 or so). I've disabled my A/V firewall, and I've read about the myths of IPv6 and RDC disabling and how they don't actually work.


Any ideas?

The long hangs could be a read speed issue on the computer's hard drive.

SATA 3.0 all throughout.

Could memory on the HTPC be an issue? It's at 2 gigs. Quad core AMD running at 3 GHZ.

FWIW, transfer from wireless laptop to wired desktop works fine and the WMP list loads with no hanging on scrolling either. It's only the HTPC, which is odd, because it has the newest hardware.

Wireless signal strength from the bridge, perhaps?

It took me almost six minutes to transfer a 555 meg file to the HTPC. Did it in about 90 seconds on the laptop

It doesn't really matter if it's SATA if the actual read speed of the drive is slow. Some drives are just slow, or they spin down when you don't want them to. Some of the drive's content will get displayed over the network, but for the rest of the information to get there, the drive has to spin up, read it and then send the info over the network. What drive management are you using?

HTPC memory could be an issue, but you should be okay at 2 gigs. You might benefit by going to 4. That processor is overkill, so it's not that.

Hmm... I dunno. I'm just sharing what I've experienced. I stream all over my house, and my faster drives are no problem, but I have some slower drives mixed in that seem to take forever to move files or display on other devices.

EDIT: How long does it take to copy FROM the HTPC to another source?

sounds like the link between the wireless ap and the bridge is an issue
what's the distance?
use inssider to look at signal strengths at each location
i would personally like mine to be at -40dbm or better

could be a combination of things, like the spin down that Silock referred to. does it only lag when you haven't accessed the list in a while, then it acts normal after that?

Good question. I'm copying the same file back as we speak. It's working significantly faster. About the same speed as transfer from the desktop to the laptop. The only issue seems to be network transfer to the HTPC. I have a 360 connected to the bridge as well, and WMC has always been glacial, but I've heard of so many people having issues with it that I don't know if I can blame the bridge.

Transfer speeds:

555 mb single file

Desktop to Laptop: 2 minutes
HTPC to Laptop: 2.15 minutes
Desktop to HTPC: 5.5 minutes

Bridge is a DLink DAP 1522
Router is a Linksys N300

sending from HTPC to all other machines is slower right?
this reviewer also experienced significantly slower uplink speeds with that model

From the previous post, it appears that transferring files TO the HTPC is the issue. So it would be the downlink speed on the 1522.

I'd be interested in seeing what a packet capture looks like.

The quickest way to isolate the bridge and eliminate the HTPC as the cause it to plug the HTPC into the ethernet switch and bypass wireless altogether. Peg that sucker and see what you get.

This is where I curse myself for getting rid of my hundreds of feet of ethernet cable.

Is it impossible to move it temporarily?

The other option that might help implicate (or exonerate) the bridge is to take your laptop, which you have already proven works fine with wireless and plug it into the bridge.

If the laptop performs similarly wired up to the bridge as it does wirelessly, that points to the HTPC as the culprit.

You magnificent bastard.