gigE performance issues?

[jamis]

I think I'm experiencing some slow network performance and wanted to see what ya'll think.

PC:
-----------------------------
Athlon XP 2100+
512MB RAM
160GB WD ATA133 disk drive (Benchmarked local writes at about 60-70MB/sec)
Netgear GA311 10/100/1000Mbps NIC (jumbo frames disabled)

NAS:
-----------------------------
Thecus N5200 ( http://www.thecus.com/products_over.php?cid=1&pid=8 )
Celeron M 600MHz
256MB RAM
5x WD 400GB 16MB SATA I drives (RAID-5)
10/100/1000Mbps NIC (jumbo frames disabled)

Netgear GS605 5-Port 10/100/1000Mbps unmanaged switch

Belkin 4 port 802.11g broadband router


Its all hooked up as follows:


Cable Modem
|
Router
|
gigE-switch
| |
PC NAS



The switch is showing the connection to the router as 10/100Mbps (orange) and the connections to the PC and NAS as 1000Mbps (green). Link lights on the NICs for the PC and NAS also show as 1000Mbps. I also configured the NIC to be 1000Mbps/Full Duplex just to be safe. Transfers between the PC and NAS do NOT cause the light for the connection to the router to blink.

Given all that, I can never exceed 10-11MB/sec when copying from the PC to the NAS be it over FTP or SMB/CIFS.

Tom's Networking recently benchmarked this NAS unit at about 25-50MB/sec for reads and writes over gigE ( http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2006/10/03/nas_chart_thecus_n5200_hp_media_vault ) and I'm wondering why I am seeing no where near that. It is almost as if the connection between the PC and NAS is stuck at 100Mbps even though all indications are that the connection is actually 1000Mbps.

Any thoughts?

[Shoreguy]

2 thoughts:
1. Is your cable rated Cat-5e (sometimes called Cat6)? no hard kinks or bends?
2. Latest drivers?

[cat5e]

Cat53 is good for Giga No need for CAT6.

Try to set all the Gigas to Auto. do not force it into Giga, or Giga Duplex.

:D

[jamis]

Cat5e, latest drivers, no kinks, I've tried both auto and forced 1000Mbps/full duplex.

The general consensus I am hearing now is that the GA311 card is a piece of **** and to try an Intel based card. Ill keep ya'll posted.

[cat5e]

The Giga thingie is quite problematic using peer to peer, client OS, and end-user hardware (I.e. relatively slow Hard drive).

It in most cases it works somewhat faster than 100Mb/sec. The best is a functional file transfer 2 to 2.5 times more than 100Mb/sec.

Many end-users actually get about 6-8 MB/sec. (of the theoretical 12.5MB.sec) while using 100Mb/sec. network components. Those Networks if upgraded to Giga yield 12 - 16MB/sec, at best.

Giga means that the NIC internal processor run at Giga. It does not mean that your
actual File transfer would be 10x more.

http://www.ezlan.net/giga.html

http://www.ezlan.net/giga_net.html

:D