LAN transfer rate?

Im doing drive image backups over a 100baseT LAN using Norton Ghost from a
PC P4 w/XP to a network storage device.
Looks like the transfer rate over LAN is about 25 Megbit/s and LAN shows 25%
utilization and CPU about 50%. Drive is only being accessed about 1/3 the
time so drive is not limiting the data transfer.

This is a small home LAN with 4 PCs, a NAS and a printer attached.

Is 25 Mbit/s about the best one can reasonably expect to get on a 100 baseT?
Even at that rate, a 44 Gig backup can take a few hours.

Are there ways to easily tweek the LAN to get significant transfer rate
performance improvements? Or is 25% utilization the best I should expect
on a 100mb/s LAN?

Any tips appreciated.




jtsnow

jtsnow wrote:
> Im doing drive image backups over a 100baseT LAN using Norton Ghost from a
> PC P4 w/XP to a network storage device.
> Looks like the transfer rate over LAN is about 25 Megbit/s and LAN shows 25%
> utilization and CPU about 50%. Drive is only being accessed about 1/3 the
> time so drive is not limiting the data transfer.
>
> This is a small home LAN with 4 PCs, a NAS and a printer attached.
>
> Is 25 Mbit/s about the best one can reasonably expect to get on a 100 baseT?
> Even at that rate, a 44 Gig backup can take a few hours.
>
> Are there ways to easily tweek the LAN to get significant transfer rate
> performance improvements? Or is 25% utilization the best I should expect
> on a 100mb/s LAN?
>
> Any tips appreciated.

I've seen my own transfers top out at 12.5%, while I've seen some
servers transferring at upto 60% efficiency. I don't what causes it, it
could be driver efficiency or perhaps some ethernet chipsets have more
intelligence.

Yousuf Khan

Yousuf Khan wrote:
> jtsnow wrote:
>
>> Im doing drive image backups over a 100baseT LAN using Norton Ghost
>> from a PC P4 w/XP to a network storage device.
>> Looks like the transfer rate over LAN is about 25 Megbit/s and LAN
>> shows 25% utilization and CPU about 50%. Drive is only being
>> accessed about 1/3 the time so drive is not limiting the data transfer.
>>
>> This is a small home LAN with 4 PCs, a NAS and a printer attached.
>>
>> Is 25 Mbit/s about the best one can reasonably expect to get on a 100
>> baseT? Even at that rate, a 44 Gig backup can take a few hours.
>>
>> Are there ways to easily tweek the LAN to get significant transfer
>> rate performance improvements? Or is 25% utilization the best I
>> should expect on a 100mb/s LAN?
>>
>> Any tips appreciated.
>
>
> I've seen my own transfers top out at 12.5%, while I've seen some
> servers transferring at upto 60% efficiency. I don't what causes it, it
> could be driver efficiency or perhaps some ethernet chipsets have more
> intelligence.
>
> Yousuf Khan

25% is poor and 12.5% is pretty terrible. I just tried copying a large
(~1GB) file between a couple of XP PCs over a 100 Mb/s FDX net (with a
Linksys BEFW11S4 switch in the middle), using Explorer's drag'n'drop.
NetPerSec showed ~9.9 MB/s pushing the file, and ~9.1 MB/s pulling it
back; ~79% efficiency pushing and ~73% pulling.

I confirmed those transfer rates by stopwatch+calculator. And I repeated
the experiment with a somewhat faster far-end PC, using Explorer's CTRL-C
and CTRL-V, getting slightly better transfer rates: ~9.9 MB/s pushing,
and ~9.5 MB/s pulling; ~79% pushing and ~76% pulling.

Note that file transfer STRs seem to be much better in an all-XP workgroup
than in a mixed XP-W9x workgroup; my earlier results with a ~0.5GB file
on a XP-W9x 100 Mb/s FDX net were:

- Pushing on 98 from 98$ to XP$: 86 secs => 5.81 MB/s
- Pulling on 98 from XP$ to 98$: 82 secs => 6.10 MB/s
- Pulling on XP from 98$ to XP$: 159 secs => 3.14 MB/s
- Pushing on XP from XP$ to 98$: 236 secs => 2.19 MB/s

All these results were using network mapped drives.
--
Cheers, Bob

jtsnow wrote:
> Im doing drive image backups over a 100baseT LAN using Norton Ghost from a
> PC P4 w/XP to a network storage device.
> Looks like the transfer rate over LAN is about 25 Megbit/s and LAN shows 25%
> utilization and CPU about 50%. Drive is only being accessed about 1/3 the
> time so drive is not limiting the data transfer.
>
> This is a small home LAN with 4 PCs, a NAS and a printer attached.
>
> Is 25 Mbit/s about the best one can reasonably expect to get on a 100 baseT?
> Even at that rate, a 44 Gig backup can take a few hours.
>
> Are there ways to easily tweek the LAN to get significant transfer rate
> performance improvements? Or is 25% utilization the best I should expect
> on a 100mb/s LAN?
>
> Any tips appreciated.
>
>
It may be totally irrelevant to your case, but firewall s/ware on my
machines has been observed to hit throughput by an order of magnitude.
Never did find out why.

ok...i can try turnig those off as an experiment

thx
"Mike Scott" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> jtsnow wrote:
>> Im doing drive image backups over a 100baseT LAN using Norton Ghost from
>> a PC P4 w/XP to a network storage device.
>> Looks like the transfer rate over LAN is about 25 Megbit/s and LAN shows
>> 25% utilization and CPU about 50%. Drive is only being accessed about
>> 1/3 the time so drive is not limiting the data transfer.
>>
>> This is a small home LAN with 4 PCs, a NAS and a printer attached.
>>
>> Is 25 Mbit/s about the best one can reasonably expect to get on a 100
>> baseT? Even at that rate, a 44 Gig backup can take a few hours.
>>
>> Are there ways to easily tweek the LAN to get significant transfer rate
>> performance improvements? Or is 25% utilization the best I should
>> expect on a 100mb/s LAN?
>>
>> Any tips appreciated.
> It may be totally irrelevant to your case, but firewall s/ware on my
> machines has been observed to hit throughput by an order of magnitude.
> Never did find out why.

ok...thanks...im my situtation is ethernet comin in to a external USB on the
PC. I think thats the link slowin everything down. Just ethernet to
ethernet its very very fast....its the USB in on the external drive thats
the killer....i think

"Bob Willard" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:e7CdnYYHSrY0VpXfRVn-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Yousuf Khan wrote:
>> jtsnow wrote:
>>
>>> Im doing drive image backups over a 100baseT LAN using Norton Ghost from
>>> a PC P4 w/XP to a network storage device.
>>> Looks like the transfer rate over LAN is about 25 Megbit/s and LAN shows
>>> 25% utilization and CPU about 50%. Drive is only being accessed about
>>> 1/3 the time so drive is not limiting the data transfer.
>>>
>>> This is a small home LAN with 4 PCs, a NAS and a printer attached.
>>>
>>> Is 25 Mbit/s about the best one can reasonably expect to get on a 100
>>> baseT? Even at that rate, a 44 Gig backup can take a few hours.
>>>
>>> Are there ways to easily tweek the LAN to get significant transfer rate
>>> performance improvements? Or is 25% utilization the best I should
>>> expect on a 100mb/s LAN?
>>>
>>> Any tips appreciated.
>>
>>
>> I've seen my own transfers top out at 12.5%, while I've seen some servers
>> transferring at upto 60% efficiency. I don't what causes it, it could be
>> driver efficiency or perhaps some ethernet chipsets have more
>> intelligence.
>>
>> Yousuf Khan
>
> 25% is poor and 12.5% is pretty terrible. I just tried copying a large
> (~1GB) file between a couple of XP PCs over a 100 Mb/s FDX net (with a
> Linksys BEFW11S4 switch in the middle), using Explorer's drag'n'drop.
> NetPerSec showed ~9.9 MB/s pushing the file, and ~9.1 MB/s pulling it
> back; ~79% efficiency pushing and ~73% pulling.
>
> I confirmed those transfer rates by stopwatch+calculator. And I repeated
> the experiment with a somewhat faster far-end PC, using Explorer's CTRL-C
> and CTRL-V, getting slightly better transfer rates: ~9.9 MB/s pushing,
> and ~9.5 MB/s pulling; ~79% pushing and ~76% pulling.
>
> Note that file transfer STRs seem to be much better in an all-XP workgroup
> than in a mixed XP-W9x workgroup; my earlier results with a ~0.5GB file
> on a XP-W9x 100 Mb/s FDX net were:
>
> - Pushing on 98 from 98$ to XP$: 86 secs => 5.81 MB/s
> - Pulling on 98 from XP$ to 98$: 82 secs => 6.10 MB/s
> - Pulling on XP from 98$ to XP$: 159 secs => 3.14 MB/s
> - Pushing on XP from XP$ to 98$: 236 secs => 2.19 MB/s
>
> All these results were using network mapped drives.
> --
> Cheers, Bob