Page 1 of Network Speed Question...

One for the network gurus....

Heres the deal, i have recently got into media streaming with a fair bit of sucess, a couple of minor issues that i seemed to have sorted out and am happily storing all my movies onto a Seagate GoFlex 2TB HD.

Setup up is thus:

WDLive streaming media player that has the 2TB drive connected directly to it via onboard usb plug, my main pc is in an upstairs office and i am using a pair of Netgear nano 500mbs powerline adapters, this is then connected to a netgear wndr3300 router via one of the ports to D/Load my MKV files to the drive when done, all of this works fine - my question is one of transfer speed?

How long realistically should a 10gb file take to transfer over to the GoFlex HD?

Stats at the moment for a 10gb file are 2.85MB/s and showing appx 1hr to completion?

PC has the usual 10/100 network installed - can i assume that will be a bottle neck?
I realise the given stats for the powerline adapters are best case scenario, but can i improve that in anyway? or am i getting the most i can given the equipment i have.

What seems odd is that i have an old laptop drive in a caddy plugged into a usb2 port and i`m sure i shot a 8gbGB file in about 8mins across to it... appx 24.5MB/s

Again and as always thanks for any replies!

Grumpy
   

This item was edited on Wednesday, 1st August 2012, 21:06

I`m not a network `expert` - our department has people who earn more than me for that - but even so that does seem slow given the kit you have. What speed do you get when you download over wireless in that part of the house?Theoretically the slowest link in the chain is the 100Mb adapter, which should get you close to 11MB/sec with overheads taken into consideration. However, the thing with wireless devices is that they usually don`t operate anywhere near the theoretical maximum. In your case that`s probably 150Mb/sec on the n router (so a little over 18MB/sec without overheads), but you could still only be pulling down a few MB/sec if there`s enough interference. I don`t even get close to max throughput on wireless n sitting next to my router. Wireless is only half duplex as well, which could make a difference.

Just for info, I get around 5MB/sec copying a 12.5GB 1080p .ts file over wireless n.







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Thx for the reply Chris, it does confuse me a bit i must admit, Mbs MB/s etc etc - i was using wireless to begin with, but it was taking hours to dump 5 or 6 films at around 4gb each to the GoFlex hd, and was getting around (if i remember) 2.8MB/s - that was roughly about 15ft away downwards through a ceiling to the WD Streaming box (details are a bit thin on how good the wireless part of the media box is) - that why i went the powerline adapter route, though its risen a tad its still pretty abysmal considering i can drop a 8,5gb mkv file from my hd to an old laptop drive via a usb 2 port in around 7 to 8 mins...

perhaps i should connect the GoFlex to the pc via its usb/sata connection and stream the media down the powerline?

All i`m trying to do is cut down the time for me to add new films to the drive, i usually do 5 or 6 at a time but usually means i have to run the comp overnight....

Streaming the media via shared folders has its own minor issues unfortunately in that the covers etc arent cached in the media box so you end up with a lag while it finds the "covers" to display, the way it is now its instant....
     

Grumpy,
To convert Mb/s to MB/s (i.e. megabits to megabytes), divide by 8.  i.e a 100 Mb connection, IN THEORY, transmits at 12.5MB/s.
A 1Gb connection, IN THEORY can do 10 times as much - 125MB/s.  On a cabled connection you will get much nearer the theoretical speed of a 100Mb connection than on a 1Gb connection.  Depending on other factors, on `normal` household equipment - and a wired connection, a 1Gb connection would get anywhere between 20 - 60/70MB/s.
USB2 speed, again, in theory is 480Mb/s - i.e. 480/8 = 60MB/s.  Generally, you`ll get around 20-30MB/s from a USB2 HDD.  In your case a 8.5GB file - let`s assume you mean 8500MB. If you say it does it in 8 mins - that`s 480 secs.  8500/480 = 18MB/s so not too bad.  These speeds are when transferring large files too - many small files of the same cumulative size would take much longer.
Now, Powerline adaptors will be even further away from the quoted speeds of cabled connections (but can vary depending on your wiring).
Wireless is even slower and speeds of your 3MB/s and Chris`s 5 aren`t uncommon - despite the quoted specs.  Speeds really drop off with distance away from the router too.
If you`re really trying to cut the speeds down, get a network cable and temporarily wire into the router - sadly it`s still easily the best way there is...

Ste

You might have to divide by 9 if there is a parity bit. Not sure if there is or isn`t. :o


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Basically what we`re saying is wireless is crap for file transfers. The 5MB/sec I get is quite good considering I`m using Virgin Media`s own `Super Hub`, the most ironically named piece of network hardware ever. (It has very poor wireless performance, although better since the upgraded the driver in the latest firmware.) I get that speed everywhere in the house (one benefit of paper thin walls I guess), but I have my main PC wired up to the gigabit Ethernet in the hub to max out my 100Mbps connection. I always plug laptops into the hub for large file transfers because I don`t want to waste my life waiting.

I think in your case it`s just an unfortunate limitation of the current technology.







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@Chris, i tend to agree, i was kind of hoping to get at least a tad more out of the powerline plugs than the wireless connection, but they seem to be about equal, makes me wonder how they get away with "500mbs" claims even with pure gold house wiring i think it would sturggle.

Looks like i will have to hard wire an ethernet cable to downstairs somehow - or bring the GoFlex drive back upstairs and hook it up to the pc and use the WD media box to just stream the data back down, not ideal as the gui in the WD media box relies on caching the the front covers of the films and when its used to stream it doesnt do that, so theirs this awful lag as your browse the movies.

It might be worth me looking at getting a 3tb internal drive for the pc, at least then (in theory) if its connected to a sata port direct theirs no sata/usb conversion going on from the hd to the media box and loading films will be at the max for the setup i guess.

Any thoughts on building a media box?
  
Hell this is a minefiled!!