[SOLVED] Slow file sharing on LinkSys Router network

[napergman]

I have noticed that it takes a long time to open, move or copy files from one pc to another. Specifically, I was on PC A and trying to move picture files on PC B from one folder to another on PC B. I noticed that it was very slow just getting the folder contents to display (before selecting the files to be moved). I then tried to view the contents and it took a long time to do so (20 to 30 seconds). We keep our family photo album on my wifes computer and I was trying to organize the pictures. What factors can contribute to the speed of this type of activity.

We both have WinXP Home and are networked to a LinkSys Wireless Router (WRTG54). I am connected via one of the LAN ports but my wife is wireless. She is the weak link at 54mbp or less but she often sees that her signal strength is good which usually means higher speed.

The pics are about 1500Kb each. Neither of us feel that our internet connection is slow. I realize that the files sizes are fairly large but again, the system is slow even if I'm just accessing the folder to just view it's contents.

[johnwill]

This can be caused by the connecting computer browsing scheduled tasks, which seems to take ages for some reason, and is totally unnecessary. Note that file transfers over wireless will be pretty slow as well, but they should start reasonably quickly.

Patch to Stop Browsing Scheduled Tasks

Open up the Registry Editor by clicking the Start Menu and selecting Run.
Type regedit in the text box and click the OK button.

Once the Registry Editor has loaded, expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key.
Next, expand Software and then Microsoft.

Locate Windows and expand that as well.

You will want to be editing the main system files, so expand CurrentVersion.

Because this feature is a feature of the Windows component known as Explorer, expand the Explorer key.

Next, you will want to modify the remote computer settings, so expand the RemoteComputer key and then expand the NameSpace key to show all of the features that are enabled when you browse to a remote computer.

In the NameSpace folder you will find two entries. One is "{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}" which tells Explorer to show printers shared on the remote machine. The other, "{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}," tells Explorer to show remote scheduled tasks. This is the one that you should delete.

[napergman]

Thanks for your post and information. I deleted this registry entry and I do seem to search quicker but it still take a long time to move/copy files. I opened Task Manager and watched the connection in the Networking Tab. I selected 5 or 6 pictures that I wanted to copy from another PC (which is wireless) to a thumb drive on my pc which is wired to the router. I noticed that during the entire process, the link utlization never went about 1%. I guess my new question is why? My link speed is 100Mb and the other PC is usually at 30 to 40Mb.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Chuck

[johnwill]

The network utilization doesn't really tell you much. Copy some large files and time them, tell us what the actual throughput is.

If you want to measure network throughput, there is a free utility that I've used in the past, QCHECK.

Install this on each machine and do some tests, see what you turn up.

[napergman]

Thanks John. I did load QCheck and took some readings.

PC-A to PC-B Throughput
Protocol DataSize Throughput
TCP 100k 495k/149K (2 trials)
TCP 1mb 401k
UDP 100k 123k/596k (2 trials)
UDP 1mb 461k

Streaming
UDP 50k for 10seconds 44.5kbps

PC-B to PC-A Throughput
TCP 1Mb 253k
UDP 1Mb 550k

[johnwill]

Boy, speeds with a k on the end look pretty bad, something is seriously wrong there! How long does it take to copy a large file, 50mb or larger? Is the speed of copying the same for either direction?

[napergman]

Hi John,

Thanks for your help so far. I have performed several tests (details in attached .jpg) but I'm not sure what the results tell me/us other than they are very inconsistent.

Test Methodology/setup
I had 3 test files with the following sizes: 243K, 1.8M and 17.7M. I copied the 3 files between my pc (DEN in my network) and my wife's pc (MOM in my network). I copied by dragging the icon. I always used the same two folders on the pc's. I originated the copy from both pc's and I pulled the file TO the pc (i.e. I was sitting at the "TO" pc). I did reverse it once and pushed the files (i.e sitting at the FROM pc and pushing to the TO pc) to see if it made any difference.

The first series of tests were from the DEN and I had closed all the Apps before I did the test. The MOM pc had IE and Outlook running.
The second series of tests were from MOM. I closed IE and OL before making the tests.

I rebooted both pc's and re-ran the above tests including the "push" test above.

Additionally, I re-ran the Q Check tests which bore out the same inconsistent results.

During the last set of tests, I decided to monitor the wireless signal strength. My wife has a D-Link Air Plus adapter in her pc and it registered a signal strength between 65 and 75%.

Finally, after I rebooted, I started to notice that the pc's were taking a long time (5 to 20 seconds) to "see" the destination folder when trying to drag the test file icon. I had not noticed this in previous tests. I did not start my timing until the destination folder "highlighted" and I released the mouse button.

I hope you can make some sense out of this. I'm stumped.

[johnwill]

FWIW, file copies over wireless connections are very slow, far slower than the link speed would seem to suggest. Your results are all over the map, don't know what that indicates.

Just a question, have you tried a wired connection to the wireless machine as a test? It would be an interesting data point.

[napergman]

Interesting. I could understand slow but the wild variations in transfer rates is the stumper. I guess that is the real question, "Is wireless inherently this slow/inconsistent".

It would take a lot of work to hook the other pc to a wired port. I may (will most likely) do so at some point just to prove it to be the wireless connection. Any other thoughts? Different hardware (wireless router, wireless NIC, etc).

[napergman]

John, you had recommended that I remove the registry entry for Scheduled Tasks. I did so on my pc but should I have done this on the other pc as well? I guess it kind of makes sense but I thought I'd check.

[johnwill]

Yes, remove it on all of them. It's an unnecessary entry, and can only slow you down.

[napergman]

Well, I connected the other wireless pc to the network via cable and got some interesting results. The NIC runs at 100Mb on both PC's and when connected to LAN ports 1 and 2 on the LinkSys router, the transfer rate was blistering fast. My 17.7Mb file took less than a second to move from one pc to the other. I ran QCheck and the transfer rates using TCP ranged between 80Mb and 93Mb depending on which pc was source, packet size and protocol/test done. The UDP throughput was about 50Mb regardless of configuration. I can live with these rates *smile*.

Interestingly though, when I forced both links down to 10Mb rate, the performance degraded significantly with TCP although the UDP throughput was OK. I would have EXPECTED a reduction somewhat in line with the link speed reduction (10x reduction) but it was more like 40x. The best throughput with TCP was 2Mb with a 1Mb packet size and it degraded to around 800kb when the packet size was reduced to 100Kb. The UDP performance was very acceptable at about 7Mb. Is the TCP throughput explainable to you?

As I look back over the results, I can see that I'd be most happy if I could wire my wife's PC into the router and abandon wireless. This would require some creative work on my part as there is no easy way to snake a Cat 5 up two floors from the basement. With this in mind, do you have a recommendation for a fast wirelss router? Is there such a beast!

Thanks for your help.

[johnwill]

Hard to say, I've never actually tried to do that. I'm always trying to speed up the links.

Best deal around right now, but you'll have to order it today to get the rebate. http://dealnews.com/D-Link-802-11-n-...te/204625.html

I have one of these, and the 802.11n speeds are a lot faster than 802.11g if you have a decent connection.

Don't give up on the wire, think along the lines of heating ducts, they normally go between floors and are easy to run a cable through. Use plenum rated cable if you go that route.

[napergman]

Hi John,

I don't know if I ever updated you but I finally did wire my wifes PC. She and I have been happy ever since. The issue still remains with my kids' pc.

Today both kids told me that they can hardly ever connect to the internet. It was news to me -- I thought they had connectivity but just slow. I looked into it and found that in both cases, they are dropping packets left and right on a pc to pc ping. On a 20 packet ping test, they typically loose 40 to 50% of the packets AND the time is about 25ms. My ping response time, wired, is 1 or 2 ms which makes sense for less than 300' of wire.

When I first asked my question on here, it was because of slow response and I think we have discussed that one ad nauseum. However, do you interpret dropped packets any differently? Both PC's have D-Link NIC's and they are a bit older. My wifes PC had a D-Link Air Extreme NIC and it seemed to work pretty good (didn't drop packets). I'm thinking of replacing the NIC's and hoping for an improvement. Thoughts?

[johnwill]

I'd run a wire.

[napergman]

Thanks.........I NEW you're were going to say that! I've got a couple of simple things to try. I'll let you know what finally works.

[napergman]

Ok, so here is the end of this story *smile*. I too my wifes D-Link wireless adapter (model: DWL-G520) from her computer and put it in my sons PC. Worked GREAT. My son had a DWL-G510 wireless adpater. When that worked, I decided to investigate replacing my daugthers wireless card which happens to be the same model. I bought a TrendNet TEW 623-PI (802.11n) adapter and it worked GREAT -- still using the LinkSys WRTG54 router. So, two lessons learned. If you want fast throughput, wire the connection (until the prices of n come down) and 2) the D-Link DWL-G510 is a piece of garbage.

I can finally rest at night *smile*. Thanks for listening.