Broadcom NetXtreme 57XX gigabit controller problem

[dmoldovan]

Hello,
I have a DELL Latitude D830 with the integrated Broadcom NetXtreme 57XX NIC.
I just upgraded the old switch to a new gigabit one (DLINK DGS-1008D).
The manual in PDF format states that it supports jumbo frames.
So far so good.
The desktop computer has an ASUS P5KR mobo with onboard Marvell gigabit NIC adapter. I did set the maximum frame size to 9800 on the desktop.
When I connect the laptop to the network, it says it connected to 1Gbit, (and the switch seems to confirm that by the color of the corresponding led) but the transfer rate (while transferring HD movies from the desktop) is only around 12000 kbytes/s (verified with Total Commander)
The laptop is running Vista 32 bit, with servicepack 1,
specifications are:
CPU: T7300 Core 2 Duo 2 GHz, 4 MB cache, FSB800
2 GB DDR 667 dual channel
video on-board
S-ATA 120 GB 5400rpm HDD so the transfer speed isn't an issue.
The main problem I see is that in the card's properties there is no frame setting. So, I cannot change the frame from the default value.
I should have got much better transfer rates. I dunno what the problem could be.
My best guess is that this could solve the problem (seting the maximum frame size to 9600 for example) - but as I said, the driver does not show the property for frame size.

Any help/ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance, Dan

[johnwill]

You are running into a limitation of the SMB protocol on workstation versions of Windows. That's about all you can expect going workstation to workstation. It's faster if you have a real server O/S on one end.

FWIW, I see this issue, but if I go to the destination workstation and copy from the remote one, I get much faster transfers, give that a try.

[dmoldovan]

Interesting.
But then, how did I get a connection with 20+ MB/s transfer speed between 2 PCs using crossover cable ?

And in the end, please tell me how can I improve the speed trasnfer of very big files. And I mean BIG ones (4,5 - 13 GB files - movies encoded 720p or 1080p)

I need faster connection in order to transfer them whenever I want from the desktop to the laptop.

PS:
I did try to copy from each end of the connection, and indeed, there was a difference at that point in time:

Objective: copying a file from desktop to laptop
1. copying using the laptop gave about 12 MB/s
2. copying using the desktop gave about 10 MB/s

PS2:
However, trying to copy one file FROM laptop TO the desktop, while operating on the laptop, did lead me to a very surprising result: 20+ MB/s

As long as I don't have any server OS on any of the machines, how can I make the connection work as fast on each direction ?

[dmoldovan]

I did some more testing now, using two different gigabit switches: the DLINK I was talking about, and a SMC 8 port gigabit switch and the results were similar.

The result is cristal clear:
- When transferring files FROM the laptop TO the desktop, the transfer speed is ab out 25 MB/sec.
- When transferring files FROM the DESKTOP TO the LAPTOP the transfer speed is about 11 MB/sec.

So, my new question is: how can I bypass the beforementioned SMB protocol limitation ?

Any other ideeas are welcomed and highly appreciated.

Dan

[johnwill]

AFAIK, you can't.

[dmoldovan]

OK then, how about tweaking the driver into letting me choose a larger frame size, something like 9600 ?
Whar tegistry keys do I have to modify/create ?

How/why is that happening that in one direction there is a much higher bandwidth than in the other.

Thanks

[johnwill]

One thing for gigabit is using Jumbo Frames, but all of the equipment has to support it. Also, I've had mixed results with Jumbo frames, sometimes they work, sometimes the support isn't bug-free.

[dmoldovan]

OK, but given the properties that I'm allowed to modify (see the attachment), how else could I set the use of Jumbo Frame ?
Also, as you can see in the speed & duplex settings, there is no option for 1000Mbit. However, as I mentioned before, I do achieve speeds that exceed the Fast Ethernet range.

[johnwill]

Looks like you have a driver issue, or perhaps the adapter isn't connected to a gigabit capable switch/router. Note that ALL the equipment in the chain has to not only support gigabit connections, but also jumbo frames if you want to enable them. If that is not the case, it will render your connection inactive.

[dmoldovan]

The driver's status says it's connected at 1 Gbit. The corresponding led from the switch is lit with the gigabit type color (green in this case)
and it does perform acceptable in one direction - that is from the laptop towards the desktop. This is why I think that all the equipments are gigabit-ready. And yet, there is no way to manually set the 57xx to gigabit speed. The good thing, however is that on auto, it does some kind of gigabit connection (as I mentioned before).

I still don't know exactly how can I solve this issue.

[johnwill]

Gigabit is sometimes a bit "twitchy", and all the equipment that claims to offer gigabit and/or jumbo frames doesn't always work properly.