[SorcererStone]

Hello All,
I am using Win7 and my desktop is located within a network. A few devices including NAS are within this network. When I send large number of files to NAS, in Networking tab of Windows Task Manager, I can see the ethernet traffic goes flat up to 100% utilization until all files (from my computer) are sent.
Q1/ Can I see how much ethernet traffic there is in this network from my Windows Task Manager networking tab if other devices are sending files to the NAS?
Q2/ If answer to Q1 is no, is there build in Win7 Pro app that enable me to monitor how much bandwidth is currently consuming within the network?
Q3/ My router is 100MB/s will be upgrading to GB router. From various forums and googling, I will be lucky if I can get 17MB/s real time data transfer using a 100MB/s router. Can someone explain or point me to useful URLs that can explain why this is so?
Q4/ What is the realistic max file transfer speed I can get if I am using a GB router?
Q5/ Why is it that moving a set of huge files located in a thumbdrive that is plugged directly into my computer, I can see a max of 17~22MB/s file transfer rate? I was expecting 50~60+MB/s, but not seeing it. Hard drive controller is the culprit?

Thanks in advance.

 

[MitchConner]

Hi mate.

A1 - No. Even with a sniffer on your machine, you'll only receive broadcast traffic and frames with a destination of your machine.
A2 - No. As above.
A3 - You might be getting your megabits confused with megabytes here. 100Mbps interface is 12.5MB/s. You will never utilise 100% of your available bandwidth in any case, due to TCP/IP overhead.
A4 - In short, it can depend on the protocol.
A5 - Network bandwidth. You'll see close to those speeds on a GigabitEthernet connection.

 

[SorcererStone]

Thanks Mitch, regarding your feedback to
A4: What protocols are there. I am just sending huge files to NAS using robocopy.
A5: Sorry not being clear. I was copying files from a thumbdrive on my desktop and copying it to my desktop. No network connection is involved.

I have a supplement question to Q3.
My desktop routinely retrieves & forward old files (16MB/file, uncompressed) and newer files (35MB/file, compressed) from the NAS and to other devices on the network. During file transfer from other devices (only 2 plus my desktop) to the NAS, the entire network traffic is slow to a tickle. From my desktop, I can see my bandwidth consumption is flat out at 100% for a long time when every devices are sending files to each other and to the NAS. The router is a 100Mb type. When I upgrade the router to a GB type, I should still experience the same network traffic congestion I want to get rid off. Correct? The only benefit is the traffic congestion should last a lot lesser time using a GB router. Correct?

Do you know what keywords I should google to help me to calculate network file transfer speed in a GB network?

Thanks in advance.

 

[MitchConner]

No problem mate.

There are lot of transfer protocols that applications use, and some are UDP based and others are TCP based. TCP based protocols tend to be slower because of the nature of the protocol.

You'll need a Windows guy to confirm for the USB question but your limiting factor is probably the disk read/write speed at a guess.

Upgrading your router will definitely help with any congestion you have.

The major limit on file transfers are usually the round trip time and calculations can be a bit tricky, but the formula is this:

Rx buffer size/Round Trip Time = Max throughput in bps.

 

[LMiller7]

Q5. If you are using USB 2 speed will max out at about 35 MB/s. But performance of flash drives vary widely and many will not reach that.