Hi.

I've been transferring some large files across my 100 megabit lan using FTP. But I can't get any quicker than 9megabits, which does vary quite a bit during the transfer. With no other network traffic, it can hit, say, 7Mb and then it can get way down into the kilobit range and then move back up to 5 or 8megabits. When I try a transfer of the same file via http - I get around 4megabits.

This is a mixed Linux and Windows environment.

I'm using a LinksysWRT54G. I never upgraded the firmware, (v4.20.6), - I chickened out because a firmware flash update years ago screwed the router. Besides, I've never had any problems with it so I let well enough alone. I'm using Cat5e and I think I've got a Cat6 snuck in there somewhere. Of course this doesn't affect my Internet connection which I can get up to 5megabits or so. I'm quite familiar with networking concepts, but I don't have hardcore knowledge of packet monitoring, etc.

These speeds are pretty consistent going back and forth. What could I be missing? What should I look at? Shouldn't I be getting somwhere above 50megabits at least?

I am going to take a guess and assume you are confusing MB/sec and megabits(megabits / 8 = MB/sec) . 100 Ethernet typically will carry around 9MB/sec, theoretically it should carry 12.5MB/sec(?). Depending on your hardware you may be limited by your HD speed.

Where you will need to change sda to your proper drive designation. Modern drives should be at about 70MB/sec, but if something is miss configured it can be drastically lower. You need to check the machines on both ends. The dropping off thing sounds like the cache is getting full and then emptying.

I doubt the router is the problem.

Well, I've been going by what the ftp server and client are telling me. And I've been careful not to confuse megabits w/ megabytes - that's why I wrote them out. It uses kb/sec which I convert to megabits.

If the server says it's transferring at 10,000kilobits/sec, that's 9.77megabits, right?

Usually speeds are quoted in KB/s. I suspect that is what is actually being reported (despite the label). 10,000KB/s=9.77MB/s

That makes sense.

You can move a file of known size (say 10 GB) by whatever method you like. Just precede whatever commands you normally use with "time" (see man time). That way you will know for sure. (10GB/ Xsec).

Ah, I'll try that out.