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I'm getting started with networks and systems in general.

Config: I have a Windows 10 Laptop connected via a Realtek GBE network card to a netgear 48 port switch. The switch is, in turn, connected to another machine (A Proliant DL580 G5) via it's gigabit Ethernet connection. They're both connected to the switch via 100mbps ports. The server is running some nfs shares and I can connect to them just fine BUT...

Problem: For some reason, Windows Explorer will only transfer files between the two at about 10Mbps. Even though the theoretical cap would be the ports on the switch would limit it to about 100Mbps, I can't get it above 15Mbps (peak). To make things more confusing, Task Manager says it's going at +50Mbps, even though this is blatantly not the case (see this image).

this image here

Task manager tends to hover at about 80Mbps during transfers, but never goes above 100mbps (which is the theoretical limit), which leads me to believe that there's other stuff going on in the background (which I'd like to stop from happening if at all possible). When an application needs to use the files over the network (Vegas, Blender, GIMP), they all manage to retrieve and save quickly enough for me to say that it's transferring at a higher speed than Explorer. Transfers done by FTP go through at about 80Mbps (real), though ideally I'd prefer to use a share rather than FTP.

Question: What could be responsible for this behavior, and how could it be remedied? Sorry if this is a n00b question or I have not provided enough detail.

Thanks, Mod.

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    Everything is fine, you are just reading the numbers wrong. Your connection has 100 Mbit**/s capacity. Windows shows you 10.2 MB**/s transfer speed. The B stands for Byte = 8 bits (btw: bps is just a variant of bits/s) So you actually have a transfer speed of 81.6 Mbit/s. The remaining difference of 18.4 Mbit/s consists of IP overhead, TCP overhead, SMB overhead (and maybe some room for optimizations). To sum it up: it will not get much faster with a 100 MBit NIC. ... There might also be a difference due to MB meaning 1000*1000 or 1024*1024 (I am not sure what windows uses)
    – masgo
    Commented Sep 13, 2016 at 14:55

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Your link is 100 Mbps, which is megabits per second. Windows explorer is reporting transfer speeds in MBps, which is megabytes per second.

There are 8 bits in a byte, so the equivalent speed in MBps will be 1/8 that of the speed reported in Mbps.

In other words:

100 Mbps = 12.5 MBps
80 Mbps = 10 MBps

So your network is performing fine - you just didn't properly compensate for the difference in the units provided by the different sources.

A gigabit NIC ( 1000 Mbps or 125 MBps) for each PC would be a significant speedup for very low cost.

See this article for more info.

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