Sluggish network performance

mncd

n00b
Joined
Jul 6, 2016
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15
I have a relatively new workstation set up on a 1GB wired ethernet card.

The status says it is running at 1 GB.

Whenever I transfer files or do anything over the network it is incredibly sluggish. To me it feels like a permissions, or security type issue -- I can't explain why exactly -- but well, here's one reason....

I don't think it's related to raw speed of the connection because at one point I had a bad cable (I think) and the speed really was slow -because I noticed horribly slow screen updates when I connected to the computer remotely. Now, the remote connection seems fine but the file transfer - and saving files over the network is painfully slow with a lot of pauses.

Also, there was a strange permissions issue on one of my program files subfolders where an application couldn't save files into its own folder. I have used this app many times and installed on many different computers -- I had never seen such an issue before and I had to change the Permissions to get it working.

Any advice on where I could look for fixes to this slow networking performance?
 
Do you have mixed versions in your network? In the past different windows generations had major trouble living in the same network.
 
You have to give us numbers or something to work with. “Sluggish” isn’t a measurable metric.

Start with an internet speed test. Does it match or come close to your advertised internet speed?

Run a ping test on google.com. What’s your latency?

Do a file transfer to another computer that is wired and also has a gigabit nic.

If you are having any issues with any of the above, start looking at hardware. Do you have any 10/100 switches between you and the data source?
 
Don't rule out a bad network cable.

I had a 6ft. CAT5 that would cause my router to only connect at 100mb to the switch.
Replaced it with another 6ft. CAT5 and it's been running fine at 1gb.

I've also occasionally seen a cable that connects just fine at 1gb, but it's still bad.

Also update all of your NIC drivers.

.
 
Thanks for the suggestions everybody. Just as a test I tried reinstalling the NIC driver. That seems to have fixed the problem much to my surprise. It had been transferring files at 500 kbps and now is at 800 Mbps.

What was odd however is that before I reinstalled the driver -- if I copied a file from another computer to the problem computer -- it was fast. It was only when the problem computer was sending files that it was slow. When receiving files, it was fine. Let's hope this fix holds up.
 
Reminds me of the days people used network HUBS instead of switches. :meh:
 
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