Hello, I've got a FreeBSD 6 server running on my network that I used as a file server for my main computer. However I've really become frustrated with the slow up/down speeds I'm getting, about 100KB/s, which is about as bad as if I was using a "real" server. My setup is as follows:
ISP
|
Router
|
Hub
|
PowerLine node
[~10m]
PowerLine node
|
FreeBSD 6 Sever (256MB/450MHz Pentium)
[~3M]
Powerline node
|
Main Computer (Win7 using FileZilla)
Here are the results of tracert:
Tracing route to 192.168.1.15 over a maximum of 30 hops
1 319 ms 266 ms 242 ms 192.168.1.15
Trace complete.
It seems to be since we're just going over the LAN, I should really be getting at least 500KB/s+ right? Is this a PowerLine issue, cable issue, FreeBSD issue, PC hardware isssue... etc? I'd be very thankful if I can get some ideas where to start to identify the bottleneck here, thanks a lot.
What kind of PowerLine do you have? Are there any appliances plugged in that might send interference into the line?
My guess, based on the tracing times, would be that the problem is the PowerLine stuff, as even on our 1700 km line to one of our branches we never get more than 100ms delay. Your 242ms would equal a distance of about 35000 km. So either you're violating the laws of physics (which would be way cool :D), or your system has problems sending the response as it gets garbled on the line.
Hi there pludi, thanks for your reply. I'm sure you're correct too, that's what I had suspected as well. The device I'm using is the SMC ez connect 14mbps package. Is there any way I can improve the speeds I'm getting? As you noted there are other things plugged in, naturally, but it's hard to avoid that...
I don't think there's any thing you can do in software (but feel free to correct me). The best bet IMO would be to replace the hub by a (optionally WLAN-capable) switch, and run a wired line from each computer to it. Alternatively, look into WLAN (4x+ the transfer speed, without your mobile charger creating interference).
Hmm, okay. Your suggestions are good, regarding the WLAN option, the router already has this (both the hub and router are very close to each other) and the two other machines are both out of range of it, unfortunately. Going wired was the original plan, but with the floor layout the way it is, there's no clean way to do it. It's basically going from one end of the building to the other, up a floor, and through 5 doors. This was why I originally used the powerline option since it was instant and clean. Maybe I just need to get a bigger WLAN antenna? I noticed that SMC offers 84mbps powerline adapters now, do you think upgrading to that would make any difference?
