Transferring same file between PC's one direction is faster

[videobruce]

I hope this is the right place to ask this. here is the situation;

Two PC' s
one a newer tower running Win 7, the other a older laptop running XP Pro
Wired connection thru a router and a 'switch' with no special priorities or restrictions to bandwidth. Both static IP's (if that matters)

The file is a mp4 around 100MB that I chose specifically to test 50' CAT5e jumper cables before I 'fish' them. I used the "move" function from and to the same partitions on both PC's. All apples to apples.

Using the laptop as the control; from that to the tower speed is fairly steady at 75 Mbps
returning the file, speed is between around 20 to 55 Mbs

Now, the same test, but from the tower; transferring the file from the tower to the Laptop speed varies from 66 to 95 Mbps,
returning the file from the Laptop back to the tower speed is 95 Mbps with a couple drops to 65 Mbps.

Ok, why is the speed far faster using the tower as the control station than the laptop transferring the exact same file, the exact same way???

[Mr T]

Are they the same brand/chipset on the NICs? If they are, are they set up identically within the driver? Are the LAN cables identical (length, make etc)? So many variables on a LAN, nailing speed issues down is not that easy, especially if the cable is long. I set them up and if it works, it works, speed is not an issue, unless you are moving massive files (2Gb plus) or streaming and getting a lot of buffering..

[videobruce]

Too add to the OP that was left out (sorry about that);
I use BitMeter as a data transfer/Internet monitor tool (it's very similar to DU Meter), I ignore that lame M$ transfer window useless timer.
No active A/V programs running.

Both cards are gigabyte. Win7 is 64 bit, XP Pro sp3 is 32 bit (I forget to add)
Both HDD's are 7200rpm (the laptop does not have the original HDD)

To possibly sum this us clearer;
File X transfer from A to B using A as the controller
File X transfer back from B to A using A as the controller
then;
File X transfer from A to B using B as the controller,
File X transfer back from B to A using B as the controller
The ONLY differences are the direction and which PC initiated the command.

Both PC's are AMD based,
Tower has a AMDFX-8350 & a AMD 970A chipset MB. The NIC is a Realtek PCIe GBE. The specific HDD that has the file is a Hitachi 7200rpm HUA723020. (The O/S is on a SSD). Memory is 8GB
Laptop has a AMD Turion II M600 (the specs doesn't show the MB chipset) The NIC is a Marvell 88E8072. The (only) HDD is a 7200rpm WD WD5000BPKX. Memory is 2GB

[Karlsweldt]

Both systems have the same USB class, type 2, or one has a USB class 3?
Should be no problem for USB 3 class to be backward compatible to USB 2, but not forward compatible from USB 2.
No other activity on the hub or switch with other systems? (Possible cross-talk or minor error corrections.)
Both hard drives have the same write-behind cache level?

[videobruce]

USB??
The HP Probook 6545b Laptop only has USB2. The Tower has USB3.

It's the huge variance doing one of the four versions of transfer that bugs me. between as low as 11Mbps to 95Mbps vs a almost steady 95Mbps at the other extreme.

[Mr T]

Have you another XP machine you can use and transfer the file to that one and see what transfer speeds you get?

This issue has kind of plagued me as I use Linux a lot. When I transfer large files from a Linux machine to my Linux NAS's the speed is a generally constant 60~80Mbps (Gigabit LAN, cat6 cabling etc). Windows 10 it drops to around ~11Mbps, if I am lucky, it may hit 25Mbps. I have read up on this and from a windows 10 Forum:

Hi all,

This issue is from when they made windows xp, Microsoft did think lets make a bandwidth reservation, what is a registry setting.
If you have 1Gb network throughput, what is 100% there would be 15% till 20% reserved for Voip, error and other stuff (this is agreed over the whole world).
So if I have large data transfers from my windows 10 computer to my NAS (openmediavault, unix/ Linux, which don't care if I use my hardware full potential) and visa versa, I will get a transfer speed of around the 84MB a 86MB, which is around 84% usage of my 1Gb network (16% is for Voip and stuff).

If I do the same thing between two windows machines is the datatransfer only 30MB max.
Microsoft thought lets reserve 60% of the bandwidth and use only 40%, now if you have 1Gb network (100%) and only use 40% which is to be handled as 100%, minus the 15% till20% reserved for voip and error, you will get 25MB to 30MB datatransfer. then it should be the case that if we have 2 datatransfers from one machine to 2 different machines, the transferrate should be both around the 25MB a 30MB, but this is in best case.

Within windows7 can this problem be resolved, by Disable Bandwidth Limit...
I used for this GPEDIT.msc and then within computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Network, QoS Packet Scheduler.
Double-click on Limit reservable bandwidth.
And disable it.
IMPORTAND NOTE: this has to be done on all windows machines. and watch out with the use of Gpedit.msc

Windows Forum...

It looks like it is down to a Windows bandwidth management issue....

Don't even get me started on USB3 file transfer on Windows...

[Roach412]

Shouldn't that only impact machines/connections using QoS? You can disable that in network settings directly pretty simple enough.

-R

[evasive]

I am not exactly sure what you are using for the file transfer. Simply copy from windows explorer?

Both systems use the same brand/version of antivirus? Same settings?

What does the CPU usage look like when transferring files?

[videobruce]

The file is a mp4 around 100MB

Yes, using Explorer. Would a 3rd party version make a difference?
No active A/V.
I didn't check CPU usage.

I did update the NIC drivers in the Tower that may have improved things somewhat. I did the same in the Laptop, but that was questionable due to the age and the questionable source. That didn't seem to make any difference.