Copying files from a network server

[Pointyhat]

Does anyone have any ideas why it take a Dual processor 2ghz G5 tower 5 minutes to download 3/4 of a GB from a network server and why it takes a 1.8 ghz IMac G5 5 hours to download the same files from the same server? Both running Jag btw.

[Joe]

We've got the same type of problem between 2 G5's where I work. The only difference is one has a gigabyte card while the other is 100 baseT. That alone should not cause that big of a difference. I'm suspecting a faulty network card in the one that takes longer. Both yours and mine.

[bigg_MARK]

Go to the control panel>Network>click your network (mine is Built in Ethernet)> click configure>Ethernet> make sure your Speed is at least 100base T.

this is where you set the packet size, Duplex type etc....

Look there, restart ant try again.


Could be that your other machine (fast downloader) is getting priority on a switch.

[pix3lphr3ak]

hardrive fragmentation, ram, network utilization at the time, network card (or on a mac onboard), the imacs harddrive doing somethign else at the same time

[NutCase]

You sure about them running Jag? Maybe you mean panther or tiger?

Anyway, can you try changing ethernet cables or putting the iMac next to the G5 and using the G5's cable. I had a bad ethernet cables slow things to a crawl. Link speed showed 100 Mbps like it's supposed to but spead was way off. Also had a bad router cause horrible slowdowns but you'd probably see slow speeds for both machines in that case.

They both connected to the same switch/hub?

You can try broadband optimizer. I saw a post from someone here (maybe Cory) saying it made file transfers faster I think. Don't think it would help in this case though

And do what bigg_MARK said... you can open the console, disconnect your ethernet cable and then connect it again (another way to determine the speed). The console will show the connection speed and duplex that was just used when making the connection.

Edit: look at the system.log in the console app, not the console.log I should have said.

[Pointyhat]

Thanks for you help, it looks as tho both g5s are set up the same in the network/ ethernet control panel. The servers is connected through a router also and the last server i had connected wasn't this slow. It's all very stange, and annoying as hell. :P

[ChilBear]

What kind of server are you pulling the files from?

Slow transfers sometimes are the warning signs of a bad drive and the server is having packet loss and "resending" the packets. Check the server for an information log. I have had this issue on a RAID setup and one of hte drives was gererating a read/write error.

[Pointyhat]

Sorry nutty, duh. Your right (she winces in pain) Running panther

[NutCase]

It can't be drive related because Pointy said one machine works fine, the other doesn't. I'm assuming both these machines are connected now and not 1 now, the other 5 months ago. I'm also assuming we're trying to download from the same disk. If this ain't the case, you really need to learn to describe your problem better :P

Unless there's something funky in the iMac that's causing software issues, it sounds like hardware. Either a ethernet port acting up (on the computer, switch, router, etc) or a cable problem.

The iMac isn't acting as any kind of server is it? Not downloading from limewire or serving iTunes music to the entire office?

[Pointyhat]

No i'm not downloading from limewire or serving iTunes music to the entire office :P
And yes Nutty you have it correct (she doubles over in pain) I'm thinking cable too, When i go to the network setting and manually apply the 100BaseT & Full duplex it takes 10 hours to copy the same folder (set to automatic it's 5 hours) so I'm assuming my setting are correct. They're also the same as the bigger G5's. This Imac is less than two months old and like I said it did download fairly quickly from the last network server we had.
Also, to upload the same files that take 5 hours to download it take 14 minutes.