Home network & Windows Home Server poor speeds

FrankGrimes

I've been having trouble with poor performance on my wired and wireless network for sometime, mainly with transferring files to and from my Windows Home Server. I installed the network myself a few years ago and never got round to trouble-shooting it (don't know how) and as it did the basics of what I needed, I just went with it. Now performance is so bad I can't even stream standad-definition videos withouth them stuttering.

I thought (and still kind of do think) it may at least in part be down to a problem with the Windows Home Server (hardware spec listed here) but investigating network speeds without the WHS in the loop showed general poor performance.

I've done a few tests on transferring video files and here's the broad breakdown:

MediaCenterPC (wired) to Server (wired): 500KB/s
MediaCenterPC (wired) internet downloads: 1.2MB/s
MediaCenterPC (wired) to Netbook (wireless): 760KB/s
Netbook (wireless) to Server (wired): 2.5MB/s
Netbook (wireless) to MediaCenterPC (wired): 1.1MB/s
Netbook (wireless) internet downloads: 2400KB/s
Netbook (wireless) to laptop (1.1MB/s)


So they are some pretty strange (and disappointing) speeds and may suggest that I have an issue with my network, but they do suggest I should at least marginally better speeds to and from the server than I am.

This weekend I hope to bring all the hardware into one room and wire them all directly to the router there. That should confirm if there's any issues with the wires that I have running through the walls. Before doing that I'll try out other network adapter drivers on all machines from the manufacturers' websites.

I'd appreciate any advice on what settings configuration on the network adapter is generally recommended to get best network performance - i.e. should Flow Control be Enabled or Disabled; should Speed/Duplex be Auto, 100Mb Full, 100Mb Half, should Jumbo Packet be Disabled? Just want to ensure that I don't have a configuration problem before going and moving all the hardware, so thanks for any tips.

FusionNet

Can you answer these to give a bit more info and depth..

is the home server on line 24/7?
Is it virus protected?
Has the cabling been tested with even a basic tester?
Did the problem only just happen or been there since day 1
is there better or worse times?
is the home server flushed out, DNS, cache, etc etc
Have you introduced any new hardware
have you introduced any new software?


I wouldnt bother with network drivers I dont think thats the fault..

FrankGrimes

Thanks FusionNet, have included responses as best I can in blue below.

FusionNet wrote: »

Can you answer these to give a bit more info and depth..

is the home server on line 24/7?
Yes. Sometimes turn it off when I'm away, but pretty much 24/7 it's on.

Is it virus protected?
No, wasn't sure what virus software to install.

Has the cabling been tested with even a basic tester?
Yeh I think I did test the cables at day 1 with a basic tester, but will retest them.

Did the problem only just happen or been there since day 1
is there better or worse times?
Has been poor performance from Day 1 I guess, but really bad lately (I did play around with a bunch of network adapter settings after it got really bad). Coincided with setting up the automatic recorded TV archiving feature on WHS - seems that as it's transferring files more regularly it may be balancing the drives more often (though the CPU usage seems erratic, not consistently high, same with IO usage).


is the home server flushed out, DNS, cache, etc etc
No, not sure what to do on that so haven't done much.

Have you introduced any new hardware
Not recently. Have added a couple of harddrives over the last year but didn't see any dramatic change when I did that.
have you introduced any new software?
Not recently.

I wouldnt bother with network drivers I dont think thats the fault..

FusionNet

Can you tell me the make model and age of your Router and Switch?

FrankGrimes

I'll have to check the router model when I get home. Think it's a Belkin wireless N/B/G roughly about a year old. I have dd-wrt installed on the router. The switch is a cheapish EDIMAX 5 Port 10/100Mbps Switch.

Is there anything specific I need to setup to just connect a client direct to the server using a crossover cable to test what that performance is like?

roryq

I can tell you that Edimax stuff is dirt.. I had one of these swithes are home and it caused me nothing but issues. Collisions drops and other problems.. A cheap switch will always let you down in my experience.

I would also advise if you have not installed AV on you home server... I would do a malwarebytes scan straight away..

Do flush the dns, go to start, run, and type in cmd to launch command prompt.

When the prompt comes up type in ipconfig /flushdns.. I would start that at the server and work out the way. Also a full reset on the network switches...

But as I said the edimax stuff is dirt... Have you also tried to bypass it.. As in hook a pc and server direct to the router. If you have the available ports this may rule out the edimax.