LAN Transfer Speed Is Too Slow

[Muhlis]

Hi,

 

I regularly transfer files between my two laptops. Transferring files with a USB drive or memory card seems the best but I want to transfer files over my modem or LAN.

 

I opened the network sharing etc, succeed to transfer files over LAN but its too slow, up to 300 KB/sec. Why it is so slow?

 

My computers aren't far away from the modem (let's say 10 meters). The 24 Mbps speed test results are not different if I'm near or 10 meters far from the modem. Also, the modem supports 1300/300 Mbps of speed.

 

The ethernet is not an option here because both of my laptops have no ethernet ports.

 

How do I solve this?

 

Thanks.

[Eigenvektor]

It sounds like you're transferring files locally over Wi-Fi, so the maximum Internet speed of your modem isn't important.

 

The important info is: What Wi-Fi standard are you using (802.11a, b, g, n, ac, ax, …?). The speed of that standard is going to limit your transfer rate. This bandwidth is shared between devices, so for each device on the wireless network sending/receiving at the same time, the effective speed is halved. Other things, like walls or other wireless networks close by can also interfere with the speed of your transfer.

 

Also keep in mind that e.g. 300 Mbps (Megabit per second) is about 37.5 MB/s (Megabyte per second).

[mariushm]

6 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Also keep in mind that e.g. 300 Mbps (Megabit per second) is about 37.5 KB/s (Kilobyte per second).

No.. you divide by 8 to get bytes per second. So 300 mbps (mega bits per second) = 37.5 mega bytes per second

 

For fastest speeds

You can buy two usb ethernet cards ... if they're both gigabit cards, you can use a regular ethernet cable to make the connection between them. If they're 100 mbps, you need a crossover cable (you can make one or buy one) ... then you give each laptop an IP (ex 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2  and same subnet mask 255.255.255.0)  and you're done.

There's some really cheap usb cards out there, as low as 1.7-2$,  here's an example from a seller with loads of sells : https://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-Fast-Male-To-RJ45-Female-Ethernet-LAN-Card-Dongle-Adapter-10-100Mbps-IFA/351544236206?hash=item51d9ab58ae%3Ag%3AKC4AAOSwtlhWF3AY&LH_BIN=1

 

If you don't want to buy hardware, the best advice i can give you is to configure a ftp server on one of the laptops ... Filezilla ftp server is free and super easy to install and configure and you can stop or start it at any point, only when you need it.

On the other laptop, you can use filezilla ftp client or any other client to either get or send files to the other computer... the benefit is you can transfer multiple files in parallel , and you get resume support and overall ftp can reach higher speeds than regular windows shares.

 

yeah overall the bandwidth will be limited by the connection speed of the network cards .. for example you may have one laptop connect at 72 mbps up and 72 mbps down (up to around 8.5 MB/s ) but if the other laptop can only connect at 54 mbps or less, you'll get less than 54 mbps.

 

[Eigenvektor]

Just now, mariushm said:

No.. you divide by 8 to get bytes per second. So 300 mbps (mega bits per second) = 37.5 mega bytes per second

I know I already corrected it... for some reason I messed up my units while typing

[Muhlis]

2 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

The important info is: What Wi-Fi standard are you using (802.11a, b, g, n, ac, ax, …?). 

 

Also keep in mind that e.g. 300 Mbps (Megabit per second) is about 37.5 KB/s (Kilobyte per second).

Both of them using 802.11.n, although the newer laptop can connect through 802.11.ac on the wifi.

 

And 300 Mbps is about 37.5 MB/s, if it was as you said, my 24 Mbps internet speed will equal to 3 KB/s...

 

[Eigenvektor]

Just now, Muhlis Gursoy said:

And 300 Mbps is about 37.5 MB/s, if it was as you said, my 24 Mbps internet speed will equal to 3 KB/s...

Yes yes, already corrected... messed up the units while typing for some reason

[Muhlis]

2 hours ago, mariushm said:

the best advice i can give you is to configure a ftp server on one of the laptops ...

I'll try the FTP server advice. Thanks for the suggestion

 

EDIT: Tried that, the transfer speed increased to 5 MB/s and it's still far better than 300 KB/s. Thanks again

Edited May 18, 2020 by Muhlis Gursoy