Local Network Speeds too slow?

[Swiftarm]

First off, I hope I'm not completely breaking any social etiquette from this forum. I've been watching LinusTechTip videos on Youtube for a while, but haven't really been to the forums.

I'm extremely new to Networking in general, and not very versed in Hardware either, though I am a Computer Science major, so I'm not entirely, utterly hopeless (or, maybe I am *shrugs*)

 

Anyways, I've set up a Plex Media server on my poor mans home server (an ASUS X502ca laptop that I never use anymore) running Ubuntu Server 16.04. My Desktop is running Windows 10. I have a Samba server installed on the laptop for file transfers. Here's a list of my network devices and a "map" (to use the term lightly) of my network.

 

Router: https://www.asus.com/us/Networking/RTAC66U/
Powerline Adapters: http://www.tp-link.com/us/products/details/cat-5509_TL-PA7020-KIT.html
Cables: Cat6 Ethernet
Desktop LAN: Realtek RTL8111E chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
Motherboard: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3853#sp
Server Laptop: https://www.asus.com/Notebooks/X502CA/specifications/

 

From what I can tell, all of my devices should be Gigabit compatible, including the Powerline Adapters. Now, obviously I don't expect to be getting 125MB/s uploads to my server, since real world speeds are never going to be as fast as 'theoretical' speeds, but I feel like I should be getting something faster than 5-7MB/s (and yes, I am aware of MB vs. Mb). For the record, I tested uploads to the server on my other laptop (definitely a newer model that would be gigabit capable, especially if my server laptop is), and both direct connections to my router and wi-fi speeds were roughly the same. They would start at a spike of around 30MB/s, then settle down closer to something between 7-10MB/s.

So my question is, are these normal speeds for a set up like this? Am I missing something crucial, or completely misreading the specs on one of my devices? Did I make some other kind of amateur mistake? If I'm just being stupid somewhere, please be brutal. I deserve it.

[Electronics Wizardy]

your using powerline, thats normal. Wired will give you the full speeds.

[Swiftarm]

8 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

your using powerline, thats normal. Wired will give you the full speeds.

That's what I would have thought, but as I stated in the post, I wasn't getting decent speeds on a direct connection to my router. Sure it started at 30, but that was just a spike and it dropped down to terrible speeds. But I'll double check the transfers from my laptop to the server.

[Electronics Wizardy]

24 minutes ago, Swiftarm said:

That's what I would have thought, but as I stated in the post, I wasn't getting decent speeds on a direct connection to my router. Sure it started at 30, but that was just a spike and it dropped down to terrible speeds. But I'll double check the transfers from my laptop to the server.

server specs? protocol? run iperf