Transferring files over cat 5

[CodeMyst]

I need to transfer about 300GB between two computers. The speed of the cat 5 is about 120MB/s. If I were to transfer files would I be limited by my HDD (5400RPM) speed?

[Tiwaz]

2 minutes ago, CodeMyst said:

I need to transfer about 300GB between two computers. The speed of the cat 5 is about 120MB/s. If I were to transfer files would I be limited by my HDD (5400RPM) speed?

the transfer speed will be dependant on the slowest part in your transfer path

[Oshino Shinobu]

No, the 1Gbps of Cat5 (if you actually are using Cat5, it may not do 1Gbps, it depends on the cable really. Cat5e would be a better choice and they're common/cheap) would limit the transfer speed before the drive will if we're talking large files. For lots of small files, it will be limited by the drive as HDDs aren't great at moving lots of small files quickly. 

[mariushm]

cat5 is rated for 100mbps (12 MB/s)

cat5e is rated for 1gbps (~125 MB/s)

cat6 and cat6a can do 10gbps (~1250 MB/s) but you also need network cards capable of that.

 

both your computer and the other computer must have gigabit network cards in order to achieve up to 1 gbps transfer between them.

 

If both computers have 1gbps cards, then a regular ethernet cable could be used to link the computers together without using a network switch. Cards should be smart enough to detect a direct connection is attempted and automatically arrange the data pairs to create the link.

 

Otherwise, you can use a network switch with 2 1 gbps ports as a in-between device, which just passes along the data packets between computers.

 

You just have to set same subnet mask on both computers (for example 255.255.255.0) and different IP addresses on each computer, for example 192.168.0.1 on first computer and 192.168.0.2 on 2nd)

 

If you have a router, then the router would most likely automatically give each computer unique IPs and things would just work.

 

Maximum speed of a hard drive will depend on how densely packed the data is on the drive. There are some 3-4 TB drives which pack all this information in just two or three platters, therefore within 5400 rotations of the disc, they can actually read up to 150-200 MB from the drive, maybe even more.

The peak right now, as far as I know, is around 280-300 MB/s for high capacity drives.

Point is, even with a 5400 rpm drive, you can read files from it much faster than what the network cards can transfer.

 

How you transfer files can also affect the transfer speed. Transferring lots of small files, one file at a time (like through regular file copy in windows explorer and using network shares) will be slow.

Ideally, you'd set up a FTP server on one computer and use a FTP client on the other computer and that will allow you to transfer multiple files at the same time, saturating the network link.

Setting up Filezilla FTP server in Windows is super easy (and there's tutorials on Youtube) , and Filezilla FTP client is also super easy.

 

 

[CodeMyst]

Oh okay. Didn't know about FTP stuff. That actually makes a lot of sense. Will give it a shot once I have to transfer stuff

[mariushm]

If you're gonna use Filezilla FTP Client make sure you go in settings and set all file transfers to BINARY ... should be set by default to BINARY instead of AUTO but the developer is stubborn and doesn't want to fix that.

With that setting on auto in rare cases, some files file can be transferred incorrectly

 

Settings > Transfers > Maximum simultaneous transfers: 10  , Limit for concurrent downloads : 0 (no limit)

 

Settings > Transfers > File Types > Default Transfer Type : Binary

Settings > Transfers > File  exists action > Default file exists action  > Downloads : Resume file transfer

 

That's pretty much it. 

 

Doesn't matter which computer has the ftp server installed, the other computer either downloads from that computer, or uploads the files to the computer, same result (files get transferred)

[CodeMyst]

Is there a chance it'll transfer files incorrectly? I am now worried that I will transfer files and won't realize some files are messed up.

[mariushm]

If you set transfer to binary as i said, all files will be transferred 100% correct, no worries.

[CodeMyst]

Thanks on the help. Appreciated!