I’ve noticed that the file transfer speeds from my workstation computer have been on the slow side. Today I started doing some file read/write in order to benchmark what is possible on my network and eventually try to maintain similar transfer rates between all computers.

Setup:

TOWER: this is the file archive NAS. It’s running on  UnRAID software and is running inside its own separate case. It currently has 5TB of storage

NAS4FREE: is a zfs raid NAS that’s running as a virtual machine inside the ESXi 5 server. It has 2 TB of dedicated storage in raid 0 configuration. These two 2TB drives are dedicated to this VM exclusively, and are being accessed as raw devices.

Results:

I ran the first set of tests from another VM on the ESXi5 server inside a Win7 VM using a software called “LAN_SpeedTest 1.2 (Free)“, to use as a benchmark to compare against. The test ran on the Win7 local drive. This local drive is actually a file on the ESXi5 server, and not a dedicated drive, so speeds are not reflective of raw disk access but are close.

The second test was run to the NAS4FREE server. Here I was getting excellent read and write speeds of 52MB/s write and 70MB/s reads. I can certainly live with that, as it appears to be faster then the local drive. This high speed data transfer is due to the fact that both VMs (both the Win7 and NAS4FREE VMs) are running on the same physical computer, so there’s no “network slowdowns” to speak of as all communication is internal to the same physical computer.

Third I ran the test to the TOWER NAS machine. I know this machine has a slow write speed due to the nature of the UnRaid software used, so I’m not surprised with the 25MB/s write speed, however I was surprised with the read speed of 66MB/s. This was taking place over Gigabit LAN, and the physical computers are right besides each other. At lease I know that over short distances I can nearly saturate the gigabit LAN to give me near native drive speeds. (I would imagine that native drive speeds would be about 80 or 90MB/s)

I don’t remember what transfer speeds I was getting from my workstation to both the TOWER and NAS4FREE NAS machines, but it was significantly lower then those numbers.

UPDATE:

Running the test from a wired laptop on the other side of the house, through CAT5e cable I get:
(Test is done using 2000MB file)

For comparison, to local HD, I get Write: 89.2 MB/sec and Read: 76 MB/sec
To the NAS4Free server, I get Write: 61.1 MB/sec and Read: 47.2 MB/sec
To the TOWER server, I get Write: 24.7 MB/sec and Read: 75.8 MB/sec

These speeds seem very reasonable to me. Nearly as fast as a local hard drive.

UPDATE2:

I thought I’d test the WiFi speeds from a couple of computers on the network with this tool.From the old T41p thinkpad, with a dLink DWA-121 (wireless N) adapter I get about 1.6Mbps both up and down. Pathetic. Can’t even watch videos properly as it needs to rebuffer every couple of minutes.
Put in an older DWL-G650 card, and tested again. With the laptop on my lap, I get Write:3.5Mbps and Read:4.9Mbps. If the laptop is 12″ away from me on the table, I get Write: 9.5Mbps and Read: 13Mbps. I am about 50ft away and one floor up from where the router is currently located.
For reference, the best speeds I have achieved on the G WiFi network at home is from a T61p laptop sitting right besides the wireless router. Those speeds were 16Mbps write and read.