Network Weirdness

[Deltan]

Hi this is sort of an introduction as a newbie as well as a request for help, I've been reading Mac Rumors for a long time, long before I had a Mac. I'm a big PC user, but last month I bought an iBook 700. (Yay!) Why did I buy an iBook? For one reason and one reason only. I didn't like the idea of being forced to purchase Windows XP, because it comes on just about every decent notebook out there now and there is no way to avoid purchasing it. Evil, evil to the point that I felt the need to avoid giving any PC vendor a single dollar of mine. The frustration of shopping for a PC notebook and not being able to find what I wanted made me switch, just like that.

So, my problem.. I love my iBook so far. Best computer purchase I've ever made. I'm slowly getting used to it and realizing how much better OS X is than every other OS out there. On my network I have a few Windows 2000 Pro machines and a file server which runs Win 2K Server with NTFS. When I mount a drive share in the Finder it works just great. I did notice however, that copying files over the network with Finder is pretty bad. The performance is a pathetic 800k/sec or so. If I FTP into the same win2k ntfs file server using the command line ftp client the exact same file transfers over at a whopping 8Mb/sec. WTF? At first I thought my cabling was crappy till I tried the FTP.

Does OS X just suck in that regard? Is there any way to speed it up a bit? Hopefully someone has much more experience in this area than I do. I realize I'm a bit of a n00b, but any help here would be great.

Thanks!

 

[MacAztec]

Well...

What is your Cable speed. Not your internet Cable, but your Ethernet Cable. And also, what kind of router do you have? Is it full duplex?

 

[Deltan]

Re: Well...

Originally posted by MacAztec
What is your Cable speed. Not your internet Cable, but your Ethernet Cable. And also, what kind of router do you have? Is it full duplex?

100Mbit DLink DSS-8+ Switch. Yes it supports Full Duplex. All of my other machines are able to copy files from the server at 8 - 10Mb/sec so is the iBook, but it can only do it using FTP?? The Mounted share in OS X is painfully slow.

 

[MacAztec]

Ummm

What system are you running.

In my house, I can pull up another persons disk in about 2 seconds. Access their files like it were my own!

 

[Deltan]

Re: Ummm

Originally posted by MacAztec
What system are you running.

In my house, I can pull up another persons disk in about 2 seconds. Access their files like it were my own!

The File Server is Windows 2000 Server, the Files are on an NTFS formatted Disk.

I can pull up files quick as well. It's just that it's running at about 1/10th of its potential speed. There are no latency issues really, just overall throughput.

 

[AlphaTech]

Re: Re: Ummm

Originally posted by Deltan
The File Server is Windows 2000 Server, the Files are on an NTFS formatted Disk.

I can pull up files quick as well. It's just that it's running at about 1/10th of its potential speed. There are no latency issues really, just overall throughput.

I need to ask, did you install the Apple/Macintosh services on the win2k server??? I have a win2k (advance) server that I built at work, and can access the volumes on it with blazing speed. Moving a GB in about a minute or two. Granted upload speeds can be slower, but download speeds are like lightening.

I suggest checking the services and protocols that you have installed on the win2k server.

Did you give the server a fixed IP, or is it given a dynamic one? Do you have a router for your internet connection (acting as a DHCP server)?

 

[Deltan]

Re: Re: Re: Ummm

Originally posted by AlphaTech


I need to ask, did you install the Apple/Macintosh services on the win2k server??? I have a win2k (advance) server that I built at work, and can access the volumes on it with blazing speed. Moving a GB in about a minute or two. Granted upload speeds can be slower, but download speeds are like lightening.

I suggest checking the services and protocols that you have installed on the win2k server.

Did you give the server a fixed IP, or is it given a dynamic one? Do you have a router for your internet connection (acting as a DHCP server)?

Oooooh! No I didn't install those services. Where do I get them from? Are they on the Win2K CD?

Yes the server has a fixed IP, as do all of my machines, and I have a router.

Thanks for the Tip AlphaTech. That sounds like it might help a lot heh. It's kinda like trying to drive a car without the wheels right now I guess.

 

[AlphaTech]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Ummm

Originally posted by Deltan
Oooooh! No I didn't install those services. Where do I get them from? Are they on the Win2K CD?

Yes the server has a fixed IP, as do all of my machines, and I have a router.

Thanks for the Tip AlphaTech. That sounds like it might help a lot heh. It's kinda like trying to drive a car without the wheels right now I guess.

The services should be on the cd. Since I used the advanced version, it installed those by default (m$ did that one thing correct at least). Which service pack do you have installed on the server??? You might need to install the very latest [again] after you add the Macintosh/Apple services to it.

Did you give the Mac a fixed IP as well??? If so, do you have the router enabled as a DHCP server?? If you do, then have the Mac grab an IP from that instead of giving it a fixed one. See how that treats you.

 

[firewire2001]

hey .. i got a question..

do you have the latest version of SMB on yer mac? that may definately speed up transfer rates..

and alpha, i may be wrong since i installed this stuff a while ago, but i thought the mac services and stuff for w2k where just for appletalk and apple based services -- not things like SMB access from other platforms.. i may be wrong, as i said..

good luck!

 

[Deltan]

Originally posted by firewire2001
hey .. i got a question..

do you have the latest version of SMB on yer mac? that may definately speed up transfer rates..

and alpha, i may be wrong since i installed this stuff a while ago, but i thought the mac services and stuff for w2k where just for appletalk and apple based services -- not things like SMB access from other platforms.. i may be wrong, as i said..

good luck!

Thanks for the advice! Forgive my ignorance but how do I determine what my version of SMB is? I've been all through the OS X Updater service so if a newer version was released that way, then I have it. Other than that I guess I'll have to check manually?

 

[firewire2001]

Thanks for the advice! Forgive my ignorance but how do I determine what my version of SMB is? I've been all through the OS X Updater service so if a newer version was released that way, then I have it. Other than that I guess I'll have to check manually?

im not too chure.. however i dont think it would hurt to DL the latest version of SMB -- i dont think Software Update updates SMB regularly.. i may be wrong, though.. however, im not able to help you out with downloading SMB -- i cant seem to find the link, i had it a while ago.. im sorry ... umm, just one more question though, are you running 10.1.5?

kinda off topic.. but in the future with Jaguar, there seems to be much better pc network support--i can connect much faster.. and a lot more..

 

[Deltan]

Yep I am using 10.1.5.
I found Samba and noticed that there was a version released on June 19? I'll have to check the logs to see what was fixed.

Yea, seems everything will be better with Jaguar heh.

I seem to have increased the performance a little bit, things are moving now at around 3Mb/sec. I changed the File & Printer Sharing Performance to Maximize for Network Throughput. Still, it should be a -lot- better than that.

Thanks again for the help everyone. =)

 

[AlphaTech]

I just use the normal connect to server from within OS X to get to the win2k servers at work (both the advanced and regular ones) and the performance is on par with OS 9.x and with windblows boxes. I have yet to do the smb line for connecting to servers, anywhere.