Gigabit Ethernet Speeds?

Question

Hello,
I have a Belkin N1 Router with Gigabit Ethernet ports.
Plugged in to it, I have a HP Laptop with Gigabit Ethernet and the status of this network connection reports the speed of 1.0Gbps.
I also have a Western Digital WorldBook NAS (Network Attached Storage) with Gigabit Ethernet and the configuration page reports that its network connection is running at 1000Mbps.
All network cables are Cat5e.
Therefore I'm assuming I have everything set up correctly to make best use of Gigabit Ethernet.
My laptop is running Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1 (therefore, have the patch to resolve the well know network copying poor performance bug).
When moving or copying files between the laptop and NAS, the Move/Copy dialog box reports a transfer speed of around 4.5Mbps. My question is, is this normal?? It seems very poor and slow to me. A 700Mb file takes around 4 minutes to copy.
In comparison, transfer speeds wirelessly using 802.11g (54Mbps) is around 1-2Mbps, and USB 2.0 Flash Memory plugged into the laptop gives a transfer speed of a more nicer 12Mbps.
With thanks
Mark

Answer 1

It does seem slow. I assume you are performing file transfers with CIFS/SMB. Boot linux on the computer and see what happens. If it works with Samba, try to mount the NAS with NFS. At least you might be able to isolate the problem a bit.

Answer 2

Sonnet Presto Gigabit Ethernet Pro ExpressCard/34: 1000/100/10BaseT Gigabit Ethernet ... Compatible in MacBook Pro and Windows Notebooks With ExpressCard Slot. ... There are no two ways about it; notebook computers are more powerful and ... to improve your notebook's performance and take it up to desktop speed.

Answer 3

Wireless will always be slower than Gb lan. The physical speed of the drives both ends will affect transfer speed, and the background load on the machine affects it further. Gb lan really only shows any significant improvement on larger networks where each transfer from any machine is faster and therefore the time slots available to all the others come round faster.