LAN Speed Question...

[Kyle Rudnick]

So I've been wondering... I currently have a tiny linux box I'm using as a small file server on my network at home, and I think the file transfers are a little slow. I'm pretty sure the network is contiguously 1 gigabit between the two nodes I'm transferring between, it's one hop, but I'm only getting a transfer speed of about 3 MB/s.

Could any of the following be the speed bottleneck:
• The tiny processor on my server = 1.6GHz single core?
• My wireless connection? (server is on ethernet lan, client is wireless)
• The fact that I'm using SFTP/FTP?

Let me know if there are any other factors you think could play in...

[Jonathan Simms]

What channel is your wireless access point on? Perhaps try a different channel. 1, 6, and 11 are the three non-overlapping channels for b and g. Also I read that WPA and WEP can decrease network throughput. Just a couple ideas to test.

[John LeMieux]

Wireless connection should max at 56Mbps. Slow file transfer could be caused by lack of memory or too much traffic. Can you turn off unnecessary things on your Layer 2 switch/router like STP to the hosts?