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Why are wireless network file transfer speeds soooo slow?

Anonymous
2013-02-22T10:10:47+00:00

I have a Desktop with XP and a laptop with Windows 7 which are on a wireless home network. The XP Desktop is physically connected to the router with an ethernet cable. The laptop connects wirelessly to the net and the Desktop.

The wireless router is a D-Link DSL-2680

My internet download speed is 7 Mbps and upload speed is ~ 0.8 Mbps.

However when I tried to wirelessly transferred a folder containing image files from my desktop to the laptop, the speed was about 800 kbps.

When I tried to transfer a 100mb mp3 audio file from my desktop to the laptop, the transfer speed was about 2 Mbps .

When I then transfer an audio file from the Laptop to the desktop, the transfer speed was 140 kbps !

I can however wirelessly stream a video file from my Desktop and play it on my laptop.

I expected much faster transfer speeds between the computers on the same wireless network.

Can anyone shed any light on these unexpected results?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Internet and connectivity

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-02-23T23:04:25+00:00

    "Are the 7Mbps down and 0.8 Mbps up values from a speed test using your desktop or laptop?

    If from the desktop, what result from running the speed test using the laptop?"

    they are more or less the same.

    "You don't say how you calculated the file transfer speeds.  "

    My windows 7 laptop shows the speed in the  file transfer window.

    "The next-to-last paragraph of Fix #1 suggests that you use a wired connection to test speed before checking your wireless connection; temporarily connect the laptop to the second LAN port on the DSL-2680 with an Ethernet cable and turn off the wireless adapter on the laptop."

    Will try this and get back to you

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-02-23T02:44:07+00:00

    Hi,

    Welcome to Microsoft Community Forums.

    Based on the description, it appears that you are having issues with slow transfer rate of file transfer with in network. I will be happy to help you with this issue.

    I would suggest you to follow the steps on Windows 7 Laptop to disable auto tuning feature and check if it helps.

    a) Click on Start, type cmd, right click and select Run as Administrator then hit Enter.

    b) Type in the following commands and hit Enter.

    netsh interface tcp show global

    netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disabled

    netsh interface tcp show global

    c) Check if autotuning feature is disabled.

    I hope it helps. If you have any issues regarding Windows in future please let us know. We will be happy to help you.

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  3. LemP 74,925 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2013-02-23T21:11:44+00:00

    As Taupo Tech says, file transfer speed between computers on your LAN have nothing to do with your Internet connection speeds. 

    Are the 7Mbps down and 0.8 Mbps up values from a speed test using your desktop or laptop?

    If from the desktop, what result from running the speed test using the laptop?

    Your 802.11n DSL-2680 is theoretically capable of a wireless-n data rate of 150 Mbps.  However, LAN transfer speeds over a wireless-n connection rarely get to that theoretical maximum.  Things should, however, be faster than 2 Mbps (and certainly more than 140 kbps).

    See if any of the suggestions here help --> http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-basics/30664-5-ways-to-fix-slow-80211n-speed

    Notes: 

    You don't say how you calculated the file transfer speeds.  You might want to try using http://www.totusoft.com/lanspeed.html

    The next-to-last paragraph of Fix #1 suggests that you use a wired connection to test speed before checking your wireless connection; temporarily connect the laptop to the second LAN port on the DSL-2680 with an Ethernet cable and turn off the wireless adapter on the laptop.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-02-23T20:28:47+00:00

    If you' think the speeds will be the same as your internet speed it wont be. Theyre completely different

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  5. Anonymous
    2013-02-23T19:42:38+00:00

    thank you for you comments

    I did in fact go to

    System/ device manager/ network adapters where i found the following

    1. Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network adapter
    2. MS Virtual wifi Miniport adapter
    3. Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller

    When I clicked on 3./properties/ advanced tab I scrolled down to 'Speed & Duplex'. The value was 'Auto negotiation' . However despite changing all the values in this field, the transfer speeds failed to improve. I did the same on my XP Desktop.

    Would this be the same as your proposed solution?

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