VERY SLOW (<200kb/sec) File Copy between Win7 Machines Over 300Mb Wireless Network

Question

Hi All,

This problem has been driving me crazy for over a week now, and I would really appreciate some help.

I have a PC running Win7 Ultimate connected to my 300Mbps Wireless-N network in my office.  This machine connects to the network just fine at 104Mbps (card limitation) and can copy/transfer files to/from our file servers over this wireless-n network at 12-15Mbps.  Works perfectly, and I have really been enjoying Win7!!

I've just added a new ZINO HD (Dell Inspiron 400) with a Dell 1520 802.11 b/g/n wireless NIC running Win7 Pro which connects to the same wireless-n network at 216Mbps (according to the "Network and Sharing Center").  However, any files that I copy/transfer to/from the ZINO from/to the Win7 Ultimate PC or our file servers move at speeds ranging from 54Kbps to 972Kbps, and the rate sometimes goes up and down during the copy/transfer.

I have no problems with the speed of files downloaded/uploaded from/to the Internet from the ZINO over this same wireless network.  The ZINO has 5-bars on the connectivity. 

I have tested to make sure that all of the ZINO drivers are the latest and operating correctly.  I have also played with a number of various settings on the ZINO NIC with no change, and tried various router (Linksys WRT150N) settings without luck.  I have tested with the firewall(s) on and off and tried a number of other suggestions I've found on various forums, all to no avail.

Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to give.

Answer 1

Hi All,

OK, my team has found a solution to our problem.  Here are the steps:

1. Running as Administrator in Command Prompt, type: "netsh int tcp set heuristics disabled"
2. Next, follow the instructions that Amrita wrote above. 

                  First enter: "netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled" and reboot.

                  Then enter: "netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal" to restore it to the typical setting.

3. Finally, go to Control Panel > Programs > Turn Windows Features on or off > and check "Simple TCPIP services (i.e. echo, daytime, etc.) so that it is enabled.
4. Reboot your system again, and the file transfer rates should be excellent.

Answer 2

I have been having problems copying large files from Win7 clients to our Windows 2008 server

I used your steps above and the problem went away

Unfortunately a day or two later it reappears (your manually steps will fix it but it is not practical to run that on each client so often)

Have you determined the root cause and a permenant fix?

Thanks in advance

Bob Mc

Answer 3

Hello,

 I have the same problem with ALL of my 300n adapters. I barely get 1MB/sec xfer rates.. I've tried the above fix to no avail. I'm using Dlink, Airlink101, and Linksys cards on 5 different machines throughout my house. The speed is so bad  that it has actually become practical to burn items to a dvd and sneakernet it to the next machine. To stave you from repeating yourselves, I HAVE done the above steps, repeatedly, on EACH machine to no avail. If I put those same machines on a physical wire then my xfer rates go up to 30MB/s. I have been trying to figure this out for over two years now to no success. Any ideas that aren't a repeat of the above non applicable settings?

Answer 4

Hi Gmac99,

You may try transferring files in safe mode with networking and check if the same occurs. To boot in safe mode with networking follow the link given below.

Advanced startup options (including safe mode)

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Advanced-startup-options-including-safe-mode

You may also try turning off the Auto-tuning feature and then try transferring the large files over the network and check what happens.

To turn off Auto-tuning

1.       Click on Start

2.       In the Start Search Bar type ‘cmd’, right click on the search result and select ‘Run as Administrator’

3.       In the command prompt type:

netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

---

This will turn off Auto-tuning; check if you are able to transfer. Later you may turn the same on by typing

netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=normalin the command prompt.

Hope this information is helpful.

Amrita M

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

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Answer 5

Hi Amrita,

Thanks for the input.  I tried both the safe-mode and turning off autotuning, but it made no difference.

I have spent most of today testing various combinations on the Dell Wireless-N NIC, double checked all the setup on the Linksys router, and made sure everything in DNS and DHCP were all correct.  I now have got transfer/copy speeds up to between 2 and 3 Mbps.

What is driving me crazy is that the Win7 Pro machine sitting on the same network is getting 12-15Mbps transfer/copy rates, and I have set everything I can think of to be the same between that PC and this ZINO HD machine.  There has to be some setting that I am not seeing that is different, but I can't think of  what it could be.

The NIC in the ZINO HD is a Dell 1520 Wireless-N made by Broadcom, same as the Win7 Pro PC.  So it is unlikely that it is the card itself.  Besides, it connects to the Internet just fine.

If you can think of what I could be missing, or where to find a comprehensive list of all the possible parameters that could affect this, please let me know.

Thanks, Gmac99