Brand new user with very slow SMB speeds

[EyemMateo]

Hello. I am brand new to unix and truenas, but have tons of knowledge otherwise. I picked up a Dell R410 and installed Scale and started getting into the weeds with everything, more or less successfully. I have roughly 5tb to move from my windows PC I've been using for ages so it can be backed up. I first started with the obvious solution, which was to use an SMB share. I have found that for whatever reason, this is VERY slow. I tried running iperf with the help of a discord member, and got these results.

Show : iperf results

The 11ish mbps number is consistent with using file manager as well as FreeFileSync. This means it would take AGES to finish this upload. I am worried that this would make the upload vulnerable to some error over this time, and just would generally not be viable for speeds long term.
My computer and nas are both plugged into a Cisco2950

What is the most likely issue here? Seems like this speed is abnormally slow. How can I go about fixing it(without spending much money, I'm still in high school)? Is there another option I could try?

Show : Not super relevant, but my second idea

My next idea was to install my PC's drive and use the "import disk" function, but as this thread states, it has been removed.

Let me know any follow up questions or things to try, I am very eager to fix this issue!

 

[Ericloewe]

It seems rather likely that your network connection is running at 100 Mb/s.
It's not clear what your setup is, but given that most of the Cisco 2950 series consists of Fast Ethernet switches, I would suspect the switch first and foremost.

 

[EyemMateo]

Would plugging my PC straight into the nas work for smb?
What's the next best option for file transfer? I don't see pretty much any other options anywhere.

 

[Ericloewe]

Would plugging my PC straight into the nas work for smb?

Simple answer is "yes". Long answer is "You'd need to configure a dedicated subnet with fixed IP addresses, which should take 5 minutes". But a 1GbE switch would be dirt cheap and far more permanent a solution.

What's the next best option for file transfer? I don't see pretty much any other options anywhere.

I don't understand how your question relates to the rest of the thread. You're bound by the network, not by anything caused by the higher layers.

 

[EyemMateo]

I borrowed a tiny switch that my family had around. The router is on port 1, laptop on 3, PC on 4 and nas on 5. I just want to confirm that this implies that my computer's network card is the bottleneck?

 

[EyemMateo]

But that's where this gets fun, because I am running one cat6 wire to my pc, and have two adapters, one rated to 1gbe, and one to 2.5gbe. Both give the same results. I assume this is becoming a windows issue, and not a truenas issue?

 

[crownrai]

But that's where this gets fun, because I am running one cat6 wire to my pc, and have two adapters, one rated to 1gbe, and one to 2.5gbe. Both give the same results. I assume this is becoming a windows issue, and not a truenas issue?

From the picture you posted of the Netgear switch, I would say your Router, Laptop, and PC in ports 1, 3, 4 are connecting at 100Mbps, and the NAS in port 5 is connecting at 1Gbps.

This could be due to software/config/drivers setting the max connection to 100Mbps. However, those cables (if they are even Cat6 as you say) appear to be hand crimped. This could be the problem if the cables were not pinned/color coded properly. I would try to find a good/manufactured Cat 5e or Cat6 cable and swap it out to see if you can get it to connect at full 1Gbps.

 

[EyemMateo]

From the picture you posted of the Netgear switch, I would say your Router, Laptop, and PC in ports 1, 3, 4 are connecting at 100Mbps, and the NAS in port 5 is connecting at 1Gbps.

This could be due to software/config/drivers setting the max connection to 100Mbps. However, those cables (if they are even Cat6 as you say) appear to be hand crimped. This could be the problem if the cables were not pinned/color coded properly. I would try to find a good/manufactured Cat 5e or Cat6 cable and swap it out to see if you can get it to connect at full 1Gbps.

After doing a bit more testing, you're exactly right. I am not achieving more than 77 MB/s with a full speed setup, but it's going a lot faster than before. I will invest in some manufactured cable and a faster switch in the future