I just recently set up a file server running Red Hat Linux 7.3 on a Celeron 300 w/ 192MB of RAM and an 80 GB WD 800BB. I'm a major Linux newbie, but I got Samba up and running and I am able to share and stream my files. I had a Dlink 10mbit NIC in the machine originally, but trying to transfer over 40 GB of data was extremely painful and was taking hours. I ended up reinstalling Linux because I wanted to change the file system and do a couple other things and before I reinstalled I bought a Linksys 10/100 NIC to put in to help transfer files better and hopefully be able to stream even better to more computers at once. Mostly just MP3's and the occasional video. Well, I get everything set up and start transferring files with a 10x increase in speed. It went from 30 minutes for 500 MB to 3 minutes. Then I start playing an mp3 over the network to see how it streams.
With the 10/100 NIC it was a constant lag and skipping of mp3's and video. I couldn't handle it so after I transferred all my files over, I switched back to the 10mbit just to see if it would work better, since it streamed perfectly on the last install. Lo and behold it streamed great and I had no problems at all, with instant load times as if it was on my local hard drive. I just had to put up with extremely slow transfers, still I was wondering why in hell would a 10mbit stream slower than a 100 mbit?
This is my network setup
Linksys 4 port router/switch
Two PC's both with the same Linksys 10/100 NIC
Linux fileserver
Now, I'm wondering...why does the Dlink 10mbit perform so much better than the 10/100? What can I do to fix this? The only solution I can think of is to put both NICs in the server and set Samba up to take uploads through the Linksys cards and streams through the Dlink card. The only thing I can think of being the problem is that maybe Samba detects the huge amount of bandwidth with the Linksys card and is trying to fill up the "buffer". I haven't tested it to see if I could stream mutliple files at once and still get the slow down though.
What might be the problem and what can I do aside from putting both NICs in?
With the 10/100 NIC it was a constant lag and skipping of mp3's and video. I couldn't handle it so after I transferred all my files over, I switched back to the 10mbit just to see if it would work better, since it streamed perfectly on the last install. Lo and behold it streamed great and I had no problems at all, with instant load times as if it was on my local hard drive. I just had to put up with extremely slow transfers, still I was wondering why in hell would a 10mbit stream slower than a 100 mbit?
This is my network setup
Linksys 4 port router/switch
Two PC's both with the same Linksys 10/100 NIC
Linux fileserver
Now, I'm wondering...why does the Dlink 10mbit perform so much better than the 10/100? What can I do to fix this? The only solution I can think of is to put both NICs in the server and set Samba up to take uploads through the Linksys cards and streams through the Dlink card. The only thing I can think of being the problem is that maybe Samba detects the huge amount of bandwidth with the Linksys card and is trying to fill up the "buffer". I haven't tested it to see if I could stream mutliple files at once and still get the slow down though.
What might be the problem and what can I do aside from putting both NICs in?