[comp.sys.apollo] Ethernet Throughput

FERGUSON@TMASL.EXXON.COM (07/21/89)

Why is it that typical FTP data rates are only in the area of
50 kbytes/sec?

I've got an ethernet link between a DN4000 and another machine,
no other hosts on the wire. I figured I'd have to be getting
few to no collisions, and that my throughput would be great.
Wrong.

I'm using thin wire...would I gaining much by going to thick?
Is FTP just a crappy way to move files? Would NFS give me
significantly better throughput? I know about the better
transparency, but how's the performance?

I see variations in data rate (on the comments made by
FTP) from 30 kbytes/sec to 90 kbytes/sec, which seems
kind of flaky to me. Does FTP create its own collisions?

This brings up another point. I've heard lots of salespeople
talking about 100 Mbit/sec Ethernet, and FDDI fiber optic
100 Mbit/sec network support coming up. When can we users
expect actual products?

Thanks to all,
Scott Ferguson
ferguson@erevax.bitnet
Exxon Research & Engineering
Annandale, NJ 08801
(201) 730-2339

SRFERGU@ERENJ.BITNET (Scott Ferguson) (04/10/90)

I've got two machines on their own solo Ethernet link. Using ftp, my
realized data rates vary from 30-100 kbytes/sec, most of the time I see
about 50 K/sec. Now, if 10 Mbits/sec ideally equals 1.25 Mbytes/sec (not
counting for packet headers, error checking, etc), I'm seeing things
very far from the peak throughput.

Now, people are saying that on a 2-node link I should get no collisions,
and see up to 50% of ideal, which would be 500 Kbytes/sec, right?
I'M GETTING A TENTH OF THAT! WHY?

The two machines are a DN4000 which is not burdened by multiple users or
processes, and an Ardent Titan also dedicated to this process. I guess I
need to consider disk write times as well for file transfers, but

shouldn't I be doing a little better than 50 Kbytes/sec?

I'm using thin wire ethernet (cheapernet), am I losing speed because of that?

Thanks, Scott Ferguson
srfergu@erenj.bitnet