[comp.sys.mac.comm] FTP - Sun/Sun vs Sun/Mac

cmorgan@ooc.uva.nl (Chris Morgan/RIKS) (10/01/90)

Hi, i'm running Telnet 2.3.2 on my MacIIcx using Telnet's built in FTP
software to transfer files etc to and from my Sun UNIX 3/260 fileserver.
I noticed today that i'm getting data transfer rates between the Mac and
the Sun of about 4 or 5 Kb/s and data transfer rates between the Sun and
the Sun (a 3/60) of about 50 Kb/s. Are these figures normal ??? Should
there be such a huge difference ???

My MacIIcx has a Kinetics EtherPortII card with a EtherPort II driver
version 3.25.

Can anyone tell me if I can get data transfer rates any faster than the
above mentioned ones ???


Thanks in advance for all those who reply


best regards
Chris Morgan
cmorgan@ooc.uva.nl or
morgan@riksnl.uucp

bschmidt@bnr.ca (Ben Schmidt) (10/03/90)

In article <13799@slice.ooc.uva.nl> cmorgan@ooc.uva.nl (Chris Morgan/RIKS) 
writes:
> Hi, i'm running Telnet 2.3.2 on my MacIIcx using Telnet's built in FTP
> software to transfer files etc to and from my Sun UNIX 3/260 fileserver.
> I noticed today that i'm getting data transfer rates between the Mac and
> the Sun of about 4 or 5 Kb/s and data transfer rates between the Sun and
> the Sun (a 3/60) of about 50 Kb/s. Are these figures normal ??? Should
> there be such a huge difference ???
> 
> My MacIIcx has a Kinetics EtherPortII card with a EtherPort II driver
> version 3.25.

Your transfer rates sound more like LocalTalk than Ethernet, but on a 
contention bus a lot can go wrong.  How busy is your Ethernet?  Do you go 
through multiple bridges and/or routers?  Is this route different than the 
one between the 2 Suns?  What other processes are running on the Sun?, 
etc.  But if you've considered all that.....

NCSA telnet is optimized for telnet not ftp (or so the net lore goes...)  
If you're using the non-MacTCP version you can ensure that the message transmit unit size is set to a kilobyte, and try setting the window to about 4 kbytes.  (LocalTalk packets or IP in DDP can't get that big so the default mtu and rwin are usually around 512 bytes.)  If you're on MacTCP it auto-magically  "does the right thing" and you're out of luck as far as twiddling the 
bits.  {Sigh!  Apple please put in an access door into your s/w - we 
promise to leave the default settings most of the time!   :^)   }

Enter InterCon's TCP/Connect II.   Gaige says he's enhanced the ftp 
transfer rate on the non-MacTCP version.  Give him a shout if you're a speed demon.   :^)

Ben Schmidt              Bell-Northern Research, Ltd.    Ph: (613) 763-3906
Information Technology     P.O. Box 3511, Station C      FAX:(613) 763-3283
bschmidt@bnr.ca         Ottawa Ontario Canada K1Y 4H7