Download Speed with Kubuntu Karmic 64bit

[Steven Vollom]

On Thursday 28 January 2010 09:52:57 pm Billie Erin Walsh wrote:
> Steven Vollom wrote:
> > My new system has SATA Drives and all file systems are ext4. They work
> > much faster that the drives and old ext3 file system.
> > Although sometimes the speed will spike for a few seconds to around
> > 170mbs, transfers are usually around 100 mbs.  When transfers are runnint
> > 150 to 170mbs, a 1.5gb transfer of data only takes around 10 seconds. 
> > These high speeds are not always present.  Sometimes and usually they
> > average around 100 to 120mbs.  On rare occasions they will go as low as
> > 50 to 60 mbs.  I make a lot of 1 to 3gb transfers and have been
> > monitoring the speeds trying to understand what type of data or file type
> > or any other identifiable characteristic is present at the varying
> > speeds.  Recently to solve a problem that seemed not able to be fixed, I
> > re-installed Kubuntu Karmic.  After the install, I lost the ability to
> > view the speed variations.  Also, the Icon seems to be the same on the
> > panel, a blue circle with an "i" in the center, but the dropdown progress
> > bar has changed.  I assumed it was an change in the plasmoid that
> > happened when I re-installed.  If it can be re-configured to include the
> > varying rate of speed during data transfers, I would like that very much.
> >
> > It did not seem to have anything to do with whether the file was a rar or
> > avi file, which surprised me, but I am interested if it may be a factor
> > of the hardware, the SATA drives reving up. My speculation is based on
> > the fact that when transfers are being made, the panel icon has changed,
> > and the progress bar that drops down no longer provides the speed of
> > transfer data; the only thing it shows is the general position of the
> > data transfer.  Apparently my interest is unusual.  No one seems to
> > recognize the change.
> >
> > When I first started monitoring the speeds, the dropdown would appear for
> > a couple of seconds and disappear; when I clicked on the blue icon with
> > the "i" in it, the dropdown would appear again, only this time it would
> > remain until the transfer was completed.  It was the first time I noted
> > the changing and sometimes very high transfer speeds, when a 1.5gb
> > transfer would complete almost before I could click on the icon the
> > second time to continue to view the progress.
> >
> > This research I am doing is not for a business purpose, however, when I
> > have an understanding of what is taking place, I am confident it will
> > have positive application in business usage.
> >
> > I tried your suggestion, but have previously right-clicked the icon
> > looking for configuration.  I did this quite a while ago, and did not
> > remember what was contained in that selection.  The information is
> > interesting, but the choices for changing configuration are not helpful
> > for my inquiry.
> >
> > Thanks for trying.
> >
> > Steven
> 
> Upload/download speeds are more dependent on the internet paths, server
> speeds on the other end, and server loads on the other end.
> 
Dear Billy,

I don't think I posted 'download or upload' speeds.  I am talking about 
transferring data from one drive to another, or one partition to another on 
the same drive.  I am trying to learn why transfer speeds vary so much when 
making data transfers internally.  My thoughts are that perhaps the drives are 
slowing down and have to be spun again to get them up to speed, but that did 
not make sense when speeds spiked and went to, let's say, 180mbps for just a 
moment.  You would think the speed would remain at the higher speed for a 
second or two.  In fact there are times when the higher speed remains for a 
few seconds.  When that happens, a 1.5gb transfer takes only about 10 seconds.  
When it first happened it was very exciting, even though it does not happen 
very often, but many times it will remain stable at about 120 to 130mbps for a 
complete transfer, which is still very fast.  Still at other times, I have 
seen it go to 40mbps for a brief moment, then return to 60mbps to complete the 
transfer, but those slower speeds are not common at all.  100+ is common.

I am trying to learn how these things work.  I have a quad processor, lots of 
memory, and two SATA drives now, and things happen very fast by comparison to 
my slower machine of the past.  I can remember in the past when transferring 
700mb took 7 or 8 minutes, now it happens at a maximum of about 7 to 10 
seconds.  This is quite exciting for me.  

By the way, I know that many people do not use ext4.  Ext4 is the only file 
system I use.  When I installed with ext4 file system, things sped up 
dramatically from before, and I was using my more powerful computer at the 
time.  Using ext3 file system, it was not unusual to see speeds of 20 to 60mbps 
although it was mostly at the 60mbps speed.  When I changed to ext4 is when 
speeds dramatically improved.

I have read that ext4 is not stable; sometimes I have unexpected problems with 
my computer.  I have wondered from time to time if those unexplainable 
problems could have to do with data transfer speeds created by ext4 file 
systems.  I really don't know how to find that out either.  Most people seem to 
warn against the ext4 file system, but they don't use it, so I don't understand 
how they would know.  Since I made that change, I have never had a problem 
that appeared to have anything to do with transfer speeds or unstable file 
systems.  And since I make a lot of transfers of gig or better and often, I 
really enjoy the speed I get.  Nonetheless, I may be one of very few that use 
ext4 exclusively, so understanding the implication of doing so is not very 
published. 

Before I re-installed Karmic, transfer speeds showed in the drop-down progress 
bar.  I would see when it changed from a spike of 180mbps to 120 then perhaps 
to 150 then back to 120, the 120mbps dominating the transfer.  On a large 
transfer, the total transfer time still was only affected by a couple of 
seconds.

My needs are not business related, so they may not be of interest to most on 
the list, but I would still like to know.  I would still like to have the same 
monitoring capability, because it helps a lot in working my problem.  Thanks 
for trying to help.

Steven