Windows 11 file transfer bug, possible workaround?

If I add a 25 gig card to my PC, connect to a 25 gig switch that is connected to a Netgear 10 gig switch. The Netgear is connected to my 10gig Asustor servers. Will I then be able to get full transfer speed even if it's reduced. But now at 25 gig reduced speed????

I'm thinking if I put my 10Gbe servers (6) on a 10Gbe switch; hook that 10Gbe switch to a 25Gbe switch and then connect my Win 11 PC's with 25Gbe FSP28 cards to it. Will I get my 10Gbe speeds again or did MS break that too?

PC with 25gig SFP28 card to QNAP switch (SFP28) port.

QNAP to Netgear 10 gig switch SFP+ port

Netgear has 6 servers all connected via RJ45 10 gig cards.

A network session is limited by the slowest transfer rate in any of the intermediate network paths, from source to the destination.

A PC with a 2.5 Gbe network card can only do 2.5 Gbe maximum, no matter what it's plugged into.

For best performance, you want to group the highest speed devices together on a switch with the matching speed. These devices can cross-communicate at the max speed. If you plug in a 2.5 Gbe device into a 10 Gbe switch, any traffic to/from the 2.5 Gbe device will drop to that speed. Traffic among the remaining 10 Gbe clients to/from each other will continue at 10 Gbe speed.

If you only have one 2.5 Gbpe PC, then you don't need a separate 2.5 Gbe switch if there's an open port on the 10 Gbpe switch. There's no point plugging a 2.5 GBpe PC into a 2.5 Gbe switch, into a 10 Gbe switch. That's the same thing as plugging the PC into the 10 Gbe directly.

I presume your application requires transferring large datasets, so you want to look into Windows tweaks for jumbo frame support to get the best data transfer rates (not talking about network speeds). Jumbo frames increase the network packet size so each frame contains more data. But to utilize jumbo frame support, all clients and the NAS need to have it enabled.

Look up the specs for each devices' network interface, and find the smallest of the max jumbo frame sizes from the group. Use that setting on each of the devices, since an oversized frame size can cause performance issues, with retransmits.

Prior to the Oct. 2nd 2022 bug I was getting 900-1gig transfer speeds.
Staff Member Brink has been reporting this issue for over a year now as "Not Fixed"

I am using "Win11 PC's," 10Gbe RJ45 cards "intel" with Cat7/8 cable to an Netgear XS716E switch. All ports are either SFP+ or RJ45 10Gbe.
Everything is set for large packets.
Asustor Servers; around 850TB storage have 2 RJ45 10Gbe ports connected with either cat7 or 8 short cables. Set to Jumbo packets.
Current setup
Local PC Intel NIC RJ45 10GBE cards
Directly connected to
Netgear XS716X (smart) or similar switch. I have 3 switches. 2 in use one backup.
Same switch has 5 Asustor 10-bay and one Synology 8-bay connected to it's RJ45 10Gbe ports. 1 RJ45 per server.
Speeds at burst are 500 to if lucky 700 Mbps. Then steady down to 200-450 or so fluctuating.

So this is a know Bug MS put in their kernel.

Proposed workaround..
PC to 25Gbe switch. All with 25Gbe cards and connections. Hook the 25Gbe switch to the 10Gbe Netgear.

Will I still be stuck at the 200-450 speed or will I get to the full bandwidth of 10Gbe by forcing a 25Gbe connection?

W11 bug for slow SMB performance was patched in KB5022913 (Feb 2023).

This update addresses a known issue that affects the copying of large multiple gigabyte (GB) files from a network to a local drive. Copying is slower than expected for some users. You are more likely to experience this issue when you copy files from a network share using Server Message Block (SMB). However, the issue might also affect local file copying.

Click to expand...

I get the feeling you've already decided on the fix, and my words aren't going to change it.

All my PC's "but 1, this one is a 1Gbe switch" are plugged into 10Gbe ports with 10GBE cards. I don't have anything slower on my network. Am I misunderstanding your comment. If I have one slow link all will run at the slowest speed, correct?
Quick assessment
1 printer is on a 1Gbe port Will start unplugging everything that is not 10Gbe and report results. Unplugged no difference.
1 PC on a 1Gbe switch. Switch removed from Network. Speeds hitting 250-525 depending on server
Everything not on a 10G switch was removed and all are hitting pretty much the same speeds. All are configured with Jumbo packets etc and all have intel Nic cards.

Now we did a fresh install of Windows 11 Saturday. Intel NIC, latest drivers
Intel(R) Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X550-T1 #2
Exact same issue.

In March, Brink reported the update did not fix the transfer issue.
I tried all 4 of the Feb updates and got this.

Latest update
3 PC's all with 10Gbe Intel cards. PC's have only Win 11 installed.
Win Pro 22H2 OS build 22621.2861
1 PC has had Win 11 clean install, all updates done and still low speeds.
6 Servers with duel 10Gbe interface, only 1 being used and set to Jumbo frames. Drives are 7200 RPM. 1 Synology 8-bay, 5 Asustor 10 bays
2 switches, 1 smart Netgear, 1 not so smart. Both 10Gbe. All connections not 10Gbe removed. So pure 10Gbe network.
Transfers are still running 300-600Mps. Burst can hit 600ish then trends "quickly" down to 300-400.
Before Oct 2022 I would get 800m-1Gps speeds.

So added a QNAP 25Gbe smart switch. with matching 25Gbe card.
PC to QNAP, QNAP to Netgear with fiber. Connection to QNAP verified at 25Gbe. QNAP to Netgear checked at 10Gbe.
Win 11 transfer speed is 175-200 MAX Mps.
Zero 1Gbe, Zero 2.5Gbe connected.
Thoughts? What am I doing wrong if they fixed Win 11?

Verified this bug with 4 people I know. 3 are coders. All have 10Gbe networks, Win 11 has this issue with moving files to/from their servers.
All have either Asustor or Synology servers but not both.

2024-01 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5034123)

Slow SMB performance still there.

Hi there

@drmark

I Can't solve your problem with slow SMB -- but you can download an excellent free program for transferring files -- works both on Linux and Windows and is far more secure in any case -- it's based on using sftp protocol rather than smb. Quite fast too.

Filezilla


Gui is OK too -- example for xfer between Windows and Linux NAS



cheers
jimbo