Hello

Apologies if this has been dealt with before, had a quick browse through forums but couldn't find a specific answer so here goes..

Have been running a Linux home media server for many years. Originally command line only then with GUI operating system. Recently, I've done a complete rebuild and added a hardware RAID SAS PCI card and have noticed that my network copy speed from Windows to the server (over SMB) is always variable. It seems to peak at about 195Mbps then drops back down to 0 before rising again. The whole cycle is about 8 to 10 seconds. Weirdly, noticed today when copying an 8GB ISO image file from the server to a SATA drive connected to my Windows crate, got a steady 110MB/s transfer time. The file copied in about 50seconds - which is what I was hoping for. However when copying from my windows crate to the Linux box it always seems to do this variable rate heartbeat thing.

Unfortunately I've simultaneously upgraded my Windows 8 to 8.1 and the server from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS GUI based to 12.04 Alternative Server headless server with Webmin as well as the RAID card. Therefore as there are so many variables which bit is causing the issue so any pointers would be great. BTW before the upgrades was getting a very reliable 50MB/s across the network in or out!

Thanks very much in advance for any advice.

Jake Stratton

Breif specs:

Windows Workstation:

Home build with ASUS Crosshair Formula Z with AMD FX 8350 FW @ 4.01 GHz with 8 cores, 16 GB RAM, Windows 8.1 64-bit Pro running Avid Media Composer 7 on a 120 GB SSD with onboard Intel 82583V Gigabit controller

Linux Box

HP Proliant ML110 with Xeon 3065 @ 2.33GHz with 2 cores, 1 GB RAM, Linux 3.8.035 Ubuntu 12.0.3 x86 64-bit. 4 x 1TB Hitachi SATA drives configured as RAID 5 with the HP RAID configuration tool of the HP Smart Array P400/512MB SAS RAID controller.

The physical connections have not changed which are wired by 1Gbit network cables via 1GBit switch.