[darkmatter]

Hi,

After making some tests with browsers (Mozilla, Netscape, Opera, Omniweb, Explorer), the normal csh ftp and telnet and some graphic ftp and telnet clients I want to confirm for 99.9% the assumtion that Network Speed Performance in OSX is extremly poor.

Is it that my OSX configuration is wrong or something is meassing? I really don't know what to do to improve performance. Or ist that it is normal and one has to wait for OSX.5 to get better download times and faster speed connections? All Network Applications are slow for OSX? is there a forum or article to find more information about this Thema?

My assumptions are based on the following facts:
-All browser above mentioned are very much quicker with OS9
-SSH Telnet and other Telnet clients are smooth when typing with OS9
-FTP Clients are very much quicker with OS9
-All this software was tested on the same network. The network has a very big badwidth. and the ethernet interface is connected to a 100Mbps port.

Please, if it would be possible dont post comments about war beetween browsers, and comments like "Explorer ist better than this and that"

Kind Regards
Darkmatter

[ 01-07-2002: Message edited by: darkmatter ]

[ 01-07-2002: Message edited by: darkmatter ]

[ 01-07-2002: Message edited by: darkmatter ]

[ 01-07-2002: Message edited by: darkmatter ]

[Marook]

Hi Darkmatter.

I would like to know how you have messured this. Have you run this against local servers on the 100Mb. net, or against servers on the Internet?

Testing against servers on the internet is a tricky thing, to say the least.

If this is against servers on the local net, what do you messure?? Is it the lookup time, the download time, the rendering??????
Just saying that the network performance for a browser is bad, is a tough thing....

[malvolio]

The only direct comparison of network speed that I have done personally is to run the speed test from dslreports.com on Netscape 4.77 running in OS 9 and as a Classic application in OS X. In OS 9, measured speeds topped out around 1400 kbps. Running as Classic, speeds consistently came in at around 1900 kbps. OmniWeb also consistently tests at 1900 - 2000 kbps.
I have a cable modem connection.

[Earth Mk. II]

last night I was transferring files from my Mac to a friend's PC using the ftpd included with OS X (10.1.2) and WSftp for a Wintel client... some of the larger files reported being transfered at 1+ MB/s on my school's 10 Base-T network.

just my $0.02

[Gee4orce]

A collegue downloaded a 90+Mb file from my iBook via the Apache web server, and the download completed in well under 10 seconds. Ok - not an accurate measure, I have no complaint with OS X's network speed.

[Brit Ben]

Originally posted by Gee4orce:
<STRONG>A collegue downloaded a 90+Mb file from my iBook via the Apache web server, and the download completed in well under 10 seconds. Ok - not an accurate measure, I have no complaint with OS X's network speed.</STRONG>

I had a powerbook connected via a 100 Mbit full duplex switch to a Linux server on the same local subnet. Both the host and the server had negotiated a 100Mbit full duplex connection.

The Linux box was configured as the DNS, and the mac used the linux box's DNS.

Mac OS X.1.2 and Redhat Linux 7.2, Kernel 2.4.17

NFS:

Transfer 50 Meg of random MP3 files from Linux exported FS mounted on the mac: ~200kbit/sec sustained, occasional peak at ~1mbit/s (File locking problems suspected)

From Mac to Linux not possible due to awful kludging required to get OS X.1.2 to run a portmapper, nfs server, file locking server etc.

FTP:

Same 50 Meg from Linux to Mac:

312 kbytes/sec ~ 2400 kbit/s (10 times faster than NFS, but still SLOW)

and From the Mac to Linux:

Marginally faster at 400 kbytes/sec ~3100 kbit/s

Cheers,
Ben

[johann]

alot depends on hardware also

the best test would be same box with linux installed and OSX installed.

i timed the an SCP transfer of an 80MB file from a linux box to an OSX box and from the OSX box to the linux box.

Hardware:
Linux x86
PII 450
7200rpm IDE drive
320mb ram
100mb switched network

OSX
iMac 350mhz
7200rpm IDE drive
320mb ram
100mb switched network

From Linux to OSX
47.74 secs
13.4MB/sec (MegaBYTES not BITS)

From OSX to Linux
41.87 secs
15.29MB/sec

This was an average of three consecutive runs

The best test would be to run apache bench, FTP file transfer, SCP, AFP (for fun..) SMB/CIFS, and NFS if desired. use the same box, lets say a G4 400 runing linux and OSX, with 512mb ram, and 10k rpm 18gb SCSI drive. then use a similar spec'd linux box for the client.

i could run these tests if i had the SCSI drives as IDE is big bottle neck for larger files as i think they tests wouldn't be focused on the network performance...

[ 01-07-2002: Message edited by: johann ]

[RealMadrid]

I have had extremly positive results downloading files via ftp from a PC using ethernet direct connection an IE 5.1 as client. 5 simultaneous downloads showed each a speed of 200k/sec.

What I have noticed is slower speeds in PPP connections over modem. Beeing connected at 48000bps I never get speeds over about 3.6KB/s. In 9.1 I usually dl files between 6 and 10KB/sec.

Regards

[chatwood2]

I have had FTP speeds of 5 to 6 MB/sec over a 100 MB switch between my G4 running (then) 10.1.1 and my Blue & White G3 running OS X Server 10.1. 6 MB/sec on FTP very good, I have no complaints.

- Chris

[benh57]

Originally posted by darkmatter:
<STRONG>Hi,

After making some tests with browsers (Mozilla, Netscape, Opera, Omniweb, Explorer), the normal csh ftp and telnet and some graphic ftp and telnet clients I want to confirm for 99.9% the assumtion that Network Speed Performance in OSX is extremly poor.
</STRONG>

I've seen reports of full gigabit ethernet performance out of OS X, which is something 9 absolutely cannot do. So, i'd say you are incorrect.

[boots]

Originally posted by RealMadrid:
<STRONG>

What I have noticed is slower speeds in PPP connections over modem. Beeing connected at 48000bps I never get speeds over about 3.6KB/s. In 9.1 I usually dl files between 6 and 10KB/sec.

</STRONG>

When I can get connect from home, I get sustained transfer of 4.5-5kb/s over a modem connected at 46-48k.

This is pretty much the same as before I upgraded to OS X.

[Brit Ben]

Originally posted by johann:
<STRONG> 80MB file from

From Linux to OSX
47.74 secs
13.4MB/sec (MegaBYTES not BITS)

From OSX to Linux
41.87 secs
15.29MB/sec

[ 01-07-2002: Message edited by: johann ]</STRONG>

Hi Johann.

For an 80 MByte file, the speeds you qouted are wrong.

1) If it took 40-47 seconds, the transfer rate is indeed in Megabits per second, not megabytes. (Otherwise the file at 80MB would have transferred in about 6 seconds, maxing out a 100Mbit/second ethernet link quite amazingly at 120 megabits per second.)

So you see, even here, you're not filling anywhere near your LAN capacity. However, you are totally correct that an accurate comparison needs to be made between the two systems.

Typically data transfers are always quoted as bps (bits per second, not bytes)

Cheers,
Ben.

[fixed typo. sorry.]

[ 01-08-2002: Message edited by: Brit Ben ]

[SYN]

Heh. I can't believe what you're saying.

I did tests this summer, btw my g4 and my iMac. large (600MB+) files over a 100BaseT network.

the results were clear

OS9/OS9, AppleShare: 2MB/s
OSX/OSX, AppleShare: 11MB/s (I know, I was just as amazed as you guys, didn't know you could reach theoretical 100 baseT)

I know AppleShare is not a good networking protocol, but FTP gave me the same results, and there are no native FTP servers for OS9so I figured this was more fair.

[Jeff W.]

Since migrating to OS X on our network the speed of file transfers has increased dramatically. Even file copies to the airport connected machines are vastly faster than under 9.x

Copies to and from the only pc, a win xp box, are also quite fast. Copies to anything running 9 lag by a large margin.

Jeff

[darkmatter]

Hello,

Thank you very much to all readers that took time to read this post, reviewed it, did tests and answer my questions.

After reading the answers I conclude that Network Speed Performance of Web-browsers and other Applications as (FTP Clients/Telnet Clients) running on OSX is better and much quicker than the ones that run with MacOS Classic.

I will try to find the problem that is limiting my OSX running machine of downloading/uploading with faster (Bigger) bandwidths that I can still experience on MacOS Classic.

Kind Regards
Darkmatter

[darkmatter]

Hi Marook,

Thank you for your post

Messuring was not accurate and empiric

The tests were done between a Pismo and a Solaris based machine on a LAN, other tests were done connecting to a public server on Sunday (very low traffic)

The downloading/uploading times with Classic are about 40% quicker than the ones done with OSX. The bandwidth that the applications showed on Classic was bigger than the ones on OSX.

&gt;Just saying that the network performance for a browser is bad, is a tough &gt;thing....

Sorry about that one, I think it was an indiscretion to say that.

Everybody apears to be happy with their OSX network perfomance, I will try to find out what is wrong with my OSX

Kind Regard
Darkmatter

[solitere]

Originally posted by darkmatter:
<STRONG>Hi Marook,

Thank you for your post

Messuring was not accurate and empiric

The tests were done between a Pismo and a Solaris based machine on a LAN, other tests were done connecting to a public server on Sunday (very low traffic)

The downloading/uploading times with Classic are about 40% quicker than the ones done with OSX. The bandwidth that the applications showed on Classic was bigger than the ones on OSX.

&gt;Just saying that the network performance for a browser is bad, is a tough &gt;thing....

Sorry about that one, I think it was an indiscretion to say that.

Everybody apears to be happy with their OSX network perfomance, I will try to find out what is wrong with my OSX

Kind Regard
Darkmatter</STRONG>

It�s a well known problem that OS X www browsers are more sluggish than the ones in OS 9 (even in classic mode IE 5 is much faster). But regarding Download performance or overall networkperformance I have had nothing but positive reactions from the speed of OS X.