Need Help With Throughput Test
Hello - hoping someone can help me.
I'm trying to test the throughput of my Netgear MoCA adapters. I was seeing relatively slow file transfer speeds when I was using the adapters in my real-world cable system. I say relatively as it was way less than the advertised speed, which we know to be too high. I was also having freezing issues using Netflix streaming (PlayOn software to PS3) across the adapters.
So I thought I would do a rudimentary test. I removed the two adapters from my real-world environment and put them on a test bench. I connected them via the supplied 3' RG6 coax cable by connecting the Coax IN on both adapters. I connected the Ethernet port on one adapter to my laptop (XP Pro). I connected the Ethernet port on the other adapter to my D-Link DIR-655 wireless n router (gigabit), which is connected to my cable modem. I have a home computer (Vista Home Premium) connected to that same router. The MoCA adapters were left in the default setup configuration (although I did try all other combinations, too).
To be clear, there is no cable TV signal going through the system and no other computers involved in the test. I also have all firewalls on the computers turned off, as well as anti-virus programs.
To run my test, I simply copied over a folder containing numerous large video files from my laptop to a hard drive on my home computer. The total size of the files was 2,868,251,724 bytes and it took 7 minutes, 27 seconds to copy over the files. I ran the test numerous times and got the same results. I calculate that transfer rate to be 51.33 Mbps (megabits per second).
I got the exact same transfer rate when going in the other direction (home computer to laptop), as well as in the real-world setup where my adapters are going across about 50' of RG6 coax cable.
By the way, to get a baseline, I first connected the same laptop to the same home computer on the same router, and ran the exact same copy test. No MoCA adapters involved. In that case, the files transferred over in 62 seconds, which I calculate to be 370.10 Mbps. This should rule out any hard drive read/write access speed issues, router issues (unless the router conflicts with the MoCA adapters), etc.
I spent hours on the phone and email with Netgear. I even got an engineer to run the exact same test (at least he says he did, but he's all the way in India, so not sure about that), under the same test conditions, and he got just short of 175 Mbps (which, based on the review here, I don't even know how that is possible). In any event, they deemed the adapters to be defective and sent me two new ones. I got the same result. Netgear is now unable to help me.
My question is this. Is my test valid or flawed? Is a large file transfer a valid way to test throughput? Netgear said it was a valid test, but then why do others use software programs to test throughput?
I'm hoping someone more technical than me can point me in the right direction. If I didn't have the Netflix issues, I probably would not have run the tests in the first place, but now I either want to resolve this or get different MoCA adapters from another manufacturer.
Thanks in advance!