You don't have time to think up there. If you think, you're dead.- Maverick (Top Gun)
I've got a server at home that has my iTunes library on it for Home Sharing to my AppleTVs and it's connected to my AirPort Extreme that has a Drobo hanging off USB 2.0 as an AirDisk. I want this connection to be fast. My speed experiments are really confusing. To test I'm rsync'ing giant files over SMB. ChaosServer is a MacBook Air, so there is no built in ethernet. I have two USB 2.0 to Ethernet adapters - one from Apple and one I bought off eBay for $10 from China.
| Connection | Speed |
|---|---|
| WiFi 802.11n | 7.63MB/s |
| Ethernet (Apple) - Left USB | 4.27MB/s |
| Ethernet - Thunderbolt | 2.10MB/s |
| Ethernet (Apple) - Right USB | 1.72MB/s |
| Ethernet (China) - Left USB | 307.01kB/s |
If you're like me - you're wondering if the adapter is busted? That is so slow. And the one from China is laughable. So I tried plugging directly from the computer to a MacBook Pro which has builtin gigabit ethernet. The results of that?
| Connection | Speed |
|---|---|
| Ethernet (Apple) - Left USB | 11.20MB/s |
| Ethernet (China) - Left USB | 11.19MB/s |
| Ethernet - Thunderbolt | 49.95MB/s |
Wait, what!?! I have no explanation. I guess I should re-run the tests on the computer again. Perhaps there is something crazy happening on Drobo? I'm not sure.