Hey everyone, I'm fairly new to SFTP and I'm trying to figure out why the transfer speeds are so slow compared to SMB. We've set up a large private server for collaboration, and the download/upload speeds are a huge concern. Our host's connection is 5gbps. Some users using SMB get about 2MB/s to 12MB/s. However, those who switched to SFTP are experiencing speeds ranging from 35MB/s up to 55MB/s—one user even in the EU reported 55MB/s. I'm in Canada with a 1.5gbps down and 1.0gbps up plan. I started with FreeFileSync, and tried FileZilla and WinSCP, but my speeds capped out around 18MB/s to 20MB/s. On the other hand, when I use SMB to mount the server as a network drive, I get around 40MB/s to 45MB/s. I've run tests on both HDD and NVME drives and still see the same results, so I don't think it's my drives. I've tweaked the settings in the apps to increase connections and enabled file-splitting, but nothing seems to help. I'm not really sure where to go with the Windows SMB settings because I haven't changed much since this is a fresh install of Windows 10. Any suggestions?
5 Answers
Definitely consider avoiding FTP! It's outdated and poses security risks. Sticking to SFTP or even newer SMB features seems to be the way to go.
It sounds like you might want to explore using SMB Multichannel, which can leverage multiple NICs for a speed boost, usually outperforming single-threaded SFTP. Did you check that? That could really help your speeds overall.
I think you’re experiencing speed limitations because SFTP can be quite CPU-intensive and is often single-threaded. Why not test using FTPs as well? It might yield better results, and since you’re looking for speed, it’s worth a shot. Just make sure you discuss it with your team to weigh the security implications.
Remember, SFTP has more security layers compared to standard SMB, which means it tends to be slower due to the extra overhead. I recommend trying RoboCopy with multi-thread functionality. It could help you optimize the transfer process significantly!
If you're facing latency issues, try running TCPOptimizer on both your machine and the server. Make sure to set your MTU size properly. Adjusting these can drastically improve your transfer speeds.
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