Very slow transfer speed on local network

[Weissrolf]

Ahoi.

Today I tested the connection from a laptop FG client to a desktop FG server on my local network and it was abysmally slow, with peaks below 15 mbit and going down below 3 mbit.

The desktop server uses a 1 Gbit Ethernet connection and can transfer files close to the limit (>100 mb/s) via Windows Explorer. The laptop uses up to 1.3 Gbit Wifi and can transfer files at around 450 Mbit (55 mb/s) via Windows Explorer.

I specifically disabled the Firewall on the desktop server to keep it out of the equation.

Is this expected transfer performance or can anything be done about it?

[LordEntrails]

Nothing I know of that can change this. Network architecture is being re-written for FGU.

[Weissrolf]

so a measly 4 mbit is normal in Classic?

[Mortar]

Unfortunately yes.

[damned]

at a guess, its a single threaded game engine, and file transfers have been set to low priority and the engine keeps coming back to check for other things that it might have to do - eg displaying player rolls, showing token moves, calculating results of rolls. if it just shares the one file out to all connected players and they are connected on a 1mbps upload speed none of those other things might get actioned and displayed until a larger file is shared 6 times. as most people are sharing pretty small files it doesnt have a major impact.

[LordEntrails]

This limitation is one reason their is the ability to pre-load large images. That way a players can connect prior to game time, FG will download all those large images, and then when it comes actual game time you don't have to worry about such low transfer speeds.

[Trenloe]

... and one of the main reasons for the recommended 1MB maximum file size for most images in FG.

[Weissrolf]

Which is a bandwidth problem, I recognize that and am a bit shocked by how slow FG's transfers are in the twothousands. My test only involved connecting a client to the server and then doing nothing but file transfer. I wonder why it begins faster than it ends, though.

Preloading can be problematic for at-the-table local network meetings. I do currently test running the server in a NAS based virtual machine, so it can keep running when I try to do an online session. Player can keep their character up to date then and preload at any time.

But likely they will not have an incentive to also do so for offline table sessions, because I cannot print their character sheets anyway. My current solution for a mixed online+offline solution is to keep FG's data on a cloud drive. That way I could switch the server between NAS (online) and laptop (offline GM tools) as needed. All data sharing between my own computers will then be done via cloud-drives and thus much faster than FG's own network transfer.

[LordEntrails]

Be warned, using a cloud location for your FG Data directory is known to result in data corruption in multiple reported cases. Make sure any such cloud or network share location does not sync while FG is running or you risk your data.

Not sure I understand your comment about pre-load, but once a client downloads an object, it is persistent between sessions. So you can pre-load an image and then not use it until 2 or 3 sessions later and the clients will still have local copies of it in their campaign cache.

[Weissrolf]

I just mean that it's hard to even do a pre-load when everyone is just meeting up in a local network. With the FG server running on a laptop people will only have access once it's setup on site. That's why I am working on the NAS VM to host a server when the laptop server is not used.

Cloud storage should be no problem as long as only one computer is active (changing files) at a time. Files are only uploading from the active computer then. I do have to make sure that the NAS server is not running at the same time as the laptop one.

Theoretically I only need the NAS server and could then log from the laptop into that via remote desktop, Teamviewer and the likes. But the NAS is rather underpowered on CPU resources, so it might be too slow to work with as a GM.

[Mortar]

Just make sure that your cloud storage doesn't try to sync while you running a client, even if it is just one laptop.

Edit: I typically manually do the backup to my cloud storage when I am done working in FG.

FG autosaves every 5 minutes. Files in the campaign folder like chatlog.xml, db.xml, windowstate.xml just for starters.

[Weissrolf]

Same transfer speed of around 4 mbit running FG on a NAS virtual machine with the client connected via 1 Gbit Ethernet cable. So at least it's not slower with the VM server.