Optimum TCP settings for Cloud Backup

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Please tell me if this topic is in the wrong place.

Are there optimum settings in TCP or the ethernet adapter to achieve best throughput when running regular backups to the cloud?

I have a Thnkpad T560 running Win 10 Pro 64 1909 and Acronis True Image 2020.  The backup runs over ethernet via the TPad’s Intel Ethernet Connection I219-LM adapter.  My internet link is rated up to 30 Mbps.  The Windows Task Mgr tells me the backup runs at a “bumpy” low to mid teens Mbps, quite a wide margin below the internet connection speed.

Are there settings other than the defaults on the adapter or in Windows TCP that will speed things up?    I recall vaguely there used to be more discussion of TCP settings many years ago, but I have not paid attention to the subject for a long time.    My TCP knowledge is middling and probably out of date!   I can see many settings one could modify in the adapter properties.

Thanks

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Internet speeds and backup speeds are not the same.
To put backup data onto the internet you must package it and that adds at least 10% overhead. Then you may be seeing backup speeds in Mega Bytes Per Second, which is 8 times as much data as your ISP which is rated in Mega Bits Per Second.

If the above assumptions are correct then I would expect to see mid teens for your backup.

cheers, Paul

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30 Mbps = ~3.5MBps. You should take into account the hops from your PC to the nearest Acronis server you are connected to and the response time of that server.
The default setting for TCP are OK. Years ago when we had 56Kbps modems there were some applications trying to “better” TCP connections speed, such as TCP Optimizer…

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Another thing to consider is the kind of internet service you have.  As an example, I still use DSL at home, so its a residential DSL. Those are usually limited in the upload direction to +/- one tenth to one quarter of the downolad speed because its an “asymmetrical” line, purposefully limited by the ISP so as to discourage home users from running web servers, among other things.

If you are on cable it might be different but I doubt it if its a residential service.  Business service and lines are usually “symmetrical”, so whatever your download speed is, the upload speed will be close to that.

What you are aiming to do with cloud based backup is to upload to the cloud; so if you have residential (asymmetrical) service, expect it to be rather slow in uploading gigabytes of data!

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Help me understand your question.  To what service are you referring as “cloud”?

Are you using Acronis to run the backup with the cloud as the target for Acronis?

Or are you using a separate partition on your Thnkpad T560 HDD as target for the image, and then copying the image to the cloud?

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Oh dear, Good People,   Thanks for your comments.

I may be long retired but I still remember my bits from my bytes … and indeed much of the long irrelevant Assembler, Cobol, Fortran, BPS, BOS, DOS & OS/360 I also learnt over 50 years ago.

I agree with Paul’s comment that there must be some allowance for collecting and packaging data. But with adequate memory (16GB), a fairly recent i7 6600U processor and data coming from an SSD, one would expect the gathering and packaging to be overlapped with transmitting the previous packages.  We used to specifically allocate multiple storage buffers to achieve that!

As well as local backups (to NAS etc), I run backups to the Acronis cloud service.   It is those cloud transmissions that are slow.

My internet connection is neither DSL nor cable.  The immediate link is radio, probably microwave or similar, from a dish on my house to aerials on the top of a tower building 5 miles away, whence it finds its way to the national internet backbone.    (This is a rural area and a company has offered this service to scattered homes and farms.)

Speedtest.net shows 25 – 30 Mbps (yes bits!) in both directions to various servers around the UK.

Alex said there used to be TCP optimisers, as I remember, but suggests those tools are not needed now – and by implication the defaults are good enough?  If that is the case, then that is the answer I was seeking.   So, can others confirm that I should leave TCP and adapter settings at the defaults?  It is an Intel Ethernet Connection I219-LM adapter.

Thanks

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As the cloud transmission that is slow then it’s likely bits vs bytes.

Adjusting the TCP settings is unlikely to improve anything.

cheers, Paul

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Not TCP, but proposing IP configuration change.
Try this, from a command prompt Run as Administrator:
netsh <enter>
interface <enter>
ip <enter>
set global taskoffload=disabled <enter>
ipv6 <enter>
set global taskoffload=disabled <enter>
exit <enter>

Reboot.

If it does not make any difference, repeat the above and replace disabled with enabled to restore the previous settings.

Note: The current settings can be viewed with show global in the ipv4 and ipv6 menus.

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Davidhs wrote:

Speedtest.net shows 25 – 30 Mbps (yes bits!) in both directions to various servers around the UK.

Find the ip of the Acronis server you are uploading to and run Ping and Tracerout to check response time and number of hops.
You also may check replacing your ISP DNS with that of Google…

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“You also may check replacing your ISP DNS with that of Google…”

On this point, you could use Steve Gibson’s DNS Benchmark utility to see if any available DNS servers are faster than your ISP’s.  Be sure to add your current DNS servers in the list – Add/Remove, Add Default Nameservers, then Add System’s Nameservers.  You would need to run the utility several times, to get a consistent picture of which servers are fastest.

 

Windows 10 Pro 64 bit 20H2

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