Home network performance unacceptable.

Unattended normally while you are asleep.

That is taking it for granted that the network is working properly in the first place and you are backing up large files. If you are only backing up a couple of hundred MEG while even with a 10 MEG per second network connection it shouldn't take all that long but if you are only attempting to copy 30 MEG or less and it taking hours to perform you have to look at exactly what your network is doing and what is wrong.

This could range from unnecessary traffic on the network chewing up bandwidth to just something set up incorrectly or if you are connected to the Internet without any security through a ADSL or Broadband connection you could have a Zombie that is working for someone else doing their dirty work at your expense.

But for any more specific help you would have to post exactly what your setup is and the exact problem you are experiencing. Without this at the very least it will be impossible to offer any further assistance.

Col

A couple of quick Q's for you.

Do you have a router on your network that hands out IP addresses via DHCP?

Do you have any tools on your network to handle name resolution?

Depending upon the size of your network, you may decide it is best to assign static addresses to each of your machines/devices. Then on each of your systems there will be a hosts file type of solution that basically equates and IP address with a device name.

If you will share more details abotu yoru systems, we can probably give you more specific details on how to improve your performance.