NAS Drive horrendous transfer speeds

Delta Skies

Delta Skies

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Peter
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Help would be very much appreciated as I can't find anything worthwhile via google that has helped.

I've got a Netgear ReadyNas RN104 using a Sky router and a Macbook. All three bits of gear about a year old and all updated. My transfer speeds between Mac and NAS are ridiculous. They are so slow I'm seriously considering ditching the NAS. I've just tried to transfer three files 1.19Gb and it's quoting anywhere between 3-5 hours. OK the NAS is connected wirelessly but I would have expected something much better than this. Whilst I've been in IT for too long I'm not a network expert so any advice and guidance would be gratefully received.
 
Use power plugs.

Alternatively move phone line to where your kit is - easy job.

Or use a power plug to connect your sky router setup in bridge mode to a more capable router/switch in your office which would be connected to NAS and devices.
 
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christurbo said:
Use power plugs.

Alternatively move phone line to where your kit is - easy job.

Or use a power plug to connect your sky router setup in bridge mode to a more capable router/switch in your office which would be connected to NAS and devices.
Click to expand...

:plus1: Bought some gigabit plugs recently and they work great. I have a similar setup to you. You need to find a way of cabling, I couldn't use mine either via wifi.
 
Andy Taylor said:
How are you connecting the RN104? The spec sheet says it needs an Ethernet connection.
Click to expand...
I'm using wired into a wireless extender supplied free of charge by Sky. Maybe the word "free" gives the game away :(
christurbo said:
Use power plugs.

Alternatively move phone line to where your kit is - easy job.

Or use a power plug to connect your sky router setup in bridge mode to a more capable router/switch in your office which would be connected to NAS and devices.
Click to expand...

Livin The Dream said:
:plus1: Bought some gigabit plugs recently and they work great. I have a similar setup to you. You need to find a way of cabling, I couldn't use mine either via wifi.
Click to expand...
I've got a couple of old Netgear XAV1301 plugs for my lad's PC. It doesn't look like you can get more of these plus they aren't gigabit only 200Mbps. Any recommedations for new ones especially if they sell them as a three pack?
 
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I use a Synology NAS connected to a Wireless AC router (Netgear 7000) with Gigabit ports-I receive somewhere in the region of 30-40MB/s over the wireless connection. On a Gigabit Lan it's nearer 70MB/S (The NAS is 3 years old)

As others have said - if you're plugging your NAS via a 100MBit switch rather than 1000Mbit (for example if the wireless router is relatively low spec) then the max throughput you're going to receive is something like 8MB/s even via a cable. It's the weakest link of the chain.

Using a range extender on a wireless signal that's already a bit weak won't help matters either unfortunately. :-(
 
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OK here's my current setup.....

Sky Modem/Router wired to a 100Mbps switch which splits to the TV, Sky Box and then off to the Netgear XAV1301 plug (200 Mbps) and out upstairs to another XAV1301 and into my lads PC. Also upstairs is the Sky wireless extender wired into the back of the NAS RN104.

It seems I need to get change the extender for another powerline plug. The next weakest point I guess will be the switch. So a few questions....
I assume there's no point getting gigabit plugs the other side of my current switch?
Could I either add another wire to bypass the switch to go straight to the plug or get a faster switch?
Would doing this improve the speed from wireless Macbook to plugged NAS?
Would doing this improve the performance on my lad's PC for playing his online shooting games?
If I have a triple pack of plugs would the NAS interfere with his PC network speeds?
Does it make any difference if my broadband speeds are 27+Mbps down and 5+Mbps up?

I appreciate the patience regarding what seems to be pretty basic questions.
 
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Hi Peter.
Ultimately you are limited by the Sky routers 100MBit throughput if the NAS is using that to route traffic to your computer.

I answered your questions in bold. Please check it out and see if it makes sense!


Delta Skies said:
OK here's my current setup.....

Sky Modem/Router wired to a 100Mbps switch which splits to the TV, Sky Box and then off to the Netgear XAV1301 plug (200 Mbps) and out upstairs to another XAV1301 and into my lads PC. Also upstairs is the Sky wireless extender wired into the back of the NAS RN104.

It seems I need to get change the extender for another powerline plug. The next weakest point I guess will be the switch. So a few questions....
I assume there's no point getting gigabit plugs the other side of my current switch? - You can upgrade your switch to a 1GBit which would aid anything plugged directly into that, which isn't going via the Sky box. For example a wired gigabit ethernet connection between your computer and NAS using a 1GB switch as the device to connect them. However, The 100Mb/1GBit switch is limited by the ethernet port on the Sky box for wireless connections (assuming thats 100MBit not 1000Mbit?).

Could I either add another wire to bypass the switch to go straight to the plug or get a faster switch? You could buy a gigabit switch/ wireless router to replace your switch & ideally your Sky Wifi box.

Would doing this improve the speed from wireless Macbook to plugged NAS? If the NAS is connected to a Gigabit switch & compatible Wireless Router with a 1Gbit conenection
Would doing this improve the performance on my lad's PC for playing his online shooting games? If they are currently being limited by high latency and low transfer speeds due to a poor quality wireless link then a new Wireless solution may help- The NAS isn't relevant.

If I have a triple pack of plugs would the NAS interfere with his PC network speeds? Powerline solutions are flakey at best. Great for surfing the net but if you want to sustain a stable fast connection then I don't think it's the answer.
Does it make any difference if my broadband speeds are 27+Mbps down and 5+Mbps up? 5MB up is good, Your son will be able to game happily assuming everything is configured correctly!

I appreciate the patience regarding what seems to be pretty basic questions.
Click to expand...
 
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rich_ said:
Hi Peter.
Ultimately you are limited by the Sky routers 100MBit throughput if the NAS is using that to route traffic to your computer.

I answered your questions in bold. Please check it out and see if it makes sense!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the answers Rich.

It looks like I've confused things though. The switch goes to TV, Sky Box and Plug - i.e. the Sky Box isn't in between.

I've tried wiring my Macbook into the back of the Sky Router. Would it work better to the NAS if I plugged it into the switch instead?

It also sounds like my Sky modem/router is also an issue. I was keen to replace it earlier this year for a dual band modem/router but Sky said they'd wouldn't support me if I had any problems. I did consider buying a wireless router to connect into the back of the Sky modem/router. Would this be better or should I just go for the unsupported option? Any major issues I could also plug the Sky router back in if I had to contact them.

Sorry for the extra questions.
 
I will add my 5cents as I have just swapped my sky router for Netgear D7000 - I have Sky Fibre 38Mb. The set up was walk in the park. You will have to download wireshark to extract your username and password as Sky won't provide you with those details.(lots of youtube vids) Keep the old router just in case you need to call them in the future. D7000 is quite a beast 4 x 1Gb ports plus 2 x usb3. I get wireless speeds in excess of 37Mb/s and very stable.
 
I have just swapped my sky router for Netgear D7000 - I have Sky Fibre 38Mb. The set up was walk in the park. You will have to download wireshark to extract your username and password as Sky won't provide you with those details.(lots of youtube vids) Keep the old router just in case you need to call them in the future. D7000 is quite a beast 4 x 1Gb ports plus 2 x usb3. I get wireless speeds in excess of 37Mb/s and very stable.
 
neil_g said:
Didn't sky recently make it easier to get your router info? Looked into it about a year ago before going VM.
Click to expand...

I don't know Neil. Might be worth giving them a call. From what I have heard on other forums it is not the case.

PS. Aplogies for double posts - slow internet on a Virgin train:)
 
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Assuming you mean the files are 1.2 GB, that's approx. 10Gb. or 10000 Mb. 3 hours is approx. 10000 secs. So you're getting about 1 Mbps.
 
Delta Skies said:
Thanks for the answers Rich.

It looks like I've confused things though. The switch goes to TV, Sky Box and Plug - i.e. the Sky Box isn't in between.

I've tried wiring my Macbook into the back of the Sky Router. Would it work better to the NAS if I plugged it into the switch instead?

It also sounds like my Sky modem/router is also an issue. I was keen to replace it earlier this year for a dual band modem/router but Sky said they'd wouldn't support me if I had any problems. I did consider buying a wireless router to connect into the back of the Sky modem/router. Would this be better or should I just go for the unsupported option? Any major issues I could also plug the Sky router back in if I had to contact them.

Sorry for the extra questions.
Click to expand...

No problem.

Whatever the case your sky router is probably part of the issue. It may not be able to pass that much traffic without crapping out whilst also providing a poor Wifi signal. The Wireless will always limit yes, but you should be getting 30x the speed still on your wireless than what you're receiving. a good way to test would be to run a speedtest (www.speedtest.net) on your wireless laptop. if it comes back far lower than the advertised speed of 20+Mbit then it could also point at the router being crappy. (Although internet connections aren't typically a good way to measure the performance of your hardware as it's never a constant)

That bottleneck of 1MB transfer speed is far below what the wifi should provide, which would suggest you have bottlenecks in the Sky box or switch, or both (more so than just the 100Mb limit)

I'd go for the unsupported swap out of the switch and sky router. its really quite difficult to screw up, and even if you do you can just turn off and plug everything back to where it was. then it should be fine.

Bits to try- See if your sky box supports 5GHZ networks. It should provide more throughput. You should be able to confirm the link speed wirelessly on your mac in the settings also to ensure that the laptop is negotiating at the expected rate (300Mbit? - New Wireless AC wifi points will connect nearer 866Mbit).

Plug the laptop directly into the switch/router (whichever the NAS is connected into) and try a transfer again- see if its faster than the wireless.

With all these things you need to remove the variables in the infrastructure then you can figure out which part is causing the problem!
 
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I've done a little before and after diagram to show what I think is the best setup for transferring data from the Macbook Pro to the ReadyNAS.

Before (ignore the red link)

Screen Shot 2015-12-28 at 18.24.43.png

After

Screen Shot 2015-12-28 at 18.42.31.png

To do this, you need a Gigabit switch and 3 new power line adapters. Or a couple of Gigabit switches and some CAT5 :)
 
I like the diagram :) To be on the save side, make certain its at least CAT5E or CAT6 cabling. In theory CAT5 could work, but I've been in too many situations where it just didn't...
 
I'd still personally just replace the Sky router with a decent Wireless AC router with GB ports then get rid of all the switches and powerline devices all together! Unless the Op lives in a castle!
 
rich_ said:
I'd still personally just replace the Sky router with a decent Wireless AC router with GB ports then get rid of all the switches and powerline devices all together! Unless the Op lives in a castle!
Click to expand...
Wireless ac doesn't come close to the speed of the other devices. The router is fine as a boundary device.
 
rich_ said:
I'd still personally just replace the Sky router with a decent Wireless AC router with GB ports then get rid of all the switches and powerline devices all together! Unless the Op lives in a castle!
Click to expand...
That doesn't solve the issue that the NAS box only has wired Ethernet capability. The best solution is always going to be wired.
 
Thanks for everybody's contributions.

tommmy.star said:
I have just swapped my sky router for Netgear D7000 - I have Sky Fibre 38Mb. The set up was walk in the park. You will have to download wireshark to extract your username and password as Sky won't provide you with those details.(lots of youtube vids) Keep the old router just in case you need to call them in the future. D7000 is quite a beast 4 x 1Gb ports plus 2 x usb3. I get wireless speeds in excess of 37Mb/s and very stable.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the recommendation for a new router. Seems to have a decent spec.

st599 said:
Assuming you mean the files are 1.2 GB, that's approx. 10Gb. or 10000 Mb. 3 hours is approx. 10000 secs. So you're getting about 1 Mbps.
Click to expand...
Yep. That's the problem. In the end I cancelled the copy and just transferred the files from MB to USB drive and then walked upstairs and plugged it into the back of the NAS and then pasted the files. Much quicker and I got some exercise :LOL:

rich_ said:
No problem.

Whatever the case your sky router is probably part of the issue. It may not be able to pass that much traffic without crapping out whilst also providing a poor Wifi signal. The Wireless will always limit yes, but you should be getting 30x the speed still on your wireless than what you're receiving. a good way to test would be to run a speedtest (www.speedtest.net) on your wireless laptop. if it comes back far lower than the advertised speed of 20+Mbit then it could also point at the router being crappy. (Although internet connections aren't typically a good way to measure the performance of your hardware as it's never a constant)

That bottleneck of 1MB transfer speed is far below what the wifi should provide, which would suggest you have bottlenecks in the Sky box or switch, or both (more so than just the 100Mb limit)

I'd go for the unsupported swap out of the switch and sky router. its really quite difficult to screw up, and even if you do you can just turn off and plug everything back to where it was. then it should be fine.

Bits to try- See if your sky box supports 5GHZ networks. It should provide more throughput. You should be able to confirm the link speed wirelessly on your mac in the settings also to ensure that the laptop is negotiating at the expected rate (300Mbit? - New Wireless AC wifi points will connect nearer 866Mbit).

Plug the laptop directly into the switch/router (whichever the NAS is connected into) and try a transfer again- see if its faster than the wireless.

With all these things you need to remove the variables in the infrastructure then you can figure out which part is causing the problem!
Click to expand...
The Sky router isn't a 5Ghz box and I've been waiting for them to bring out a dual band router which has been rumoured for over 12 months but still isn't on the cards

I'm not sure how I check the wireless speed on the router but my Mac says it's only 144 Mbit/s. Any ideas how I change this?

Andy Taylor said:
I've done a little before and after diagram to show what I think is the best setup for transferring data from the Macbook Pro to the ReadyNAS.

Before (ignore the red link)

View attachment 53117

After

View attachment 53118

To do this, you need a Gigabit switch and 3 new power line adapters. Or a couple of Gigabit switches and some CAT5 :)
Click to expand...

Wow thanks for the diagrams. One thing I'll try is adding a cable from router direct to the powerline to see if that improves the PC performance.
 
As Andy and Neil have both pointed out, forget the wireless and cable it, either directly or via Power-line. In order to achieve decent speeds via WiFi you need to be mere meters from the AP, and even then it's a uni-directional speed.

Even though manufacturers are quoting speeds faster than the 1Gbps advertised speed of Ethernet we are still far off from the cable-less office

Word of warning about the Powerline kits though, some of them have an advertised 500Mbps+ link speed, but only 10/100 Ethernet ports, including some of the TP-Link ones. And some devices don't like them at all... I'm sure some users here will be able to advise you on the Powerline Kits, I've only used them once as a temporary measure.
 
There are people on here with far more networking experience than me so listen to them but......I have a ReadyNAS connected to an iMac via wired gigabit. I've checked a couple of times and there's nothing to restrict the gigabit - no dodgy slow kit in the way. Performance is sluggish (actually if somebody could point me at a free tool I could benchmark it). Some days performance is horrific. Anecdotally (i.e. I've never tested it and we don't use it this way a lot) performance is better over the same network to my wife's PC.

I'm starting to think that ReadyNAS kit just doesn't play that well with OS X.
 
JonathanRyan said:
There are people on here with far more networking experience than me so listen to them but......I have a ReadyNAS connected to an iMac via wired gigabit. I've checked a couple of times and there's nothing to restrict the gigabit - no dodgy slow kit in the way. Performance is sluggish (actually if somebody could point me at a free tool I could benchmark it). Some days performance is horrific. Anecdotally (i.e. I've never tested it and we don't use it this way a lot) performance is better over the same network to my wife's PC.

I'm starting to think that ReadyNAS kit just doesn't play that well with OS X.
Click to expand...

Check to see if Jumbo Frames is enabled on the ReadyNAS, if it is then disable it and test again,there are tools such as iPerf or jPerf that are pretty good for testing speeds across network segments. Which iMac do you have?
 
Neilc28 said:
Check to see if Jumbo Frames is enabled on the ReadyNAS, if it is then disable it and test again,there are tools such as iPerf or jPerf that are pretty good for testing speeds across network segments. Which iMac do you have?
Click to expand...

Interesting. I thought I turned jumbo frames on in a bid to improve performance but now I can't find any setting for it at all. I'm on a late 2012 iMac 27" fully loaded. Looks like I need Yosemite to run iPerf 3. I plan to u/g to that this weekend so I'll run some tests after upgrade.
 
JonathanRyan said:
There are people on here with far more networking experience than me so listen to them but......I have a ReadyNAS connected to an iMac via wired gigabit. I've checked a couple of times and there's nothing to restrict the gigabit - no dodgy slow kit in the way. Performance is sluggish (actually if somebody could point me at a free tool I could benchmark it). Some days performance is horrific. Anecdotally (i.e. I've never tested it and we don't use it this way a lot) performance is better over the same network to my wife's PC.

I'm starting to think that ReadyNAS kit just doesn't play that well with OS X.
Click to expand...
You do have wireless switched off yes?
 
Neilc28 said:
As Andy and Neil have both pointed out, forget the wireless and cable it, either directly or via Power-line. In order to achieve decent speeds via WiFi you need to be mere meters from the AP, and even then it's a uni-directional speed.

Even though manufacturers are quoting speeds faster than the 1Gbps advertised speed of Ethernet we are still far off from the cable-less office

Word of warning about the Powerline kits though, some of them have an advertised 500Mbps+ link speed, but only 10/100 Ethernet ports, including some of the TP-Link ones. And some devices don't like them at all... I'm sure some users here will be able to advise you on the Powerline Kits, I've only used them once as a temporary measure.
Click to expand...
The power line boxes are very dependent on your local home situation. On the same ring I get easily 1100Mbps on my devolo ones. Yet where they jump a ring the speed is limited to about 300Mbps but that is just for the internet so no issue.
 
tommmy.star said:
I will add my 5cents as I have just swapped my sky router for Netgear D7000 - I have Sky Fibre 38Mb. The set up was walk in the park. You will have to download wireshark to extract your username and password as Sky won't provide you with those details.(lots of youtube vids) Keep the old router just in case you need to call them in the future. D7000 is quite a beast 4 x 1Gb ports plus 2 x usb3. I get wireless speeds in excess of 37Mb/s and very stable.
Click to expand...
Hi Tom,

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm now the proud owner of a D7000 as part of improving my problems. Unfortunately the only "walk in the park" I've had today was with the dogs. I've been trying to sort it out for the last 5-6 hours. I've downloaded Wireshark to get my username and password. However whatever I do in the plethora of options on the setup screen I just can't get the internet LED to be anything other than amber and I just can't connect. Do you have any advice please. Any help would be gratefully received.
 
Delta Skies said:
Hi Tom,

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm now the proud owner of a D7000 as part of improving my problems. Unfortunately the only "walk in the park" I've had today was with the dogs. I've been trying to sort it out for the last 5-6 hours. I've downloaded Wireshark to get my username and password. However whatever I do in the plethora of options on the setup screen I just can't get the internet LED to be anything other than amber and I just can't connect. Do you have any advice please. Any help would be gratefully received.
Click to expand...
Now sorted. A helpful user on the skyuser forum pointed me in the right direction.
 
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