XigmaNAS

Hi,

I recently installed and configured Nas4Free, and everything works fine. However, my transfer speeds were somewhat slow and I wanted them to be faster, so I set the 'Media' in the LAN Management menu to 1000BaseTX, with full-duplex. I can still access the WebGUI, but my computers (both Windows and Linux) can no longer see/access the server. If I set the Duplex mode to half-duplex, I can't even acces the WebGUI anymore and I have to reset the NAS to factory defaults.
I made sure that my motherboard (AsRock H61-VG4) and router (CBN CH6643e) support 1000Mb, and my cables are Cat5E. I think this should work, and don't know why it doesn't. Any ideas for solving this problem?

realtek cards are crap.
there should normally be no need to set the option for speed and mode manually.

post your iperf results.

http://n4f.siftusystems.com/index.php/2 ... /comments/

I reset the NAS to factory defaults and restored my settings. Now Windows does see it, but speeds are just as slow as before. In Status|Interfaces, the 'Media' is now set to 1000TX (with settings in Network|LAN Management on auto).

Below are the iperf results. For some reason the connection closes after a few seconds.These results do represent average transfer speeds i get (~ 5MB/s).

[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[196] 0.0- 1.0 sec 4680 KBytes 38339 Kbits/sec
[196] 1.0- 2.0 sec 4592 KBytes 37618 Kbits/sec
[196] 2.0- 3.0 sec 4712 KBytes 38601 Kbits/sec
[196] 3.0- 4.0 sec 4584 KBytes 37552 Kbits/sec
[196] 4.0- 5.0 sec 4760 KBytes 38994 Kbits/sec
[196] 0.0- 5.1 sec 23864 KBytes 38259 Kbits/sec
write failed: Connection reset by peer
read on server close failed: Software caused connection abort
Done.

If I run it with UDP, these are the results:

[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[200] 0.0- 1.0 sec 10.2 MBytes 85.8 Mbits/sec
[200] 1.0- 2.0 sec 6.31 MBytes 52.9 Mbits/sec
[200] 2.0- 3.0 sec 6.18 MBytes 51.8 Mbits/sec
[200] 3.0- 4.0 sec 6.19 MBytes 51.9 Mbits/sec
[200] 4.0- 5.0 sec 5.99 MBytes 50.3 Mbits/sec
[200] 5.0- 6.0 sec 6.05 MBytes 50.8 Mbits/sec
[200] 6.0- 7.0 sec 6.18 MBytes 51.8 Mbits/sec
[200] 7.0- 8.0 sec 6.06 MBytes 50.8 Mbits/sec
[200] 8.0- 9.0 sec 5.99 MBytes 50.3 Mbits/sec
[200] 9.0-10.0 sec 5.93 MBytes 49.8 Mbits/sec
[200] 0.0-10.0 sec 65.1 MBytes 54.6 Mbits/sec

I forgot to mention I use powerline adapters (200 Mbit theoretical) for the clients' internet connections (although my NAS is connected directly to the router/switch with an ethernet cable).
Reading around on the web, if found this review of my powerline adapters. They say that speeds can drop dramatically if your devices are a few rooms away from the router. Maybe this is my problem?

Connect both PC and NAS with a cable on the router and check again with iperf
Only then you will see what the real performance is.

Now I get the expected gigabit speeds. (connecting both nas and pc directly to the router)

[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.0- 1.0 sec 112 MBytes 940 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 1.0- 2.0 sec 111 MBytes 933 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 2.0- 3.0 sec 112 MBytes 936 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 3.0- 4.0 sec 111 MBytes 933 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 4.0- 5.0 sec 111 MBytes 932 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 5.0- 6.0 sec 47.8 MBytes 401 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 6.0- 7.0 sec 17592186044416 MBytes 147573952589676 Mbits/sec
[ 4] 7.0- 8.0 sec 17592186044416 MBytes 147573952589676 Mbits/sec
...

Powerlines in the same room give me this:

[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0- 1.0 sec 6.38 MBytes 53.5 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 1.0- 2.0 sec 5.50 MBytes 46.1 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 2.0- 3.0 sec 5.62 MBytes 47.2 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 3.0- 4.0 sec 5.88 MBytes 49.3 Mbits/sec
[ 3] 4.0- 5.0 sec 5.75 MBytes 48.2 Mbits/sec

file transfer speeds are the slowest of everything between the from and to drives.
wire is the best, your power line results are not unexpected. don't expect WiFi to be better.

And keep in mind that powerline theoretical speed is divided by the number of powerline devices.
I have 4 of them and in transfers where they are used, my speeds are about 100Mbps (10MB/sec).
Mine are the 500Mbps ones.

i am always surprised that people believe that they can get the theoretical maximum on wlan, powerline adapter, cheap routers and cheap networking equipment.

I didn't expect to reach very high speeds, 5MB/s just seemed very slow and apparently there is no cheap+easy way of increasing that speed.
I guess I just kind of forgot how much slower other options are compared to direct ethernet cabling.
Anyway, thank you all for your advice

Is there any way to mark this thread as solved?

Edit your first post and append [SOLVED] on the title.

ChriZathens wrote:Edit your first post and append [SOLVED] on the title.

This ^ also why powerline adapters. It took me just 1 weekend to run cat5e in my house and the value thats added is pretty high. All my tech friends love that so when I got to resell I will get bit more. Just sayin if its feasible and you can crimp give it a go.