Horrendous Transfer Speeds

[eldude_123]

Hi,

Apologies for posting as I know this is a common issue but despite scouring the forums and Google I've not been able to sort this issue. This is literally the final issue I am having with my NAS, everything else is working perfectly so would be super grateful if i could get it sorted!

My Nas4Free system (v9.1.0.1) is as follows:

Gigabyte GA-G41M-Combo Socket 775, q6600 2.4GHz go stepping, 4gb ram, 2 x SAMSUNG HD501LJ 500gb. Originally I was using the on board NIC but just bought the Intel Gigabit PRO/ 1000CT PCIe Desktop Adapter to try and solve this issue but I've noticed zero performance difference between the on board and Intel NIC.

Everything is running fine except file transfers both on LAN and WAN are stupidly slow (SFTP WLAN on my tablet/phone running 200 - 380kb/s, WLAN/LAN CIFS/SMB on laptop running Windows 8 ~4mb/s (appears to be no difference between using a wired or wireless connection) and SFTP on WAN at various locations ~220kb/s.) despite high speed internet being used each time. Its worth noting video and music streaming to my tablet (Nexus 10) works great.

I have optimised my settings as per the Nas4Free Wiki (I couldn't disable device pooling (there was no option) or enable use sendfile (refused to take when selected) though) - I thought I had identified the onboard NIC on the motherboard as being the limiting feature so I purchased the Intel NIC but as I said previously there has been zero change. I've also replaced my Ethernet cables. Also messed about with different MTU values for both NICs but no change. Pretty much pulling my hair out on this one!

Anyone got any advice to get my transfer speeds up? I want my family to be able to download files from me from various locations but at the speeds I can offer it just isn't worth it! One thing I've noticed is I can have multiple simultaneous downloads at the speeds listed above so it appears to be some arbitrary limit rather than a bottleneck on the network.

You will officially be AMAZING if you can fix this one for me!

Thanks

eldude_123

[siftu]

Hi eldude_123,

Can you please paste your iperf results as explained in Step 1 on here http://n4f.siftusystems.com/index.php/2 ... eshooting/

You might want to run through some of those other steps too.

[eldude_123]

Hi siftu,

Thanks for the quick response.

I ran the test a few times to give an average, running NAS as the server:

------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.0.xx, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 64.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 3] local 192.168.0.xx port 50365 connected with 192.168.0.xx port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0-10.0 sec 36.8 MBytes 30.7 Mbits/sec

------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.0.xx, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 64.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 3] local 192.168.0.xx port 50370 connected with 192.168.0.xx port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0-10.0 sec 35.9 MBytes 30.0 Mbits/sec

------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.0.xx, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 64.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 3] local 192.168.0.xx port 50371 connected with 192.168.0.xx port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0-10.1 sec 34.4 MBytes 28.7 Mbits/sec

------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.0.xx, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 64.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 3] local 192.168.0.xx port 50376 connected with 192.168.0.xx port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0-10.0 sec 38.0 MBytes 31.8 Mbits/sec

I'm currently running the sequential read test, followed by the write but will take a number of hours to run to completion, then will try to do any other tests that might help.

Any advice?

Thanks

eldude_123

[siftu]

well no need to test any further.. your network is terrible. That is where the problem is.. now you just need to figure out if it's your nas or the client

[eldude_123]

Yeah I thought that was pretty terrible for gigabit LAN.

Any thoughts where to start? Broad question I know but am at a loss! I can replace my ethernet cable tomorrow but both I've tried are newish ones that were barely used. I would think it's the NAS rather than my laptop as had terrible speeds on multiple devices! Thought about replacing my router to but it's a Virgin cable smart hub so can't switch it out. Gutted cause everything seems to be working well but can't transfer anything very fast! At least Transmission works I guess.

Cheers

[siftu]

Well in my blog entry it suggests testing between 3 machines to find out which one is causing the problems.

A -> B, B-> A, A->C, C->A, B-> C, C->B

It might not be the NAS end at all.. but that kind of speed looks like Wireless N to me.

[eldude_123]

Bugger!oh well cheers anyway mate. My NAS has decided to go mad today and is refusing to boot from usb- as much as I love what this machine can do it really does do my nut in! Back to the drawing board I guess!

[Lee Sharp]

Those speeds look suspiciously like wireless speeds. Assuming that it was not just your NAS hardware dieing.

Boot the NAS hardware with an Ubuntu LiveCD and run iperf again. That will tell you if it is hardware or software.