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slower than expected readyshare upload speeds
I just replaced my 5 year old R8000P router with a new RAXE500. it seems to be working wonderfully, except for one minor glaring issue. I hooked up an external USB 3.0 HDD to use as a backup drive for my system's ReBit Pro backup software. setting up the drive and software was literally child's play. the issue comes when my system goes to communicate with the drive over the network. My system is connecting to the router at 1Gbps. While my modem is plugged into the modem, I am seeing network speeds equivalent to that of my Internet download/upload speeds i.e. 10 Mbps down, 1Mbps up. Without the modem plugged in, I see speeds to the drive as 30Mbps and higher. is this normal?
It may be worth going back to the most basic aspect of the issue. You stated that the backups to the USB storage connected to the router was just as slow as the WAN connection.
If that is the case, then a better test to do first, is to use windows file explorer and type in \\your router's IP address
For example, my RAXE500 is using 192.168.1.1, thus to access the USB storage, I would use \\192.168.1.1
After connecting to it, attempt to copy a single large file to the storage (a file that is 1+GB should be fine).
Examine how fast the speeds go.
The RAXE500 using a USB 3 drive formatted as NTFS, will read and write at 145-147MB/s when you are connected to the 2.5GbE port, and fully saturate a gigabit Ethernet connection for reads and writes when using a 1GbE port (at around 115-117MB/s).
Different partition types can cause issues, as well as misaligned partition table (improper sector alignment), as that can significantly increase the number of IO operations needed to complete a transfer.
All consumer routers struggle with tasks requiring a high IOPS, as smb is not well suited for such tasks, that is why when you copy a large number of tiny files, it will slow to around 1MB/s or less, where the same transfer will be faster on a slower device such as a raspberry pi doing a file copy from 1 USB drive to another on the same device.
Some backup software can also cause slow speeds depending on how they manage manage backups. for example, if it constantly updates a log file on the backup location while also individually copying tiny files, then it will be even slower than normal.
If the fie transfer using windows explorer is fast while the backup software is slow, then it would mean that backup software needs to be reconfigured to better work with the smb share.
As for speeds changing when you disconnect the modem, are you using any VPN software? also are you using and QOS software on your PC, Some systems as well as some motherboards will come with rather annoying software packages that will include QOS software that can lead to issues with network shares. Some VPN applications can also cause weirdness with local connections, especially if the split tunnel is buggy.
22 Replies
cybot wrote:
While my modem is plugged into the modem, I am seeing network speeds equivalent to that of my Internet download/upload speeds i.e. 10 Mbps down, 1Mbps up. Without the modem plugged in, I see speeds to the drive as 30Mbps and higher. is this normal?
Something went wrong in there – "modem is plugged into the modem"?
What is this "modem"?
Are both these routers on the network at the same time?
sorry, that was a mistype. it should have read "while the modem is plugged into the router......"
the modem is a nexuslink 5630U, the wireless router portion of the modem is disabled on the device. provided and managed by my ISP. My other router a Netgear R8000P has been retired because it started to fail. I do have yet another router, also retired, but it is no longer able to be listed here. It is a Netgeear WNDR4500(V1)
Your ISP Modem already has a built in router and wifi. This would be a double NAT (two router) condition which isn't recommended.
https://kb.netgear.com/30187/How-to-fix-issues-with-Double-NAT
Couple of options,
1. Configure the modem for transparent bridge or modem only mode. Then use the NG router in router mode. You'll need to contact the ISP for help and information in regards to the modem being bridged correctly.
2. If you can't bridge the modem, disable ALL wifi radios on the modem, configure the modems DMZ/ExposedHost or IP Pass-Through for the IP address the NG router gets from the modem. https://kb.netgear.com/25891/DMZ-on-NETGEAR-routers
https://kb.netgear.com/24086/How-do-I-set-up-a-default-DMZ-server-on-my-Nighthawk-router
3. Or disable all wifi radios on the modem and connect the NG router to the modem, LAN to LAN configure AP mode on the NG router.
It may be worth going back to the most basic aspect of the issue. You stated that the backups to the USB storage connected to the router was just as slow as the WAN connection.
If that is the case, then a better test to do first, is to use windows file explorer and type in \\your router's IP address
For example, my RAXE500 is using 192.168.1.1, thus to access the USB storage, I would use \\192.168.1.1
After connecting to it, attempt to copy a single large file to the storage (a file that is 1+GB should be fine).
Examine how fast the speeds go.
The RAXE500 using a USB 3 drive formatted as NTFS, will read and write at 145-147MB/s when you are connected to the 2.5GbE port, and fully saturate a gigabit Ethernet connection for reads and writes when using a 1GbE port (at around 115-117MB/s).
Different partition types can cause issues, as well as misaligned partition table (improper sector alignment), as that can significantly increase the number of IO operations needed to complete a transfer.
All consumer routers struggle with tasks requiring a high IOPS, as smb is not well suited for such tasks, that is why when you copy a large number of tiny files, it will slow to around 1MB/s or less, where the same transfer will be faster on a slower device such as a raspberry pi doing a file copy from 1 USB drive to another on the same device.
Some backup software can also cause slow speeds depending on how they manage manage backups. for example, if it constantly updates a log file on the backup location while also individually copying tiny files, then it will be even slower than normal.
If the fie transfer using windows explorer is fast while the backup software is slow, then it would mean that backup software needs to be reconfigured to better work with the smb share.
As for speeds changing when you disconnect the modem, are you using any VPN software? also are you using and QOS software on your PC, Some systems as well as some motherboards will come with rather annoying software packages that will include QOS software that can lead to issues with network shares. Some VPN applications can also cause weirdness with local connections, especially if the split tunnel is buggy.That Address Is Actually What Mine Uses Too. Despite Any Reason Why I Should Be Using A VPN, I Am Not. My internet is Slow Enough as it is. Using The Address You Said Too Try, In Explorer, A Folder Named USB_storage Was Displayed. The Drive I Am Using Is A 4tB USB 3.0 HDD. The Drive Sites In An Enclosure Hooks Into The Drive Interface That Turns A Sata Drive Into A USB 3 drive. The Enclosure And Dock The Drive Is Hooked Too As Well As The Drive It Self Are Made By Seagate. I Believe The Product Was Called Seagate GoFlex Desktop Backup, Or Something Close To That....
Thought Just Occurred To Me. The Drive might Be Formatted As Ntfs, But I Think It Is Still Using A MBR Partition, Should I Go Ahead And Convert That To GPT?
For the drive, MBR and GPT will not make a difference in terms of performance.
As for the VPN question, it is due to some VPN providers having issues with their software, for example, a little over 1.5 years ago, PIA had an issue where if you enabled split tunnel and attempted to access a NAS on the network, then read and write speeds would be very low. It took lots of complaining for many users for them to fix it. Some other VPN providers had similar issues.As for using windows explorer, for smb shares, windows explorer is well optimized, especially when it comes to linear reads and writes, thus copying a large file with it, will quickly show if there are any issues with the USB storage implementation.
Files copied via the smb share using windows explorer, can then be compared to copying the same file if you connect the drive directly to your PC via USB.If the drive is a USB 3.0 SATA dock, using a 3.5 inch 4TB drive, then speeds will heavily depend on which track the drive is writing on.
In the case of 4TB 3.5 inch hard drives, the tracks closest to the outer edge of the platter will read and write at about 160-170MB/s for a linear transfer (reading or writing a single large file), as the heads move closer to the center of the platter, the speed will gradually drop until it reaches around 60MB/s.
As long as the enclosure has notable issues that will cause it to drop to USB 2.0 mode, then assuming it is formatted as NTFS with no sector alignment issues, then depending on how full the drive is, your speeds should be somewhere in that range when reading or writing a large file to the router using Windows explorer.Here is an example of how transfers typically look for my RXE500, copying a file over using windows explorer.
In the screenshot (takes a few hours for attached images to be visible on these forums after uploading them), it fluctuates between 144MB/s and 147MB/s
Using a cheap orico branded USB3.0 SATA dock that I purchased from newegg for around $12 a few years ago.
