ReadyNAS X6-TL - changing NIC cards?

What version of RAIDiator are you running?

What network speed is reported in Frontview? Under Network > Interfaces what is the Speed/Duplex mode set to?

What ethernet cable are you using (e.g. Cat5e)? What speed ethernet does the router/switch the NAS is connected to support?

The ReadyNAS 600B you have does have a Gigabit NIC. Swapping to another gigabit NIC won't give you better speeds. You should max out around 25-30MB/s if your switch/end-device is also gig-capable. You won't see beyond that due to the NSP-chip the system uses, only so much horsepower.

Adding other PCI NICs to the system is not really supported, but a few will work. I believe some RealTek and Intel cards are your best bet.

Ok, I stand corrected... there is a 100 MB/s NIC in there... in the FrontView -> Network -> Interfaces screen, I'm seeing 100 MB/s full-duplex. I am using regular cat5 cable (no more than 15' worth)... however, today doing a large file transfer, the fastest speed I was seeing was about 5.4 MB/s, which is definitely not as speedy as I would like for backing up VMs, etc. I'll keep investigating to see where the delay can be coming.

Thank you for the guidance.
Matt

It has a 1000 Mbit (i.e. Gigabit) NIC in it.

Don't use a Cat5 cable as that's too old. Use a Cat5e or newer ethernet cable.

The Speed/Duplex setting under Network > Interfaces in Frontview should be set to auto-negotiate. If it's set to anything else you won't get gigabit speeds.

This is what I'm seeing (100 not 1000)... Part of the cable run is buried in the wall, and I am not certain if that portion is cat5 or cat5e.... it was run about 2 years ago.

Hopefully the cabler used Cat5e. Is your switch a gigabit one?

No, my router is 10/100, not 10/100/1000. But even at 100 MB/s, I should be seeing speeds above 5.4 mb/s, correct?

At 100Mbit you could see up to about 10 MB/s. In my experience the ReadyNAS works better with a gigabit device. You may wish to get a new router or place a gigabit switch between the router and the NAS.

Ok... that is already on the Christmas list, so let's see what Santa brings! Thank you for the advice.

mreinfeldt - I had that situation with an NV+ (v1) and 100mb/s ports on my router. I was advised by a friend to do exactly what mdgm said, and I went with a gigabit switch and it effectively doubled my throughput to my PC (also with a gigabit NIC). However, I made the mistake of getting a third party switch which proved incompatible when I added a newer ReadyNAS. I would recommend either the Netgear GS105/108 or GS605/608 switches. The 600's are a little fancier, the 100's being in a plain blue metal box. I went with the 8 port, but the 5 port may work ok for you. I put the PCs and the ReadyNAS units on the switch and the printers on the router. (100mb/s is fine for them).