NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
Firmware 6.9.1 - Enter Network Password
Hi, Since updating to firmware 6.9.1 on my ReadyNAS 202, a windows security dialogue box pops up prompting me to enter Network password. This has never happened before, are there any reasons for this ...
bretty wrote:
I currently have an 8 port Netgear FS208v2 fast switch and a 5 Port D-Link DES-1008D fast switch. Should I replace the 8 port with a Gigabit switch which currently serves the ReadyNAS and the Router and leave the 5 port without any real problems or should i replace both with say a 16 port gigabit switch? What Gigabit switch would you suggest?
You should replace both. Gigabit took over from fast ethernet some years ago.
If the switches are co-located, then a 16 port switch would give the best performance. If they aren't, then two 8 port switches would do. Which switch makes sense depends on your bonding mode, so more on that below.
bretty wrote:
I have a combination of CAT 5 & CAT 5e cables between 5 computers, a printer, a router and the ReadyNAS 202, is this sufficent?
You should be using CAT 5e or better with gigabit, so I suggest replacing the CAT 5 runs. There's no need to replace the CAT 5e. CAT-6A would be a good replacement for the CAT 5 (and likely about the same price as CAT 5e).
bretty wrote:
The knowledge base link for bonding: https://kb.netgear.com/25509/ReadyNAS-What-Bonding-Teaming-Mode-Should-I-Use says that it should be a switch that supports IEEE802.3ad LACP. If this is absolutely necessary, which switch would you recommend?
Since your PCs are gigabit, the only time bonding improves performance is when you have more than one PC accessing the NAS at the same time. Even then, the gains are often modest. So the first question here is whether you need bonding at all.
The RN202 can deliver about 100 megabytes/sec on a gigabit link, which generally is enough performance for a home system w/o bonding.
As far as 16 port switches:
- An unmanaged GS316 has a street price around $55 (Amazon US pricing). With this switch you can use the TLB and ALB modes (though some users do find that they misbehave).
- A GS116Ev2 smart switch has a street price around $150. This switch would let you use static LAG (round robin).
- A GS716Tv3 has a street price around $200. This switch lets you use either static LAG or LACP.
Personally I don't think paying the $100-$150 price premium to get more bonding modes is a good value for most home users.
bretty wrote:
Will a new Gigabit NIC card make a huge difference?
I'd stay with the NIC card you have, at least for now.
Hi Stephen,
Thank you so much for all your help with resolving my PC issues.
I currently have an 8 port Netgear FS208v2 fast switch and a 5 Port D-Link DES-1008D fast switch. Should I replace the 8 port with a Gigabit switch which currently serves the ReadyNAS and the Router and leave the 5 port without any real problems or should i replace both with say a 16 port gigabit switch? What Gigabit switch would you suggest?
The knowledge base link for bonding: https://kb.netgear.com/25509/ReadyNAS-What-Bonding-Teaming-Mode-Should-I-Use says that it should be a switch that supports IEEE802.3ad LACP. If this is absolutely necessary, which switch would you recommend?
I have a combination of CAT 5 & CAT 5e cables between 5 computers, a printer, a router and the ReadyNAS 202, is this sufficent?
Will a new Gigabit NIC card make a huge difference?
bretty wrote:
I currently have an 8 port Netgear FS208v2 fast switch and a 5 Port D-Link DES-1008D fast switch. Should I replace the 8 port with a Gigabit switch which currently serves the ReadyNAS and the Router and leave the 5 port without any real problems or should i replace both with say a 16 port gigabit switch? What Gigabit switch would you suggest?
You should replace both. Gigabit took over from fast ethernet some years ago.
If the switches are co-located, then a 16 port switch would give the best performance. If they aren't, then two 8 port switches would do. Which switch makes sense depends on your bonding mode, so more on that below.
bretty wrote:
I have a combination of CAT 5 & CAT 5e cables between 5 computers, a printer, a router and the ReadyNAS 202, is this sufficent?
You should be using CAT 5e or better with gigabit, so I suggest replacing the CAT 5 runs. There's no need to replace the CAT 5e. CAT-6A would be a good replacement for the CAT 5 (and likely about the same price as CAT 5e).
bretty wrote:
The knowledge base link for bonding: https://kb.netgear.com/25509/ReadyNAS-What-Bonding-Teaming-Mode-Should-I-Use says that it should be a switch that supports IEEE802.3ad LACP. If this is absolutely necessary, which switch would you recommend?
Since your PCs are gigabit, the only time bonding improves performance is when you have more than one PC accessing the NAS at the same time. Even then, the gains are often modest. So the first question here is whether you need bonding at all.
The RN202 can deliver about 100 megabytes/sec on a gigabit link, which generally is enough performance for a home system w/o bonding.
As far as 16 port switches:
- An unmanaged GS316 has a street price around $55 (Amazon US pricing). With this switch you can use the TLB and ALB modes (though some users do find that they misbehave).
- A GS116Ev2 smart switch has a street price around $150. This switch would let you use static LAG (round robin).
- A GS716Tv3 has a street price around $200. This switch lets you use either static LAG or LACP.
Personally I don't think paying the $100-$150 price premium to get more bonding modes is a good value for most home users.
bretty wrote:
Will a new Gigabit NIC card make a huge difference?
I'd stay with the NIC card you have, at least for now.
Hi Stephen,
Again, thank you for your invaluable advice and help.
On your recommendation I have ordered the GS316 switch and I will be measuring my cable lengths to replace the CAT 5 with CAT 6A and the other cables that cant reach the new 16 port switch i will also replace with CAT 6A.
I will update you when all is set-up and running.
Hi Stephen,
I am reporting back after setting up my new GS316 switch:
Unfortunately saving is still taking very long.
I downloaded CrystalDisk 6.0.0 and I ran 3 tests on a folder on the server and the results are shown on the attached image (please note that only my PC was on and connected to the server through the switch)
Oh yes, I also wanted to add that I have bonded with ALB.
Hi Stephen,
I changed the bonding to TLB and the results are as per the attached.
The sequential read/write is what it should be (approx 100 MB/sec - almost 10x what you would have had before).
What file copy speeds are you seeing?
Hi Stephen,
Copying a 1.5 Gig file from PC to NAS and vice versa gives me about 80/ 90 Mbps.
Not sure if it's related but the ethernet light on LAN 1 is green but the light on LAN 2 is amber? I switched cables to see if that was the problem but same result. When I plug the cable in it flashes green and then about 3 seconds later it turns amber.
wrote:
Not sure if it's related but the ethernet light on LAN 1 is green but the light on LAN 2 is amber? I switched cables to see if that was the problem but same result. When I plug the cable in it flashes green and then about 3 seconds later it turns amber.
What is the speed with LAN 2 disconnected?
wrote:
Copying a 1.5 Gig file from PC to NAS and vice versa gives me about 80/ 90 Mbps.
Megabits (about 2 minutes to do the copy) or Megabytes (about 1t seconds to do the copy)?
Could you try using NAStester? http://www.808.dk/?code-csharp-nas-performance
Hi Stephen,
Diconnected LAN 2 and tested both with the bond NIC still bonded and unbonded and the results were roughly the same:
Apologies, I meant Bytes and not bits.
Results: (Based on same 1.4 GB file)
Copy from the NAS to PC: Strangely it starts at about 175 MB/s and then settles down to 100 MB/s
Copy from the PC to NAS: Starts at about 165 MB/s and then settles down to 80 MB/s
Copy from NAS to NAS: 45 MB/s (The same NAS; I only have one NAS :-)
Copy from PC to PC: Starts at 200 MB/s!!! and then settles down to 80 MB/s (This is on the same PC)
Using CrystalDiskMark 6.0.0
PC to NAS: Read - 113.5 MB/s & Write - 94 MB/s
PC to PC: Read - 111.5 MB/s & Write - 113.5 MB/s
You can't really carry more than about 110 MB/s on a gigabit ethernet connection. The initial speeds you see that are higher than that are artifacts due to caching of data.
So your CrystalMark speeds are in line with your network performance. Your copy speeds are a bit slower, but they also depend on the PC disk speeds. Is the PC using a mechanical disk? Is it a laptop or desktop?
One oddity is the NAS->NAS copy scenario. Was that done through a PC (for instance using drag and drop)? Or was it done with a NAS backup job?
Hi Stephen,
The hard drive is mechanical, in a PC Desktop; it;s a Western Digital 1TB - SATA 6 Gb/s.
Copying was copy paste done through a PC from one folder on the NAS to another folder on the NAS.
wrote:
Copying was copy paste done through a PC from one folder on the NAS to another folder on the NAS.
That will of course be slower, since the data is copied to the PC and then copied back to the NAS.
wrote:
The hard drive is mechanical, in a PC Desktop; it;s a Western Digital 1TB - SATA 6 Gb/s.
The SATA interface might be 6 gb/s, but the disk is much slower than that.
Overall, I think your speeds are about right (and are 8x-10x faster than what you had before with fast ethernet).
Hi Stephen,
In the past, before the new router came into play (or maybe it was the firmware) opening and saving 20 MB Revit files was really quick, I was wondering if maybe it has something to do with the cache? Does the ReadyNAS 202 support caching? Seems like there is talk of it
Does the answer not lie in what you wrote: "...That will of course be slower, since the data is copied to the PC and then copied back to the NAS" ?
Is Revit not caching on the NAS? So it appears that it overwrites the entire file and not the minor changes?
Will inserting a memory stick work for caching on the ReadyNAS202?
The NAS definitely caches. I have no idea what Revit is though.
wrote:
Does the answer not lie in what you wrote: "...That will of course be slower, since the data is copied to the PC and then copied back to the NAS" ?
Is Revit not caching on the NAS? So it appears that it overwrites the entire file and not the minor changes?
This is not about caching. When you copy NAS to NAS using drag and drop, the datablocks in the files (cached are not) are uploaded to the PC from the NAS over the network, and then downloaded again from the PC to the NAS over the network. Windows is in charge of this, the NAS is only transfering the data that Windows tells it too.
And this is still at least 4x faster than you were getting with the old switches (it could be more, but you didn't give speeds on that particular scenario).
Hi Stephen,
I agree, copying files from the server to PC and vice versa has dramatically increased in speed, but our problem is opening and saving a file on Revit, which is an architectural application, has significantly reduced, since changing from the old ADSL router to the new Fibre router. This should obviously should not be part of the problem anymore since the new switch is allowing 1 Gig connection speeds on both the PC NIC and the NAS NIC. For interest sake, last night, I plugged the old ADSL router in between the NAS and the switch and saved a file in Revit and it was still slow to save. It seems it couldnt have been changing routers but in fact the update of the firmware to 6.9.1. So previously, even with Fast ethernet, saving files on Revit was quick. How do I rollback the firmware to 6.9.0 and can it be done safely without data loss? By the way the server is currently running firmware 6.9.2, which was updated 3 days ago.
How do i check if the NAS is actually caching?
The NAS is designed to use it's memory as a cache, but it doesn't provide any tools that let you examine that cache. I don't think caching is at the root of your problem.
Are you running Revit on Macs or on Windows PCs? Are you mapping NAS shares to drive letters?
You can manually downgrade to 6.9.0 on the system->settings->updates page. If you have AntiVirus enabled on the NAS, I suggest retesting with A/V disabled before downgrading.
Hi Stephen,
Were running Revit on Windows 7 PCs.
Yes, we use mapped NAS shares on drive letters. As a test I opened a Revit file on the NAS through windows explorer: \\SERVER\projects\ and saving of the file is still slow.
I am a little nervous about downgrading so please walk me through the downgrade process: so I go to system->settings->update, do I then click on install firmware and then browse for the downloaded firmware file?
Total guess, but perhaps Revit runs into the same problem TrueCrypt does regarding strict sync, which is new in OS6.9.0. See https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS/TrueCrypt-container/td-p/1429067 and see if the solution there fixes yours as well.
NETGEAR Academy
Boost your skills with the Netgear Academy - Get trained, certified and stay ahead with the latest Netgear technology!
Join Us!
