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Forum Discussion
Trouble shooting slow network speeds on NV
I’ve had slow transfer speeds on my internal network for some time. I’ve upgraded some hardware and run a variety of tests and I still don’t think I’m getting the speeds I should. I’m out of ideas and energy…
Here is my set up:
A new FIOS Actiontec MI424WR Rev. I router, gigabit Ethernet, wireless N - no Jumbo frames I believe. MTU set at originally set at 1492, now 1500. Provisioned at 15/5.
Desktop XP SP3 (static IP):
- Intel Gigabit CT Desktop NIC with latest driver shows Gigabit Full Duplex active. NIC is auto negotiating.
ReadyNAS NV (static IP),
- RAIDiator 4.1.8, stock RAM, 3 2TB drvies in X-RAID
- Drives – 3x’s Hitachi HDS 722020 2TB each, no smart events
- disabled full data journaling, and enabled fast CIFs writes and fast USB disk writes.
- CIFS, NFS and Rsync are enabled in services and for all the relevant shares.
- Frontview shows gigabit is active; NV is auto negotiating.
- MTU was at 1492
Vista Laptop (sp2) (Static IP)
- intel wireless N adapter shows connection speeds of 120-130 Mbps, with a solid signal above 90% from the kitchen about 25 feet from the lap top through two walls.
- - Intel gigabit NIC.
Other devices connected to the network are assigned dynamic addresses from DHCP – several laptops, iphones, printer, sonos network, wii, networked blu ray.
I’ve run tests with both my previous CAT5e cables and again with new CAT 6 cables. There seemed to be some modest improvement with the CAT 6 cables.
Download speeds -- DSLreports speed tests:
- 16-19Mbps up/4.2Mbps down. I'm on east coast and these speeds are for east coast
- Same speeds for both wired desktop and wireless laptop.
- West coast test is much slower and vary 4-6Mbps up/2-4Mbps down. upload speeds varies
-I’m provisioned at 15/5.
IOMeter results with 5e cables:
13MBps Read
16.2MBps Write
IOMeter results with Cat 6 cables and checking “disable journaling” in frontview:
15MBps Read
17.9MBps Write
Here are some network transfer speeds. I've run two tests. One with a single 350MB Avi file and the other with 450 MB of small photo files (280 photos) to see differences. I've tested wired and wireless connections, then again after adjusting mtu on the vista laptop to 1430 (per Botts posts) and after swaping in CAT 6 cables. The wireless was tested from two distances to router. Hopefully, this chart is readable. Columns 2-4 are for the avi file; colums 5-7 are for the phote files.
In addition, I tried a few tweaks after these results
Increase MTU on NV to 1500:
IO Meter results plummeted on the Read score
6 MB/sec Read
11MB.sec Write.
Switched MTU back to 1492:
IO Meter results stayed slow.
Switched back to 1500 and rebooted router and NV:
IO Meter:
11.6 MB/sec Read
17.4 MB/sec write.
At some point in the middle of all this, I started checking the error log. It showed TCP retransmits and some unrecovered retransmits. I started checking the error logs more frequently. This log appeared before any MTU changes (see just below). After resetting logs and checking more regularly, I just see a few TCP transmit errors and this is from the wired connection mostly.
Network Errors [Ethernet 1]
Auto-negotiation 1
Bad packets 0
Disconnect 1
False carrier 8
Idle errors 510
Link failures 0
Receive errors 0
Symbol errors 3
VLAN tags 0
TCP Retransmits 134
Unrecovered TCP Retransmits 6
Bottom line. Wired results are slower than they should be. IO meter read speeds are lower than write. wireless N speeds seem slow too. Can’t seem to figure this out.
Any suggestions?
Here is my set up:
A new FIOS Actiontec MI424WR Rev. I router, gigabit Ethernet, wireless N - no Jumbo frames I believe. MTU set at originally set at 1492, now 1500. Provisioned at 15/5.
Desktop XP SP3 (static IP):
- Intel Gigabit CT Desktop NIC with latest driver shows Gigabit Full Duplex active. NIC is auto negotiating.
ReadyNAS NV (static IP),
- RAIDiator 4.1.8, stock RAM, 3 2TB drvies in X-RAID
- Drives – 3x’s Hitachi HDS 722020 2TB each, no smart events
- disabled full data journaling, and enabled fast CIFs writes and fast USB disk writes.
- CIFS, NFS and Rsync are enabled in services and for all the relevant shares.
- Frontview shows gigabit is active; NV is auto negotiating.
- MTU was at 1492
Vista Laptop (sp2) (Static IP)
- intel wireless N adapter shows connection speeds of 120-130 Mbps, with a solid signal above 90% from the kitchen about 25 feet from the lap top through two walls.
- - Intel gigabit NIC.
Other devices connected to the network are assigned dynamic addresses from DHCP – several laptops, iphones, printer, sonos network, wii, networked blu ray.
I’ve run tests with both my previous CAT5e cables and again with new CAT 6 cables. There seemed to be some modest improvement with the CAT 6 cables.
Download speeds -- DSLreports speed tests:
- 16-19Mbps up/4.2Mbps down. I'm on east coast and these speeds are for east coast
- Same speeds for both wired desktop and wireless laptop.
- West coast test is much slower and vary 4-6Mbps up/2-4Mbps down. upload speeds varies
-I’m provisioned at 15/5.
IOMeter results with 5e cables:
13MBps Read
16.2MBps Write
IOMeter results with Cat 6 cables and checking “disable journaling” in frontview:
15MBps Read
17.9MBps Write
Here are some network transfer speeds. I've run two tests. One with a single 350MB Avi file and the other with 450 MB of small photo files (280 photos) to see differences. I've tested wired and wireless connections, then again after adjusting mtu on the vista laptop to 1430 (per Botts posts) and after swaping in CAT 6 cables. The wireless was tested from two distances to router. Hopefully, this chart is readable. Columns 2-4 are for the avi file; colums 5-7 are for the phote files.
In addition, I tried a few tweaks after these results
Increase MTU on NV to 1500:
IO Meter results plummeted on the Read score
6 MB/sec Read
11MB.sec Write.
Switched MTU back to 1492:
IO Meter results stayed slow.
Switched back to 1500 and rebooted router and NV:
IO Meter:
11.6 MB/sec Read
17.4 MB/sec write.
At some point in the middle of all this, I started checking the error log. It showed TCP retransmits and some unrecovered retransmits. I started checking the error logs more frequently. This log appeared before any MTU changes (see just below). After resetting logs and checking more regularly, I just see a few TCP transmit errors and this is from the wired connection mostly.
Network Errors [Ethernet 1]
Auto-negotiation 1
Bad packets 0
Disconnect 1
False carrier 8
Idle errors 510
Link failures 0
Receive errors 0
Symbol errors 3
VLAN tags 0
TCP Retransmits 134
Unrecovered TCP Retransmits 6
Bottom line. Wired results are slower than they should be. IO meter read speeds are lower than write. wireless N speeds seem slow too. Can’t seem to figure this out.
Any suggestions?
19 Replies
No. Were you always testing the exact same thing (i.e. same file transferred same way onto NAS)? If testing very different files one would expect to get different results. What add-ons and other services are you running?
yes, In the original post, the chart of the speeds of transfers by drag and drop among the desktop, NAS and laptop, were comparing apples to apples. I used one 350 MB avi file, and one folder with 450 MB of photo files in it (over 200 photos). Of course the photo files took longer to copy as expected. The IOmeter results were with the default set up, so whatever that is.
The most varied results came under IOMeter tests.
Addons
- ReadyNAS Photos
- ReadyNAS Remote
Streaming services
- Ready DLNA
- Home Media Streaming Server
Discovery Services
- Bonjour (don't really use it at all)
- UPnP- So which of these are enabled? What about standard file protocols?
Also for consistent performance results it's best to reboot between tests.
What service are you using to play the videos and how are you doing your backups? mdgm wrote: So which of these are enabled? What about standard file protocols?
The ones I listed are the ones enabled, if I understand your question. File protocols are CIFS, NFS, HTTP and Rsync for most shares
Also for consistent performance results it's best to reboot between tests.
When you say reboot between tests, do you mean drag and drop or IOMeter or both?What service are you using to play the videos and how are you doing your backups?
Well, I've had problems with the DLNA, particularly the photo resolution. But since I installed it, I've used a LG BluRay (I can get model # if that is relevant) and Direct TV. BTW, how can I tell which version of ReadyDLNA add on is installed? I think I'm using the most current one, but am not sure.
As for backups, you've helped me on this. I keep 2 sets of backups -- the NAS is a backup for me, and I use Ext3 formatted USB to back up the NAS. After my initial backups, I'm using Rsync, essentially.mas99 wrote:
Also for consistent performance results it's best to reboot between tests.
When you say reboot between tests, do you mean drag and drop or IOMeter or both?
Both. Well this is for performance testing to see what NAS is capable of. Testing to see how the NAS is running after an extended period of usage is another matter.mas99 wrote:
BTW, how can I tell which version of ReadyDLNA add on is installed? I think I'm using the most current one, but am not sure.
Under Services > Streaming Services > ReadyDLNA you should see the version number in the bottom right hand corner e.g. 1.0.22mas99 wrote:
As for backups, you've helped me on this. I keep 2 sets of backups -- the NAS is a backup for me, and I use Ext3 formatted USB to back up the NAS. After my initial backups, I'm using Rsync, essentially.
Right. How do you backup your computer to the NAS?Right. How do you backup your computer to the NAS?
Well, it's been a hybrid. Some just drag and drop, some using the NAS windows time stamp or archive bit backups using cifs and eventually rsync. I don't have a separate backup program on the PC.
At this point, I just did a fresh set of backups, have unset the archive bit, and plan to use rsync for backups going forward, at least for most purposes.- O.K. I just had a quick look at your logs and I think I found the problem.
Whilst you don't have 4k sector alignment, you're using 512-byte drives, I think so this shouldn't be an issue.
However the diagnostics.log flagged a problem with the memory (RAM). It's possible there may have been some data corruption of the data on the NAS.
* Found errors on your system that are generally caused by bad memory. Please contact support about this issue.
Though memory upgrades are not supported, in your case on an out of warranty system, replacing the memory with a 1GB module would be the way to go. Look for memory that matches the specs of your current one including the physical layout. Note that not all memory modules work and newer revisions of some modules that have worked previously no longer work. These newer revisions often have the same module name. Be sure to run the memory test (http://www.readynas.com/kb/faq/hardware/is_there_a_way_i_can_verify_if_my_memory_is_good) at least twice before trusting the memory.
You want memory that matches the specs of your current module. - mdgm,
Thanks for tracking that down. As I mentioned in the OP, this is the stock ram. Back in August 2010, I tried upgrading it to1 GB RAM that was on the HCL and the NV began spontaneously shutting down on a weekly basis. It took a while to figure out and you and papabear were helpful figurng that out. I had run all the memory test, but it didn't catch a problem. Here's the link to that thread viewtopic.php?f=20&t=45534. Even though Micron eventually RMA'd the RAM and I got a new 1GB module, the NAS was working fine by that point so I left the stock RAM in. I still have the RMA'd RAM so I guess I can test and try it.
Is there any way to verify the data integrity? I've recently backed everything up as full backups, so if there was data corruption I probably backed it up too. I haven't noticed any problems with files I open, music I'm playing etc...
Just to be clear, when you saymdgm wrote: Whilst you don't have 4k sector alignment, you're using 512-byte drives, I think so this shouldn't be an issue.
...you are saying I don't have a 4k issue. I don't think I should either. Just before updating the memory in August 2010, I had done a factory default because I was updating from Radiator 3.01 to 4.1.6 and needed to deal with the 4k issue. At that point, I loaded the new hitachi 2TB drives. - Perhaps the errors in the diagnostics.log were from when you used the non-stock memory. A way to check would be to:
1. Power down
2. Remove all disks (label order)
3. Put a spare disk in (must not be from your array)
4. Do a factory default (http://www.readynas.com/kb/faq/boot/how_do_i_use_the_boot_menu) if necessary to wipe the disk.
5. Run with this disk for a few days or so, copying data to/from the disk.
6. Check diagnostics.log to see if it detects a problem caused by bad memory.
4k block size vs 16k block size; and 512-byte sector vs 4k sector partition alignment are two completely different issues.
Doing a factory default on RAIDiator 4.1.6 meant you now have a volume with a 16k block size.
Your drives are 512-byte sector drives I believe. Had you chosen 4k sector disks a factory default on RAIDiator 4.1.7 or later would've been necessary or else you would've got poor write performance. - Just for fun, or something like that, I'm running a memory test now on the current memory. Will see how that comes out in the morning and go from there.
I was thinking the same thing about the old memory upgrade experience possibly causing the error. But, I actually have two logs from the couple of days before I reinstalled the stock RAM back in 2010 -- that is, when the 1 GB of RAM was installed. They show no memory errors in the diagnostic logs. Unfortunately, I don't have any other logs until the few I downloaded in the last couple of weeks and they both show the error message you found. So, it's possible the last couple of days of running the old ram generated an error, but seems less likely than I was hoping. Do you agree?
Given that, would you go factory default route or first try the new memory? Not knowing how the diagnositc log is created or what tests it runs to create it, will the installation of new memory simply cause the memory error to disappear? Is the diagnostic log created on boot up?
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