I have been having problems with wireless access to my ReadyNASes for a few weeks now. I think I can trace the problem back to replacement of my old router and access point with new stuff. The problems have started in earnest from then. Wireless performance is a real dog. Typically I am only achieving transfer speeds of under 500kb per sec on Wireless transfers. This seems to be true for both of the PCs I am testing with. Gb files take hours to transfer.Wired performance is adequate in that I have been seeing transfer rates of 7-13 MB per sec. While that means performance is not excruciatingly slow, it still is not good. Particularly frustrating is the time it takes to load thumbnails on picture files. You're talking 10-15 seconds for each one to come through (on Wireless). On wired connection it's not great, but it's nothing like as bad. The equipment:ReadyNAS Duo - RAIDiator 4.1.12ReadyNAS NV+ v2 - RAIDiator 5.3.8Router Netgear WNDR4500v2Access Point Netgear WNAP320Switches are GS605 or GS608Cat 5 cable connectionsThe PCs have, respectively, a wireless g card and a wireless n card. They are running Win7; one is 32 bit the other is 64. The problem is equally bad on the Duo as the NV+. The speed on wireless is no better on the machine with the n card. What have I tried? - Trying to get a Wired connection to work first - see results above- Turning off firewalls and anti-virus - minor improvement- Disabling the Disk Write Cache - nothing noticeable- Checking jumbo frames is off. I could confirm this on the Duo but the NV+ is rather more inpenetrable and I couldn't find anywhere to change this setting- Disabling the 'Large Send Offset' in the Properties of the network adapter (only available in the Wired Network Card anyway)- Messing with the MTUs. My router has a default of 1492, presumably because it's using PPPoE to the internet. The ReadyNAS boxes were initially 1500. I tried changing this down to 1492 on the Duo and this did help - thumbnails would load at one every second or so, so a lot faster. However I cannot find a way to change the MTU on the NV+ v2. Additionally I've played with the MTU on the PCs. I did a few tests to determine what 'should be the optimum' and by my calculation it should be 1500. I have tried 1492, 1460 and 1430. Same result with all - no better What do I try next? RichardPS I've tried to go to the 'How to Optimise the ReadyNAS performance' page but at the moment it just returns a 404. So apologies if there are steps in that document that I need to take first.

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/12242/~/how-to-optimize-the-readynas-performanceFor the wireless issue, does this help?: http://home.bott.ca/webserver/?p=226

I too have a Duo v1 and an NV+ v2 with same firmwares as you.I understand you want to fix the wireless, but you need to look at the wired connections too as 7-13MB/s seems like 100mbs LAN. Although your kit supports gigabit? On a wired connection, I'm getting about 30MB/s, but others are getting much higher - see here.I just copied 56 pictures, ~195MB, Win7 reports ~6MB/s and it took ~30 seconds. 195/30=6.5, so in fact windows was approx correct! Wireless connection was 802.11n @ 130Mb/sSame files to my wired desktop took about 6 seconds and Win7 reported ~30MB/s. 195/6=32.5, so again about right for my setup. I know this should also be faster, but I've not spent time troubleshooting yet.You could try a direct wired connection just to check the NAS performance. Then add each bit of kit back to the network until you find the culprit ;).

With the v1 write speeds that are around what you'd expect from 100Mbit are not unexpected.

mgdm, Thanks for coming back to me. The guide to performance optimisation confirmed the steps I've already tried seem to be the right ones to take. I have had a go at the steps shown in the Bott's guide, which was about tinkering with MTU numbers. No joy. One thing that does seem to be seen as a good idea is setting the ReadyNAS MTU to 1492 - this helps with the Duo. But I can't figure how you can change that setting on the NV+ v2. Any ideas, or an idiot's guide to doing it through SSH? I note from elsewhere that there is an issue here with getting the MTU value to stick even if you do change it - tends to switch back on re-boot or something. But do let me know if you have further thoughts. aks, also thanks for your response. You're confirming what I expected - that I should be getting much better performance. As you suggest, I'll go to direct connect (I assume you mean direct connect via ethernet, do you?) and see what that buys me first. R

aks, also thanks for your response. You're confirming what I expected - that I should be getting much better performance. As you suggest, I'll go to direct connect (I assume you mean direct connect via ethernet, do you?) and see what that buys me first. Yes, or at least PC wire ROUTER wire NAS, and check they negotiate at 1Gbps. If they negotiate 100Mbps, then you'll get ~10MB/s, which is what you are getting now.Direct connect requires you to manually set the PCs IP address to 192.168.168.1 to talk direct to the NV+ v2 at \\192.168.168.168.With a direct connection I read at the same speed on my main PC. On another wired PC I read at ~40MB/s, i.e. reading the exact same directory took <5 seconds (195/5=~39MB/s).For me writing to the NV+ v2 peaks at about 20MB/s from both PCs wired (with antivirus disabled).

Wireless Performance to ReadyNAS - at my wits' end...

22 Replies

Replies have been turned off for this discussion

aks

Virtuoso

Nov 07, 2013

How many layers are you going through to use wireless, you mentioned a Router Netgear WNDR4500v2 and Access Point Netgear WNAP320?
Is the NAS directly connected to the router or one of your switches?
I suspect considerable drop (half speed) if jumping through an access point used as range extender, and possibly further drops if rate changing across units 1Gbps <=> 100Mbps.

For the record, here are my results using the NAS test program:

NAS performance tester 1.4 http://www.808.dk/?nastester
Running warmup...
Running a 400MB file write on drive [Duo v1] 5 times...
Iteration 1:     15.28 MB/sec
Iteration 2:     16.17 MB/sec
Iteration 3:     16.39 MB/sec
Iteration 4:     16.51 MB/sec
Iteration 5:     14.57 MB/sec
------------------------------
Average (W):     15.78 MB/sec
------------------------------
Running a 400MB file read on drive [Duo v1] 5 times...
Iteration 1:     20.32 MB/sec
Iteration 2:     19.44 MB/sec
Iteration 3:     17.80 MB/sec
Iteration 4:     19.66 MB/sec
Iteration 5:     22.03 MB/sec
------------------------------
Average (R):     19.85 MB/sec
------------------------------
Running warmup...
Running a 400MB file write on drive [NV+ v2] 5 times...
Iteration 1:     26.46 MB/sec
Iteration 2:     25.06 MB/sec
Iteration 3:     24.97 MB/sec
Iteration 4:     24.54 MB/sec
Iteration 5:     25.64 MB/sec
------------------------------
Average (W):     25.33 MB/sec
------------------------------
Running a 400MB file read on drive [NV+ v2] 5 times...
Iteration 1:     18.02 MB/sec
Iteration 2:     21.31 MB/sec
Iteration 3:     23.65 MB/sec
Iteration 4:     23.29 MB/sec
Iteration 5:     23.68 MB/sec
------------------------------
Average (R):     21.99 MB/sec
------------------------------

wetenhr
Tutor
Nov 07, 2013
Morning Tony,

There are a couple of layers here, but nothing untoward.

The wireless access point connects (gigabit) to a GS608 switch. Both ReadyNAS boxes connect to that same switch.

The router is a couple of hops away, through a further GS608 switch. When I connect Wired to the ReadyNAS (either using the desktop or laptop), I am going through either two or three switches before hitting the ReadyNAS.

Further testing has improved the Wireless performance a bit but not massively.

Tony, are your tests over a wired or wireless network? They are so much quicker than mine, unless they're wired.

Thanks for your help. I'm going to try some other wireless NIC cards today and see if that makes a change.

Richard
StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Nov 07, 2013
On the wired side I think your issues are really with the duo write speeds. I suggest looking at the duo logs/disk SMART+ stats. Perhaps also try a direct connect to the PC. What settings are you using performance tab?

On the wireless link, perhaps also test with using the WNDR4500v2 as a WAP? Also, how far away is the PC from the WAP?
wetenhr
Tutor
Nov 07, 2013
I have now tried using the WNDR4500 as a WAP - better performance on that. t delivers twice the speed on both Write and Read, at 8.9Mb and 5.6Mb respectively.

Still scratching my head why the Read speeds are slower than the Write on this machine, but this is at least performance I could live with.

I've checked the logs on the access point (WNAP320) to see what's happening and it keeps deauthorising and then reauthorising the PC. This seems to be something a few others have an issue with and I'm hoping there will be a solution from the AP forum.

Here is the last Disk SMART log - can't see anything suggesting near death....also, I did notice a lot of errors involving "file does not exist" in the httpd_errors log, if that means anything much. I attach a sample of that at the end.

***** Disk SMART log from 2013/11/03 *****

***** Disk SMART log for channel 1 [hdc] *****

smartctl 5.42 2011-10-20 r3458 [padre-linux-2.6.17.14ReadyNAS] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: SAMSUNG SpinPoint F1 DT
Device Model: SAMSUNG HD103UJ
Serial Number: S13PJ90QC39068
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0000f0 00b3c0986
Firmware Version: 1AA01113
User Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 8
ATA Standard is: ATA-8-ACS revision 3b
Local Time is: Sun Nov 3 06:47:02 2013 WET
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: (11774) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 197) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 21) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x003f) SCT Status supported.
SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 100 100 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0007 067 067 011 Pre-fail Always - 10760
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 084 084 000 Old_age Always - 16109
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 100 100 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
8 Seek_Time_Performance 0x0025 100 100 015 Pre-fail Offline - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 092 092 000 Old_age Always - 38289
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0033 100 100 051 Pre-fail Always - 3
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 172
13 Read_Soft_Error_Rate 0x000e 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
183 Runtime_Bad_Block 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
184 End-to-End_Error 0x0033 100 100 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 064 055 000 Old_age Always - 36 (Min/Max 13/40)
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 064 053 000 Old_age Always - 36 (Min/Max 13/41)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 53643
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 1
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x000a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
201 Soft_Read_Error_Rate 0x000a 253 253 000 Old_age Always - 0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

***** Disk SMART log for channel 2 [hde] *****

smartctl 5.42 2011-10-20 r3458 [padre-linux-2.6.17.14ReadyNAS] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: SAMSUNG SpinPoint F1 DT
Device Model: SAMSUNG HD103UJ
Serial Number: S13PJ90QC39066
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0000f0 00b3c0966
Firmware Version: 1AA01113
User Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 8
ATA Standard is: ATA-8-ACS revision 3b
Local Time is: Sun Nov 3 06:47:07 2013 WET
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: (11889) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 199) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 21) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x003f) SCT Status supported.
SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 100 099 051 Pre-fail Always - 4
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0007 068 068 011 Pre-fail Always - 10510
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 082 082 000 Old_age Always - 17761
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 100 100 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
8 Seek_Time_Performance 0x0025 100 100 015 Pre-fail Offline - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 093 093 000 Old_age Always - 36345
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0033 100 100 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 121
13 Read_Soft_Error_Rate 0x000e 100 099 000 Old_age Always - 4
183 Runtime_Bad_Block 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
184 End-to-End_Error 0x0033 100 100 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 9
188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 064 055 000 Old_age Always - 36 (Min/Max 29/39)
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 064 054 000 Old_age Always - 36 (Min/Max 29/40)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 237961985
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x000a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
201 Soft_Read_Error_Rate 0x000a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

FROM THE hhtpd_errors LOG:

[Wed Nov 06 23:34:04 2013] [error] [client 192.168.1.24] File does not exist: /frontview/ui/resource/html/currentsetting.htm
[Wed Nov 06 23:43:05 2013] [error] [client 192.168.1.24] File does not exist: /frontview/ui/resource/html/currentsetting.htm
[Wed Nov 06 23:51:37 2013] [error] [client 192.168.1.24] File does not exist: /frontview/ui/resource/html/currentsetting.htm
[Wed Nov 06 23:53:11 2013] [error] [client 192.168.1.24] File does not exist: /frontview/ui/resource/html/currentsetting.htm
[Thu Nov 07 00:05:31 2013] [error] [client 192.168.1.24] File does not exist: /frontview/ui/resource/html/currentsetting.htm
[Thu Nov 07 00:22:41 2013] [error] [client 192.168.1.24] File does not exist: /frontview/ui/resource/html/currentsetting.htm

R
StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Nov 08, 2013
Thanks - nothing jumps out from the SMART stats. There are also ethernet stats in the duo that could be helpful. However, they will likely not be very useful for the wireless.

On the wifi - do you mean 8.9 and 5.6 mbytes per second? If so, that is ~70 mbits and ~45 mbits of throughput. That is reasonable performance for 802.11n wifi. The WNDR4500 is a N900 router btw, so it is capable of higher throughputs than the WNAP320.
wetenhr
Tutor
Nov 08, 2013
My suspicion is that I should do better on the WNAP320 than I'm doing right now.

In running various tests to see if I can get the speed up I notice that the network monitor shows a very spiky profile - every five seconds or so it will manage a burst at about 60 Mbps, then will drop back to 10 Mbps for the next four seconds.

Anyway, I think this is now resolved to a point where I can say that I think the issue is more between my laptops and access points, and less about ReadyNAS performance. I think I've done everything I can to improve the basic performance of the machines and the performance on the Wired side shows that the response there looks good. So I'm going to close this thread and see if I can get further advice from June Mizoguchi et al on the Access Points forum.

Tony, Stephen, and mgdm, I really appreciate your help over the last couple of days. Thank you all.

Richard
aks
Virtuoso
Nov 09, 2013
wetenhr wrote:
Tony, are your tests over a wired or wireless network? They are so much quicker than mine, unless they're wired.

Wired.

However, they remain much slower than I would expect from the claimed performance.
StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Nov 09, 2013
aks - If you purchased your NAS around your forum join date, you have a v1, not a v2.

What firmware are you running?
aks
Virtuoso
Nov 09, 2013
Hi Stephen, always worth a check and yes I joined the forum out of curiosity when I got my Duo (v1), but I purchased an NV+ v2 in Jan'13. So I now have both units.

I too am getting slower reads than writes on the NV+ v2, but on my old Duo reads are faster than write (as expected):

Running a 400MB file write on drive [Duo v1] 5 times... Average (W): 15.78 MB/sec
Running a 400MB file read on drive [Duo v1] 5 times... Average (R): 19.85 MB/sec

Running a 400MB file write on drive [NV+ v2] 5 times... Average (W): 25.33 MB/sec
Running a 400MB file read on drive [NV+ v2] 5 times... Average (R): 21.99 MB/sec

Firmware on my boxes: Duo 4.1.12, NV+ v2 5.3.8.

These speeds look pretty poor to me, and no where near the claimed speeds. However, I do realise this is affected by many factors, but as I posted elsewhere I think my PC is a bit of a bottleneck, or rather the built in network interface. It is a Dell 2.8GHz Pentium with Broadcom gigabit network interface, negotiation on the LAN is gigabit, but the network utilisation peeks at about 25% in windows task manager. I have tried a direct connection to the NV+ v2, but throughput was near identical. I disabled anti-virus (Norton) and I've also done a complete OS reinstall recently.

I did try from a laptop with a Core i5, and that read at ~40MB/s, write to the NV+ v2 peaks at about 20MB/s from both PCs wired (with antivirus disabled). This was using windows explorer (as I am not allowed to install 3rd party software on my company laptop), with a random collection of pictures.

Picking these numbers apart, I can see a few variations, but the overall tests seem quite a bit slower than they should be. It's a bit like car manufacturer quoted mpg - fantasy land :shock: !
wetenhr
Tutor
Nov 09, 2013
More good news.

I decided to roll back to a previous driver version on my Centrino Advanced-N 6230 card, and that made all the difference to the performance. The spikiness I was seeing in the transmission disappeared and I was able to get a pretty consistent 80 mbps rate and thus 10 Mb/s transfers, which is satisfactory.

Read performance still only half of the Write performance but I'm continuing to tinker there.

I would love to know what you have to do in order to achieve some of the extraordinary transfer speeds others have reported on Wired! Would be great to achieve that as occasionally I have large transfers to achieve on backups (100s of Gb) and it makes a difference. If there are certain NICs that are known to work better than others (mine is an Atheros AR8151 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet card) then I would swap in a heartbeat if I knew it would work.

R

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Wireless Performance to ReadyNAS - at my wits' end...

22 Replies

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