WRT160NL - Slow copying to Samba shared NAS

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Detection
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 23:48    Post subject: WRT160NL - Slow copying to Samba shared NAS Reply with quote
I have everything working great, 18777 on WRT160NL, I have a Samba Shared USB 2.0 NAS

The NAS is just a USB to IDE adapter powering a 2.5" Laptop 80GB HDD direct from the routers USB

Connected to the PC I get great speeds using the same USB - IDE adapter, but sending files to it from my Wired Gigabit LAN PC to the Samba Share, Im only getting 2.5MB/s upload but copying / streaming from the NAS to the PC I get nearly 9MB/s

Where is the upload bottleneck?

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 14:02    Post subject: Reply with quote
Any ideas anyone ? Smile
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qiangyu
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 15:57    Post subject: Reply with quote
I met the same slow speed just like you, there is no answer for this ...

160nl seems no popular in DD-WRT which means no one is maintaining it or try to solve its problem ...

As long as it works, do not ask for more ...
Detection
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 17:41    Post subject: Reply with quote
qiangyu wrote:
I met the same slow speed just like you, there is no answer for this ...

160nl seems no popular in DD-WRT which means no one is maintaining it or try to solve its problem ...

As long as it works, do not ask for more ...



Yes it is being maintained, the latest 18777 build is on the FTP for the WRT160NL

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leppa
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 23:29    Post subject: Re: WRT160NL - Slow copying to Samba shared NAS Reply with quote
Detection wrote:
Connected to the PC I get great speeds using the same USB - IDE adapter, but sending files to it from my Wired Gigabit LAN PC to the Samba Share, Im only getting 2.5MB/s upload but copying / streaming from the NAS to the PC I get nearly 9MB/s

Is your drive NTFS formatted? For me, when writing to NTFS partition, ntfs-3g process uses up to 50% of router CPU. Might be that WRT160NL is too "weak" for coping with NTFS.

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Detection
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 0:31    Post subject: Re: WRT160NL - Slow copying to Samba shared NAS Reply with quote
leppa wrote:
Detection wrote:
Connected to the PC I get great speeds using the same USB - IDE adapter, but sending files to it from my Wired Gigabit LAN PC to the Samba Share, Im only getting 2.5MB/s upload but copying / streaming from the NAS to the PC I get nearly 9MB/s

Is your drive NTFS formatted? For me, when writing to NTFS partition, ntfs-3g process uses up to 50% of router CPU. Might be that WRT160NL is too "weak" for coping with NTFS.


Yea NTFS, thanks I never thought to check the CPU use during a transfer, transferring a 700MB AVI right now and CPU use is upto 90%

Is there a better file system to use that wouldn't load the router too much but that Windows could still see via Samba ?

Not sure if ext2 / 3 would be seen by windows or does Samba sort that issue out ?


Thanks for the tip, I think you nailed it

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buddee
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 0:42    Post subject: Reply with quote
Slow speeds using NAS thru a wireless router? Parish the thought.. I have said this once and probably will say it alot more times (come to think of it, i already have) You guys got to think about this..

You are using a router, which the CPU/Bus Architecture is not going to be like that of a newer faster computer, so its not ever going to be lightning fast, and AFAIK won't ever be true USB 2.0 speeds due to the CPU and hardware bus limitations. So its not a 'fixable' thing, atleast not through firmware. Therein lies your bottleneck..

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Detection
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 0:48    Post subject: Reply with quote
buddee wrote:
Slow speeds using NAS thru a wireless router? Parish the thought.. I have said this once and probably will say it alot more times (come to think of it, i already have) You guys got to think about this..

You are using a router, which the CPU/Bus Architecture is not going to be like that of a newer faster computer, so its not ever going to be lightning fast, and AFAIK won't ever be true USB 2.0 speeds due to the CPU and hardware bus limitations. So its not a 'fixable' thing, atleast not through firmware. Therein lies your bottleneck..


The speeds reminded me of USB1.1 and I did wonder yea, thanks, weirdly though I can pull about 9MB/s streaming or downloading from it though (Wired or Wireless)

Just the uploading to the drive that gives me 2.5MB/s

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buddee
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 0:57    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yes, because read access is always faster than write access, when it reads it only has to do just that, when it writes it has to upload the data to the router then the router's CPU has to build the data blocks within the USB hard-drive so a little bit more is happening there, if you get what i mean, all that in mind it then has to use alot more of the router's resources to write to the drive. Main solution to this is getting a faster router, because a 400Mhz CPU on limited bus architecture isn't gonna be a star performer. And it is slow even on my WZR-HP-AG300H, which has a 680Mhz CPU, but is faster than either my WRT160NL or WZR-HP-G300NH (both have 400Mhz Atheros CPU's), hell its even faster than my E3000 which has a 480Mhz CPU.

And yes i know what you mean about the USB 1.1 speeds, it does seem like that, but get an older router that only has USB 1.1 support, like say a WL-520gU and you wanna talk about turtle slow, it made me learn real quick that router USB ports are at best used for limited functions, mainly i used mine to run scripts and run a printer off of.

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Detection
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 1:08    Post subject: Reply with quote
buddee wrote:
Yes, because read access is always faster than write access, when it reads it only has to do just that, when it writes it has to upload the data to the router then the router's CPU has to build the data blocks within the USB hard-drive so a little bit more is happening there, if you get what i mean, all that in mind it then has to use alot more of the router's resources to write to the drive. Main solution to this is getting a faster router, because a 400Mhz CPU on limited bus architecture isn't gonna be a star performer. And it is slow even on my WZR-HP-AG300H, which has a 680Mhz CPU, but is faster than either my WRT160NL or WZR-HP-G300NH (both have 400Mhz Atheros CPU's), hell its even faster than my E3000 which has a 480Mhz CPU.

And yes i know what you mean about the USB 1.1 speeds, it does seem like that, but get an older router that only has USB 1.1 support, like say a WL-520gU and you wanna talk about turtle slow, it made me learn real quick that router USB ports are at best used for limited functions, mainly i used mine to run scripts and run a printer off of.


Yea that makes sense, reading from the NAS puts the load on the PC I guess vs writing to it.

I'm looking at getting a better router, couple of members have suggested some in my other thread, any suggestions, really I'm looking for "If DD-WRT was build for xxxx router, this router would be it"

Since getting into DD-WRT its like a drug, I need more

And yea USB1.1 is painful, I remember on older PCs Ive had when flash drives won't mount properly and told me "This device can perform faster" and then trying to copy 100MB onto it, those were the days....

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 1:25    Post subject: Reply with quote
Well, that's kind of a loaded question, for Atheros my picks would be..

Buffalo WZR-HP-AG300H - 680Mhz CPU - plenty of flash and board ram (32/128MB)- full dd-wrt support (openwrt support in trunk only, so you'd have to roll your own build for it)

Netgear WNDR3700 v2 - 680Mhz CPU - plenty of flash/board RAM (16/64MB) dd-wrt and openwrt supported <- i am actually going to buy one of these next week for $40

Netgear WNDR3700 v1 - same specs as above but more limited on flash ram (8/64MB) has both dd-wrt and openwrt support

D-Link DIR-825 B1 and B2 - same specs as above CPU and flash/board ram wise - has detachable antennas (nice) and dd-wrt and openwrt support

Those would be some of my picks, which i already own one of them, the wzr-hp-ag300h, and i like its performance alot, but it isn't cheap, so i want to get another Atheros unit that has pretty much matching specs (WNDR3700 v2) but only half the price (buying it from a seller on ebay)

For the broadcom units, there are WAY to many to choose from.. but right now i been eyeing the E3200 and Rt-N66U, i have a WNDR4500, which is a very nice router, but has no dd-wrt support currently. And for the setup and testings i do, dd-wrt support is almost a must nowadays.

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Detection
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 10:13    Post subject: Reply with quote
buddee wrote:
Well, that's kind of a loaded question, for Atheros my picks would be..

Buffalo WZR-HP-AG300H - 680Mhz CPU - plenty of flash and board ram (32/128MB)- full dd-wrt support (openwrt support in trunk only, so you'd have to roll your own build for it)

Netgear WNDR3700 v2 - 680Mhz CPU - plenty of flash/board RAM (16/64MB) dd-wrt and openwrt supported <- i am actually going to buy one of these next week for $40

Netgear WNDR3700 v1 - same specs as above but more limited on flash ram (8/64MB) has both dd-wrt and openwrt support

D-Link DIR-825 B1 and B2 - same specs as above CPU and flash/board ram wise - has detachable antennas (nice) and dd-wrt and openwrt support

Those would be some of my picks, which i already own one of them, the wzr-hp-ag300h, and i like its performance alot, but it isn't cheap, so i want to get another Atheros unit that has pretty much matching specs (WNDR3700 v2) but only half the price (buying it from a seller on ebay)

For the broadcom units, there are WAY to many to choose from.. but right now i been eyeing the E3200 and Rt-N66U, i have a WNDR4500, which is a very nice router, but has no dd-wrt support currently. And for the setup and testings i do, dd-wrt support is almost a must nowadays.


Cheers for the suggestions, I would have replied sooner but I fell asleep on my own face, think I might try to find a second hand WZR-HP-AG300H or WNDR3700 v2 on eBay then, they look like good solid choices and the Gigabit LAN is becoming more necessary than luxury as of late

Thanks

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Detection
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 16:12    Post subject: Reply with quote
Just an update for anyone else with this problem

I formatted another 80GB laptop drive to EXT3, plugged it into the router via the normal USB to IDE adapter I been using and it mounted fine

Copying another 700MB avi to it and I`m getting 7-8MB/s now over my 2.5MB/s using NTFS

So it appears it is NTFS that causes the slowdown

Drive can still be seen on the network as a normal shared drive and can still be written to and read from via Win 7 x64

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buddee
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 23:50    Post subject: Reply with quote
Detection wrote:
Just an update for anyone else with this problem

I formatted another 80GB laptop drive to EXT3, plugged it into the router via the normal USB to IDE adapter I been using and it mounted fine

Copying another 700MB avi to it and I`m getting 7-8MB/s now over my 2.5MB/s using NTFS

So it appears it is NTFS that causes the slowdown

Drive can still be seen on the network as a normal shared drive and can still be written to and read from via Win 7 x64


You sure about that? I still think the slowdown is the router architecture..

USB 2.0 speed is 60 MB/s no matter how you slice it and dice it, you won't see that speed on a WRT160NL. Although yes, thats a better speed than you had, but it won't ever meet anywhere close to what the actual harddrive specs + usb 2.0 specs are.

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Detection
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 23:55    Post subject: Reply with quote
buddee wrote:
Detection wrote:
Just an update for anyone else with this problem

I formatted another 80GB laptop drive to EXT3, plugged it into the router via the normal USB to IDE adapter I been using and it mounted fine

Copying another 700MB avi to it and I`m getting 7-8MB/s now over my 2.5MB/s using NTFS

So it appears it is NTFS that causes the slowdown

Drive can still be seen on the network as a normal shared drive and can still be written to and read from via Win 7 x64


You sure about that? I still think the slowdown is the router architecture..

USB 2.0 speed is 60 MB/s no matter how you slice it and dice it, you won't see that speed on a WRT160NL. Although yes, thats a better speed than you had, but it won't ever meet anywhere close to what the actual harddrive specs + usb 2.0 specs are.


Yep a definite improvement, not full USB2.0 speeds but tripled NTFS speeds for sure

I even formatted it again after messing up Optware install and still getting around 7-8MB/s upload Smile

See screenshot

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