3 Hours to transfer 1.27 GB file

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
21

Erik_J_Thomas wrote:

Yes, if you use the “desktop app” it’s using WebDAV, but when you log into the web client just to map your drive, once it maps, it’s just a mapped drive.

 

Erik

It’s mapped via WebDAV, not SMB or CIFS.

You can tell on Windows by opening a CMD window and issuing the command “net use”

You’ll see it mapped via “Web Client Network” which is WebDAV instead of “Microsoft Windows Network” which is Samba.   Microsoft and Mac both support WebDAV pretty much natively – you won’t know the difference except in how it behaves.

Erik_J_Thomas wrote:

So what you’re saying is that when this drive is simply “mapped” as a drive in my OS, because it was mapped by a client app, that it’s using WebDAV? I don’t think so. How can it “hook” the OS in such a way as to redirect all the OS commands you can make regarding that drive?

Yes, that’s what I’m saying.   Microsoft does this “hook” via something called Web Client Redirector. 

Apple, being very much Linux-like, has it all in the kernel – ANY kind of mount is treated by other software as just a mount — the software accessing it doesn’t really care how the kernel did it.

As a software developer, you’re probably familiar with the term “abstraction layer.”   That’s exactly what both of those are accomplishing.

Here’s the user’s manual:   http://www.wd.com/wdproducts/library/?id=439&type=25

Mapping a drive is described in chapter 3.

  REMOTE access via the My Cloud Desktop app is described on Pages 14-20.  

  LOCAL access via mapping is described on pages 21-23.

WD Quick View is another software package that comes with all WD NAS devices that can also do it for you – it’s described in a whole chapter dedicated to just that – chapger 5.

  

Mapping a drive directly using WD Discovery software is also described in this KBA.

The method I describe above (using the built-in Windows methods) is in this KBA.

Accessing REMOTELY via the My Cloud app is described in this KBA.

Etc, etc.

Erik_J_Thomas wrote:> Note that when I unpacked this device it had no instructions at all.

Sure it did.   It came with a fold-out Quick Installation Guide that has references to all that documentation.

22

In fact if you use the wd2go.com website to ‘map’ the drive and then copy a file to that drive it does it in a strange way by appearing to copy the file very quickly and then in the background creates a hidden folder called .dav with the file name in and a tmp file which starts .davfs… This temp file is updated with the actual file and then changed to the correct file name.

I have just done it and it left the hidden .DAV folder on the mycloud. I wonder what the DAV stands for?

If you map the mycloud on the pc then the file just gets copied over as normal with no playing around.

23

The .dav folders are created by the apache webserver (which owns the DAV protocol and access methods.)

Supposedly, that’s where apache stores attribute data for the files and folders accessed or created by DAV.

The folder may be empty if the server no longer needs to track it in the database.

http://www.webdav.org/mod_dav/

24

OK, thanks much for your patience and for the information you’ve shared. I learned some new things today–a good thing.

I replaced my long-time, reliable and dedicated file server computer with this device and will go one more round before reinstating it and tossing this device in the land fill (please refrain from lecturing me about computer equipment in land fills–it’s a figure of speech for goodness sake).

So if you hear from me on this thread again, it will be because I was successful, otherwise, it’s been “real” and I learned a $180 lesson to stay away from WD equipment that is marketed as a turnkey device that claims things out of the box that are fiction. 

This device should just work well with the software that was developed for it to be used. My average throughput with this device–albeit I’m going through WebDAV as you rightly state–has been less than 250KB/sec which is unbelievably unacceptable. That’s about like selling a car that can only go 4 mph unless you know the secrets of bypassing the limiter.

Regardless of my own “demonstrated” lack of networking expertise, the out-of-box experience for this product is really the question here. If this product was a high-end, pro-level Cisco device for large company infrastructure, then I would expect to have to read manuals.

I shall not purchase another WD product even if I’m able to get this working finally. It should be at least reasonably fast using WebDAV or WD shouldn’t provide client programs that are designed to use it and that the initial docs recommend you use.

Cheers,

25

I just used the wd2go.com website to copy a 1GB file and it did it within minutes. I normally copy it using the direct mapped method and that still took only a few minutes. I don’t even have a gig network or work in the IT business.

26

Windows 8 experience:

I don’t have a MAC so I can’t discuss that directly, but in my case I just use the native file browser.

In “Windows Explorer” the WDMYCLOUD simply shows up under “Network” and I just Copy/Paste like I would with any other drive to the Public Shared folder.

My advice for troubleshooting would be:

a) Try a different PC, or

b) Try a different router

c) Swap the ethernet cables

d) Run a quick diagnostic on the My Cloud.

Other:

Probably not an issue but Internet Explorer 11 doesn’t work well, I had to use Firefox. That’s for applying firmware updates or running diagnostics.

27

OK, many thanks to all who tried to suggest solutions. A tech support rep called me yesterday and remote controlled my Mac and it’s now working as designed. 

I had previously found that directly mapping the device as a drive in Windows Explorer solved any slowness issue from my PC, but even mapping the drive with smb:\WDMyCloud using go->network, wasn’t working. Well one of the changes this tech made fixed it. Now the mapped drive is as fast as I would expect over WiFi 11n network so I am satisfied.

My suggestion to WD was to clearly communicate this information in their getting started portion of the user manual on page one or two:

  1. Clearly indicate there are two modes: LAN and WAN (web access) and that for LAN access you need not install any client software at all.

  2. That one can access the device dashboard by simply opening a web browser and typing: ‘wdmycloud.local/UI/’ in the address.

  3. For LAN access, clear step by step instructions for both Mac and Windows access. For example, enable AFP and SMB protocols on the Mac, and then Go->Network and put in just this:  ‘smb:\WDMyCloud’ and when it asks for your credentials, put in your user and password, and now you’ll see WDMyCloud in your Finder under Shared each time your computer starts. Just click it and voila, you have access to your shares.

I went to the WD My Cloud page in wd.com and never came across something this simple and concise for getting LAN access. The instructions certainly led me to believe I needed a web client to access my drive even on a local LAN.

As network experts on this forum have pointed out, if I understood basic networking I could have figured this out for myself, but this is clearly a consumer device, and should not assume any level of network knowledge to use it effectively. I downloaded the user manual and never did find any information that described the right settings and the actual device name with examples for Mac setup on LAN. I think the manual just needs a rewrite.

But I’m happy with the product now. It was user error, but due to lack of Mac experience (I’m new to Mac), and lack of clear documentation with just a simple set of instructions for use with a LAN.