In this guide we will concentrate on getting the best of wdmycloud, and you will need
- PC with 1 Gbps connection
- Suitbale network cable (Cat 5E or better but Cat 5E will do).
- 1 Gbps router. (no preferences but Linksys and netgear seem to be good and reliable.)
- Use the cable that came with wdmycloud to connect it to the router
NOTE: if you have 10/100 Mbps router, then expect the speed to be at least 10+ times slower.
Connect to your router (Usually 192.168.1.1 in a majority of cases. But Please check your manual).
If your reotuer have IP reservation feature then choose any IP address that is above the router address and below 255. Example range: 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.254
If your rotuer does not have IP reservation then shorthen the DHCP range of the router. Example:
In the above Picture you can see the range 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.254. Shorten the second number. lets
say 192.168.1.2-192.168.1.100. Choose an IP address for your PC from the remaining range above
192.168.1.100. Make sure no 2 devices have the same IP. You will also need the MAC address of your PC. In
a command line window type “ipconfig /all”. You should see something like "
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : E0-3F-49-83-A0-B7 <----- MAC address
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::5494:d04b:f92:c77c%11(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 249577289
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1A-E9-96-23-E0-3F-49-83-A0-B7
Setting PC to a static IP (Windows 7 and will work on Windows 8 and maybe others older ones)
1. Connect your PC to the router (I configure all non mobile devices to have static IP address).
1.1 Configuring your Windows PC to have a static IP Address. At bottom left of your screen there
is Network icon. Left click and choose “open network and sharing” Center. You can reach the
same option with control Panel and Choose Network and Internet. Click on Network Sharing
Center.
1.2 In the left pane there is the option “Change Adapter Settings”. Click on that. double click
on “Local are Network”. It will open “Local Area Connection Status”. At this stage you
can verify that your PC speed is 1.0 Gps (it will be displayed). Click on properties.
1.3 Click on Properties. Local Area Connection properties will open.
1.4 In Local Area Connection properties highlight "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4).
1.5 Once highlighted click on Properties.
1.6 You have 2 options “Obtain an IP address automatrically” and “Use the following IP Address”.
1.7 Choose “use the following IP address”
1.8 Enter the information for your connection. You will need:
1.8.1 IP address, Subnet mask, Default gateway, and DNS servers.
1.9 The ip address is the one we reserved in the router. The router should also show the mask and
DNS server. If in doubt check your router manual and consult your ISP fro DNS severs.
Default gateway is your router IP address, usually 192.168.1.1.
2. Make sure the router is connected to your modem (Internet).
3. Make sure the network icon on your pc shows “internt access”. Hover the mouse over the
network icon and it will display the status. If not, go over your settings again.
4. If all is OK, it is time to test your internet connectivity. You can do that by launching
the internet browser and goto " www.speedtest.net" or, http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html whatever you find on Google.
5. The results must match very close to what your ISP has given you. If not, then talk to your ISP.
They have remote utility that can check your connection (Well … at VirginMedia has 
). Still
no luck then it could be your PC or the router. In this case, remove the router and connect your
PC directly. first change the static IP address discussed above to “Obtain IP address
automatically”. If it still fails then it is your PC. Otherwise it is your router. In my experience
routers rarely go wrong unless they are really old and they can longer cope with modern demands.
5.1 If after all the above you determined it is the PC that is slow then try the following:
5.1.1 goto Device manager on your problematic PC.
In the devices list find your network adapter right click on property and choose
Advanced tab.
You should see a list of options:
find “Large Send Offload v2 (IPv4)” option and if it is enabled, disable it, and if
you are using IPv6 do the same.
Try this option first: reboot and test again
If no good try the following as well for the other options:
IPv4 Checksum offload - disable if enabled
Jumbo frame disable if enabled (mycloud does not support Jumbo Frames).
TCP Checksum offload disable if enabled
UDP checksum offload disable if enabled.
Still no good then change your PC network card.
6. If all is OK. The you can be sure your PC is fine and the router is fine.
Connecting your mycloud
1. Make sure you set a static IP address for mycloud. use the same procedure as you did for
the PC.The MAC for mycloud is printed on the bottom of mycloud.
You can also set it in the dashboard. One place is enough, router is better. If you are
paranoid like me, I set it in both locations.
2. Make sure light at the back of my cloud is green (meaning it is connected at 1Gps). Also, make
sure the front light is steady blue. If in doubt check the manual and learning center on WD
website.
3. From a command line on your PC ping mycloud to make sure there is connectivity. use "ping
. If you get errors recheck your connections and setting again. Make sure
all cables are properly seated.
4. Install WD mycloud software and make sure all is fine and no errors. otherwise, go over your
settings and configurations. Create shares with users and persmissions. For testing, create
one share for one user and set the permission accordingly (r/w). Disable media serving on this
share (for testing purpose you can renable again. Media serving may have an effect on speed as
it may need to do indexing).
5. Make sure the workgroup on my cloud (check dashbaord) is the same as your PC.
6. Make sure that your Windows can see the device in the network folder.
7. create a folder on your PC. Populate it with files with different sizes. Make sure at least one
of the file represent a typical large file. let’s say 1GB and above. Make sure no other devices
is connected at this stage to avoid overloading the router (for testing purposes only).
8. Open a share on your mycloud (make sure you can access the share). On the PC folder, copy the
files (copy and paste) to mycloud share. When copy window appear, click the drop down arrow. This
will show the speed.
9. If your PC is **bleep** (like my old one which I lost few days ago), you should get 20+MBps/40+MBps
write/read(MBps=Megabytes per second) or thereabout. If your PC has SATA 3 with SATA 3 drive then
you should get a minimum of 40+MBps/60+MBps write/read. Since I updated my motherboard to SATA 3,
I am getting 60+MBps/90+MBps write/read.
10. You can also test the connection if you have another PC. Then you can transfer between the 2 PCs
to make sure the PC is working fine.
All this I did with standard settings and no other configurations or tweaks. Hopefully, if you have
reached this stage then you should have a good idea where the bottleneck is. Theoretically you cannot
read or write faster than your hardware. 1 Gbps network, should give, in theory, 125 MBps but in
reality due to network overhead you will not get this, but you can get close. With good hardware you
can reach 100+. Mine on initial transfer reaches 124 MBps for a couple of seconds but throttles back to 85MBps (this is all on a budget hardware).
You can also achieve the same speed via an external USB drive connected to mycloud. This of course
depends on the external harddrive. Mine is non-wd drive SATA 3 3TB drive connected via USB 3.0
docking station.
I can achieve the same speed. Yes WD will put the drive to sleep. However, there are some
compatiblities issue with soem docking stations (strangely with WD own drives as well). Check the
forum for your particular drive.
Also note, bad USB or incompatiblity can cause mycloud to freeze and needing reboot.
NOTE: There are a lot of 3rd party utilties to help you test your speed. Popular one is Lan Speed Test.
It is free. It worked fine on my older PC but now on my new PC it never shows speed above
20/40 write/read while at the same time Windows shows 60/90 write/read. I am in discussion with the
author as to why it suddenly crapped itself (of course I also timed the operations on both ).
I should also mention, that PC’s CPU, PC application load, cables’ quality, router all play a part in
achieving good connection. So make sure when testing from PC that nothing else is running, and
nothing else is connected to the router.
See my guide on how to maintain a good connection to mycloud shares http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud/GUIDE-Troubleshooting-Mapped-shares-and-local-connectivity/td-p/732922
All the above were tested on Windows 7 premium and Widnows 8.1 pro.
TIPS:
If your drive disconnects randonly (shares are not maintained). Make sure you have the correct username and password for the share.
Make sure you have the same workgroup name in my cloud as yoru PC.
Windows XP and Windows 7 may disconnect the shares after an idle time (mostly Windows XP). Check this
Microsoft KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297684 for a fix.
Some users reported that uninstalling smartware fixed the random disconnection.
If you lose a share try using credential manager in Windows (builtin software) as follows:
You can reach credential manager from control panel → user accounts
Take note of the existing shares.
Delete them.
Remap them with correct share, username and password.
ex: \wdmycloud<sharename>
username: …
password …
The double slashes at the start are important. They make the connection persistent.
Instead of \wdmycloud you can use the IP address if you are having problems.
You can also use command line as follows:
net use f:\server<shared folder>
f: is any non used drive by Windows.
If you map the drive from explorer make sure you check “reconnect at logon”.
When using wireless make sure you using Wireless N for ebst performance. However, it also depends
on signal strenth, but generally speaking wireless has more overhead than wired connection so expect
lower speeds.
Same technique for testing above applies to wireless. Just make sure you have a very good signal and fast linkspeed. Usually the signal detoriates the further you are from the router.
Make sure your router stays cool. if they are overloaded, some routers may overheat and disconnet devices or worse they crash.
Make sure you have the latest firmwares and SP (service packs) on all your devices.
As usual when testing using the KISS technique (Keep It Simple Stupid is a design principle/pattern,
no offence).
Well, this is the general principle of installing and testing. I am sure there are many other cases,
but this is a good first step.
Good luck.
