How can I improve network connection? Very slow uploads to WD EX4100

[NielsFah]

Hi together,

I use the WD WDMyCloudEX4100 system for a bit now. I have some issues with the upload speed which appears to be very slow (couple mbit/s). A data package of 100 GB needs way over 10 hours to upload to the server. This is not how I planned to use the NAS and a bit inconvenient.

The main use-case is to store my photos (I’m a photographer). So I often upload 32 - 64 Gb and more to the cloud to store them. I need to access these photos quickly and sometimes work with them in my workflow.

The WD device is connected to a router from my ISP (Vodafone) via ethernet cable. My computer (MacBook) is connected to the router via wifi and ethernet cable.
I tried to use the wifi connection as well as a LAN connection (MacBook connected via ethernet cable to the router) but experience very slow transfer rates in both ways.

To access the NAS I use the “Connect to server” option in the Macs Finder and log-in on the following window.

Following you’ll find my network settings:

Can you help me in this case? Do I have the wrong setup?
I assume that the computer only uses the connection via wifi (which still is very slow for that) and not via the ethernet cable. Can you give some advice on how to improve the data transfer speed?

Thanks in advance!

[AustinForest]

Is your router gigabit Ethernet?

[NielsFah]

Yes, it has 4x 1.000 Mbit connections

[AustinForest]

Are you on OS5?
Is the NAS done indexing your content for web access? As it could slow operation down…

Is the MacBook connected with gigabit speed to the router?

Another option would be to use the USB ports on your NAS to upload directly the content of your memory card?

[NAS_user]

So. . .have you recently upgraded to OS/5?
If the unit is still indexing. . . . .forget it. The device will be utterly useless until indexing is complete.

What kind of speed (mbs) are you getting?
Wireless connection will ALWAYS be slow. . . .although it shouldn’t take 10 hours for 100GB.
You want to have wired connection from the computer to the router, and a wire from the router to the NAS for the best speed.

While technically you can do the USB upload as noted above. . . .that should only be viewed as a workaround.

If you have other elements, like a mesh router access point or a slow network switch. . .then you might have issues.

[NielsFah]

Hi all and thanks for your answers.

I did not upgrade to OS 5 yet and am not planning on doing so regarding your advice, thx.
I also double-checked the wiring and everything works fine (Macbook has a working internet connection with wifi disabled). Transfers from and to the NAS are generally working fine.

I spent the last days troubleshooting and discovered that the mentioned problem only occurs with direct interaction between the Macbook and the NAS. E.g. the unacceptable slow transfer speed only occurs when transferring data from the MacBook to the NAS or vise versa.

I transferred a data package of 100 GB from an external hard drive (connected to the Macbook!) to the NAS and this was completed within an hour or two which is not great but fine for me.
The same data package took over 10 hours to be transferred from the Macbook to the NAS.
The same is valid when working on Macbook with data stored on the NAS

So I come to the resolution that the problem is related to the transfer between a Mac and the NAS.
Is this a common problem? I didn’t find any related topics.

Thanks in advance!