Poor network performance

I have had the 4TB (2TB  RAID1 config.) unit for 3 days now and I am very disappointed with its performance

After testing different scenarios I think the issue may be related to the Network Interface Card and/or its configuration.

My setup:

Netgear unmanaged gigabit switch / all CAT6 patch cables.

HP Win 7 x64 system with Gigabit NIC.

Sony BR player BDP-BX58 (wired 100Mbps / wireless ~54Mbps), DLNA certified.

WD My Book Live Duo 4TB (RAID1)

D-Link DIR-615 router (b/g/n) / UPnP enabled.

Folder structure on the WD MBLD:

Public (a few videos/formats for testing purposes)

The following are folders / shares outside the Public folder / share

Documents (private share)

Pictures (public share)

Videos (public share)

Tests:

I have modified the WD unit so as to expose all shares and eliminate any doubts about disk performance issues; Transferring files between local directories is fast, as expected.

Transfer speed rates (layman’s terms via Win GUI or Sony’s BR menu options):

PC < > WD Sharespace (device borrowed for testing purposes with 1GB NIC, I did not test its media server capabilities), ~20MB/sec

PC < > WD My Book Live Duo, never above 9MB/sec which may be ok for 100Mbps networks.

WEB streaming (YouTube/Hulu) to Sony BR, varies but no lag problems.

WD > Sony BR, unacceptable/unbearable (144Kbps) via wireless and not much better when connected via network cable.

A 10MB picture takes the proverbial forever to show up and a 50MB video you can only see about 5 secs at a time.

The Sony BR player does not exhibit these issues with media on USB drives. Not a fare comparison but this should hint transcoding on the Sony unit is not an issue.

I am yet to test using the PC as a media server and have not even dare to use any cell apps.

iTunes is disabled as we have no need.

I have also noticed that while the manual Rebuild operation takes place (via button), the media server is not accessible.

Is it possible, via SSH, to look at/ modify NIC settings (Auto sensing/full duplex/ MTU size, etc.)?

EDIT:

eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP qlen 1000

mii-tool > eth0: negotiated 1000baseT-FD, link ok

Thanks and hopefully I am a lone wolf on this one.

Wow, that is way too slow. I have a My Book Live, and the Duo. Both transfer at about the same rate, around 50-65mbps on my gigabit. I have been able to stream 720p HD to media players as well.

Sounds like you might have a bad unit. That **bleep**.

tinmad:

 PC < > WD My Book Live Duo, never above 9MB/sec which may be ok for 100Mbps networks.

Make sure your PC hasn’t mistakenly connected to the Duo via a WebDAV connection.

You can verify this by opening a “cmd” window on the PC and issue the command

“net use”

If you see the share marked as “Web Client Network,” then it’s a WebDAV mount which is notoriously slow.

Will check that for PC transfer. Still puzzled about the streaming (trickling)  to the Sony BR portion. 

Is the Sony BR connecting via DLNA or “Samba?”

Must be DLNA, the player has Sony’s “classic” interface (PS like) , the WD logo comes up  when the server is available (no logo when server is in la-la land rebuilding).
 No choice for “browsing” SAMBA directories, at least I am not trying and there is not much to configure.

Thanks. 

DLNA on the DUO definitely has some issues that are similar to what you describe. 

A cautious follow up:
The unit is now responding properly, I was able to stream a few minutes of a movie (because thats how much I tested) and saw no lag on the BR player, wirelessly.

No changes were made so I am a bit concerned about this being related to system stability (media server, os, etc…).

I have got exactly the same problem.

Gigabit Network, and my Computer on the same switch like the nas and get ~22MB/s copying a File on to the NAS. When copying to another System on the Switch I get ~50-60MB/s.

Is there something I can do?

Thanks in advance

I just got the 6TB Duo yesterday and I have been moving files from my PC to the Duo for the last 18 hours.  So far I only moved about 1 TB and I still have about 3TB to go.  Windows is showing 11MB/sec transfer and that is way too slow for moving files over my 100Mbps wired network.

Anything that I can do to make the transfer go any faster?  I’ve checked the “net use” command and I am using Microsoft Windows Network to connect the Duo.

At 11 MB/sec, would that be fast enough to stream my movies over the WD live box to my HDTV?

Thanks!

11 MegaBYTES transfer is roughly equivalent to 90 MegaBITS per second.

If your LAN is 100 Megabits, then you’re using 100% of what you can do.

You need to upgrade your network if you want to copy files around faster.

But at any rate, 100 megabits/sec is probably good enough to stream most types of content to your HDTV.

Actually the replacement router that I have has gigabit but my cables (built-in inside drywall) are only Cat5E so that maybe why I don’t see any speed advantage.

Well, what can you do.  Technology matches on.  Had the house wired prior to gigabit getting popular.

Thank you for the quick response.

Cat5E is fine for gig.