Slow Network Drive Transfer Speeds

[tomhoward7]

Hello, I recently purchased a TP-LinK TD-W8970 router which comes with 2 USB (2.0) ports and I connected a new Seagate 3TB external drive to it. My computer is running Windows 7 32-bit.

In my router's settings there are options to change the access for different accounts. For example the Admin account can read/write the 'movies' folder and the guest account can only read.

The router has gigabit ports and I am using Cat5e cables.

The problem is that when I copy files over I only get about 3mb/s which is slower than what I get when downloading files from the internet (6mb/s). I do not know what the problem is because I was expecting to be getting at least 20mb/s over LAN as there do not seem to be any bottlenecks in my system.

Here are some screenshots of the router:

Thank you in advance for any help

 

[VirtualLarry]

The problem is that when I copy files over I only get about 3mb/s which is slower than what I get when downloading files from the internet (6mb/s). I do not know what the problem is because I was expecting to be getting at least 20mb/s over LAN as there do not seem to be any bottlenecks in my system.

That is in fact perfectly normal, for a USB external HDD connected to a router. Especially if it's formatted NTFS.

If you want something faster (native gigabit speed), expect to spend $100-200 for a single-drive gigabit SATA NAS unit.

Edit: Like one of these, it's among the cheapest around, and includes the 2TB HDD.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148614&Tpk=goflex home&IsVirtualParent=1

N.B. I own the 3TB drive, and although it has worked mostly fine thus far, it did corrupt one text file thus far.

 

[lif_andi]

Maybe you'd be better off connecting the USB drive to one of your computers and mapping it as a network drive?

Haven't done this myself, but just an idea.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Maybe you'd be better off connecting the USB drive to one of your computers and mapping it as a network drive?

Haven't done this myself, but just an idea.

That would be faster. Part of the problem is the (relatively) slow CPU in the router. Most run at under half a ghz, and the architecture used in routers is a slower RISC one. Whereas, desktop x86 CPUs run circles around those CPUs, even when slowed down to similar clock speeds.

 

[tomhoward7]

That would be faster. Part of the problem is the (relatively) slow CPU in the router. Most run at under half a ghz, and the architecture used in routers is a slower RISC one. Whereas, desktop x86 CPUs run circles around those CPUs, even when slowed down to similar clock speeds.

Thank you for this useful information. I thought this may be the problem when reading something similar some where else.

I have a Sony Vaio laptop which runs pretty well and is core 2 duo 2Ghz. If I plug in the drive to it can I then expect to get much faster speeds If I make it a network drive?

Also I have an original Apple TV which I made to run OS X leopard. It has a 1GHz processor, is that enough for a fast network drive?

 

[lif_andi]

I think part of the problem is that the router needs the traffic to go through the processor, while most PCs have chipsets dedicated to handle all the extra I/O. Normally southbridges handle USB traffic, and maybe don't have a lot of other things to do, while the router has only its little CPU to do everything, and thus it will do it slowly because USB transfers are not really its thing.

I know nothing about Apple TV but if it has a chipset of some kind, or is designed with regards to handling USB traffic, then you should be fine.