Linkstation Live LS-CHL1.0 transfer speed slow, only 1.3mbps

[jlin]

I am very frustrated by the snail pace of my LinkStation Live unit.

 

The unit is connected to my Linksys router WRT150N.  The router is connected to my PC via ethernet.

 

When I transfer folders from the PC to the Linkstation, it never gets a better rate than about 1.3mbps initially and that degrades during the transfer operation, like right now, after about a half hour into it, its down to 900kbps. 

 

This is totally unacceptable performance - any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

 

[Jotin]

What firmware version are you running and whats steps have you taken to try and fix the issue? 

[jlin]

I have firmware version 1.34.  Which is an upgrade from whatever it shipped with, can't recall now; did that in the hopes that it would fix the slowness issue. So that is the only step I have taken to try to resolve the issue so far (saw it suggested in another thread)

 

However, the firmware upgrade had no apparent effect on the transfer speeds.

 

 

[JoshC]

Trying turning the Jumbo Frames up on the unit. 

[jlin]

Following up, I modified the Eth frame size to the lowest jumbo setting, and tested it on a small file transfer operation (less than 2GB).     The overall effect is that performance appears to have suffered.   Instead of starting at 1.3Mbps and degrading to 900Kbps, as I'd been seeing,  it started at 900kbps and didn't improve signficantly from that point.  It hit a low of 700k and bounced off 1.0Mbps.

 

I will try the other jumbo frame settings and see if they offer any benefit, and will post again.

 

In the meantime, do you have any other ideas?  Could this be something specific to my networking configuration or to my PC hardware?  My PC is a standard Dell unit - runs Vista, has a Core2Duo Intel, about 2 years old, with a standard speed drive and 3gb RAM.  Nothing unusual there.  Standard ethernet cable running from my PC to my router and from router to modem.  As I mentioned the Linksys router is a WRT150N.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jlin]

In a new disturbing twist, the internal transfer rate, from one folder to another on the LS-CHL1.0, is now about 6kbps.  I have no idea what is going on with this unit, but I am beginning to suspect that it is a dud. As a test of its performance, to exclude the effect of my own PC and ethernet cables,  I just tried to move a 10MB folder from one location to another, and it is giving me a 25 minute transfer estimate at 6-7kbps.

 

The unit doesn't have all that much stuff on it, maybe 30GB.

 

 

 

 

[jlin]

Anyone have any other ideas? I'm hosed here with this thing running so slow.

 

I guess I'll call the tech support line to see if they can help out. 

[Jotin]

Try updating the firmware and resetting the unit and see if that helps. Otherwise look at other factors on your network like where any bottle necks could be. Or try a direct connection to your pc and see what you're getting.

[jlin]

Hi, I have tried the direct connection with no effect. 

 

Interestingly enough this was also suggested to me by a tech support rep at Buffalo. 

 

In that conversation he told me something very disturbing. He said the chip inside the Linkstation Live is so old and slow, that it could be the cause of the problem (Meaning P2, P3 gen speeds.).  What I cannot figure out is why in the hell Buffalo would do this?  It does not make any sense.

 

The other thing he told me made little sense as well. He said when you copy files from one location on the Linkstation to another location on the Linkstation, all the data goes through the machine from which you are accessing the Linkstation - like it serves as a "host" of some sort.

 

Again, why in the HELL would Buffalo design a NAS in this fashion? The entire point of a NAS is to offload this part of the IO from the desktops. 

 

I have about had it with this product.  I am tempted to destroy the unit, on video, upload it to YouTube and Facebook (where I should create a page just called Buffalo SUCKS, "like" if you agree).

 

Nothing I have tried has alleviated any of the many problems I have with this unit. I am given to believe it is a piece of **bleep** built from a 15 year old chip.  I have a folder structure in my Linkstation in which the top level is only 20 folders  deep.  Why does it take more than a minute for the Buffalo simply to display the contents of this top folder? What the hell is it doing for 30-45 seconds? It should be instantaneous - it is 20 files, barely 200 characters.

 

 

 

 

 

[davo]

its probably just a failed NIC or something to that effect, the processor built into the unit is more than enough, after all, the unit is not a PC or server so does not need a powerful processor.

 

Try forcing the firmware on the unit while also rebuilding the partition table, attempt a backup before you try this.

[jlin]

A failed NIC ?  It was like this out of the box. If this is true then are all these people in this position just owners of lemons?  That could explain a lot - maybe they just don't do any QA.   Its a lot cheaper to skip QA, so that would not surprise me.

As for the chip, yah, you clearly need a faster CPU. File transfers are CPU intensive.  And they are using a 10 year old chip design that probably cost all of $1.99 from the rejects bin.

 

They could have at least used a decent chipset, something from within the last decade would have been great.  And not to use a low power chipset with no buffer (does it even have 1MB?) that seems better suited for SMS rather than network traffic.