LS220 transfer speeds

[mc2]

Transfer speeds from my PC to my LS220 have recently doubled from what they've always been before, and I can't figure out why!

I've had the LS220 for a couple of years now and always had transfer speeds to it from my PC of around 30-33MB/s.  (A bit disappointing, but I'd always figured, hey, it's a cheaper end of the market NAS, so ok...).

I use it for general LAN storage and for backups and those are the figures I usually get copying files to it and also the speeds typically reported by Macrium.

That was up until last Friday when the Macrium logs show transfer speeds for that day and the following two days backups of 66MB/s, 64MB/s & 56MB/s, and when I noticed that in the logs on Sunday and tried copying files to the NAS I also got similarly high speeds.

Then Monday and Tuesday it went back to the low 30s, both for copying files and Macrium, and then Wednesday and today it's back up to the 60s, and while I wouldn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, I can't figure out why or, now that I know the setup is capable of better speeds, what I need to do to keep it that way.

As far as I know, nothing has changed over the period or leading up to it.  The LS220 is on v1.73, as it has been for ages, there's been no Windows updates, and I've not changed anything, software, hardware or configuration, nothing at all.

So, the question is, what could be the cause of the change in transfer speeds, and, hence, what can I do to keep it high?

My setup is it's an LS220D0202 and it and my Win10Pro PC are connected to a gigabit switch.  The LS220 runs continuously (running time is currently 152 days), but the PC gets powered up & booted every morning and shut down & powered off every evening, and I have fast startup turned off, so it's always a from-scratch reboot.  I have jumbo frames enabled all round, and at the times in question there is (and always has been) little/no other activity on the LAN.

Any ideas?

[mc2]

Disappointed not to have any answers (esp. as it reverted back to the slower speeds a day or two after my post) ... but I've now found the proximate cause.

I installed v1.75 and tried the different SMB options, and it's totally reproducible, SMB V1 speeds are twice those of SMB V2!

So, clearly, before under v1.73, while it mostly used SMB V2, at the times when it was "unusually" fast it must have, for some reason, just been using SMB V1.

Now, the question is, is it the LS220 itself that's the cause of the difference or is it something about my Windows SMB V2 configuration?  And if the latter, what?

[babybio]

I have just bought an ls210 and searching for info on it I came across a comment saying the same thing that it struggles with smb2. I think there is even a message in the settings that it will be slower if you select smb2.

I always wondered why manufacturers stuck to smb1 for so long after it was superceeded but I suppose it allowed them to use cheaper and slower hardware.

Microsoft have removed smb1 from Win10 though because of its secruity problems so I don't know how your pc would be sometimes using it unless you have added it back manually.

[StrikerTheHedgefox]

My LS220 has been running terribly lately. Latest firmware as of this post. If I force power off, and start it up, it's fast, but after a few hours, transfer speeds lower all the way to 2kb/sec. Restarting fixes it again, but doesn't matter what SMB mode I have on.

[StrikerTheHedgefox]

Anyone have any solutions? One extra bit of information: When the transfer speeds slow down, the webUI also slows down, so accessing settings becomes next to impossible to use. Again, restarting the NAS fixes it for a few hours, then it slows down again.

[Kane88]

I have just bought an ls210 and searching for info on it I came across a comment saying the same thing that it struggles with smb2. I think there is even a message in the settings that it will be slower if you select smb2.

I always wondered why manufacturers stuck to smb1 for so long after it was superceeded but I suppose it allowed them to use cheaper and slower hardware.

Microsoft have removed smb1 from Win10 though because of its secruity problems so I don't know how your pc would be sometimes using it unless you have added it back manually.

This is the issue.  SMB2.  You can use SMB1 and it will go up to about 45MB/sec

The slow speed is why I eventually moved off of Linkstations and over to Terastations.   Linkstations are great starter devices, but to really move data, they are no faster than a USB 2.0 hard drive at best.


As for SMB 1.x it CAN be added back to Windows 10 or 11.  But you do so at your own risk.  Leaving SMB 1.x turned on does make your pc vulnerable to attacks. 
https://winsides.com/enable-smb-1-0-cifs-file-sharing-support-windows-11/


IF you MUST use it, use it sparingly, or try these suggestions.

You don't want to use SMB 1.x on a PC that has critical stuff on it you don't want compromised.  My suggestion would be to use an older PC to map your linkstation to.  Then use that share from the older PC to your daily driver PC.  You could also do the same with Oracle VirtualBox which is free, and create a VM that you don't care about so much, if it were to get compromised. 

That's the only way you're going to get any decent speed out of your linkstation.  Now READS of course are going to be faster- probably 60-70MB/sec which is not bad for that little toaster box NAS.

My advice is to do that or find a Terastation 3200 or 3400 as a starting point, and sell off your Linkstation to a friend or family as a starter NAS device.  The TS 3400 can be had for under 100 bucks on ebay and will give you more drive bays and double the speed at least.  The 5200 or 5400 also can be had for about that but they are a harder find.

Even the TS 3400 is a big improvement over the LS220s. 

hope this helps.