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Linksys WRT 1900AC Slow Transfer Speeds USB HDD

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mountain_man

Occasional Visitor
I have a 1TB USB3.0 Seagate hard drive attached to the WRT 1900AC USB 3.0 port. The main reason I got this router was the tests shown on this website that is has the best read / write speeds to the network storage. However, I always have read / write speeds of 8-10 mbps max. Never anything close to the transfer rates shown on here and other places.

I'm transferring files via SMB over wifi from a pc laptop (2.4ghz) via windows file manager. The computer is 10 feet from the router so strong signal. The files are anywhere from 500mb to 10gb. Transfer rates in either direction (read / write) are 8-10 mbps. I believe the hard drive is formatted as FAT32 but I'm not sure (it could be exfat).

I read through this post on Linksys forums and it appears that other people have the same issue, whether over 5ghz or 2.4 ghz connections. https://community.linksys.com/t5/Wi...eds-to-external-Storage-WRT1900AC/td-p/813838

Maybe I'm missing some settings? Anyone know how I can get decent read / write speeds to work over wifi?

Thanks in advance.
 
I know this isn't going to be what you want to hear, but if you really want proper speed and reliability out of shared network storage, then it's best handled by an actual ethernet-connected endpoint like a workstation, server or NAS. Hanging a USB drive off an all-in-one may net acceptable results in a pinch, but I wouldn't make a routine out of it. They're flaky enough as it is...

If it's still in the return window, I'd return the WRT, purchase a cheaper all-in-one and plunk down for a budget NAS (WD MyCloud, Synology DiskStation, etc.). Otherwise, eat the difference and buy the NAS anyways. The recaptured time and headaches should more than make up for the extra cost. Just my two cents, though. :)
 
Right on thanks everyone. When I get a new laptop with 802.11ac speed, should that be faster?

At this point, I'm trying to figure out the slowest link in the chain, and it sounds like we are saying it's the wireless connection to the router? Which is a little odd since the laptop has no problem with 30mbps internet (I'm sure it could go faster but that's all I pay for). I assumed sending files internally (wirelessly) around the network would be significantly faster than 30 mbps, even without ac wifi.

With my old router (Netgear N600) the transfer speed was only 2.5 mbps. At least this is faster than that but I was hoping for something in the 30 - 50mbps range at least. Thanks for the help all.
 
[...] I was hoping for something in the 30 - 50mbps range at least. Thanks for the help all.

You're never going to be near those figures. Stop buying all-in-ones because they're jack of all trades and masters of none. As Trip said it, you'll need a proper wired NAS in order for you have anywhere close to a decent transfer rate. I believe you'll find a wealth of reviews and information on SNB for you to decide on which one.

3 years ago I got myself an Asus RT-N66U router, with the same unrealistic expectation that I'll get decent speeds from an USB connected drive. I did not, and, obviously, its performance was highly dependent on the version of the firmware of the month. So I decided I cannot continue like this because I needed constant backup - so a Synology DS713 was a good investment (not the best). Easy to setup and to maintain, the only downside is that almost every other update, the Crasplan package needs to be convinced to work again.
 
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On the Linksys forum for this router, there is another guy with a NAS and he gets the same slow wifi read/write speeds that I do (and his laptop has 802.11ac 5ghz). So I'm back to the same question. USB 3.0 is plenty faster than 10MB/s so that shouldn't be a problem. Wifi is also plenty faster than 10MB/s so that shouldn't be the problem. Reviews on this site show way faster read and write speeds than 10MB/s over wifi.

Is it the software in the router that limits read/write speeds to the USB 3.0 port? Can anyone help me understand what I'm missing?
 
The first thing to do is to connect to your router with a wired connection and see what speed you get. If the wired works well then you have narrowed it down to wireless.
It seems maybe you are confusing Mb/s and MB/s. If your getting 10MB/s on your transfer that is 80Mb/s which is pretty darn good for 2.4Ghz. I assume when your talking internet speed your talking 30Mb/s. Since it looks like you can transfer at 80Mb/s then that is why you have no trouble getting max speeds from your internet connection. As far as other people having 802.11ac 5gh, it really depends on how they set it up, signal strength, and are both the client and router ac compatible, as to how much speed they will get (along with a handfull of other factors).
 
Thanks Bailey. You're right about internet speed. Speedtest.net shows 22Mbps. As for the transfer speeds though, everything else is MB/s. If you wouldn't mind checking this out, it seems especially strange that read speeds on Cat5 are still only 3MB/s (maybe read isn't the right terminology for transferring a file from the HDD to the laptop). Should I try hooking up the USB 3.0 drive to the Sata port on the router? Could that speed things up?

Below is a bunch of data I posted over on the Linksys forum while trying to figure this out.


Laptop is HP Envy, intel core i5. 2.4ghz wifi. cpu 1.7ghz. Wireless card is Intel Centrino Wireness N-2230. Advanced shows 802.11n Channel Width for band 2.4. Driver 15.0.0.75. Transferring files and recording speeds by copy/pasting between folders and watching the transfer status window.

Phone is Nexus 5. Has 5ghz 802.11ac wifi. Connected to 5ghz channel on router. I use ES File Explorer Pro to transfer files and report speeds.

Nvidia Shield TV (ac speed wifi). Connected wirelessly to network on 5ghz. I use ES File Explorer to transfer files and report speeds.

HDD is Seagate Free Agent GoFlex 1TB with USB 3.0 Not sure the specs but P/N is 9Zf2A5-500. I think it should be 5400rpm. HDD connected to router via USB 3.0. Formatted as NTFS

Using SMB to access the drive on all wifi connections. All test are transferring a file 600MB to 1GB in size.

Tests over wifi

Transfer from laptop to HDD: max 5.5MB/s
Transfer from HDD to laptop: max 3MB/s

Transfer from Nexus 5 to HDD: max 8.55MB/s
Transfer from HDD to Nexus 5: max 2.5MB/s

Test laptop connected to router with Cat5 cable, HDD connected to router (and wifi disabled on the laptop)

Transfer from laptop to HDD: max 65MB/s
Transfer from HDD to Laptop: 3MB/s (this seems super slow?)

Testing hooking the HDD directly to my laptop and shield TV on USB 3.0 ports

Transfer from laptop to HDD: 75-80MB/s
Transfer from HDD to laptop: 75-80MB/s

Transfer from Nvidia shield to HDD: 17.5MB/s
Transfer from HDD to nvidia shield: 25MB/s

** The local storage on my shield was a mounted 64gb, UHS1 class 10 microSD card with 85MB/s
 
Anyone have any ideas for me? Sure seems like there is something wrong with the router / firmware preventing it from reading / writing to the HDD at max speeds over wifi.

My big question, that hopefully someone can answer for me, is what is the bottleneck here? Wifi should be able to handle up to 1 gbps. USB 3.0 can handle at least 75MB/s transfer speed. So what is making the wifi transfer max out at 5.5-8.5 MB/s write respectively for 2.4 & 5ghz. What makes the read max over wifi 2.5-3MB/s read regardless of 2.4 or 5ghz?

Similarly, why would the max transfer speed from HDD to laptop be 3MB/s when the laptop is wired with a Cat5 cable?.. the transfer speed from laptop to HDD is 65MB/s in this same configuration. Am I right in assuming it's something in the router software / firmware?

Thanks so much!
 
There definitely seems to be something wrong, but I don't think it's the router firmware. If it were, there wouldn't be dozens of test reports (including here at SNB) that show much, much higher read speeds. Your read speeds are extraordinarily slow, especially considering how high the write speed is.

Have you tried connecting the drive to the USB2.0 port on the router?
 
Thanks for the idea htismage.

With the drive connected to the eSATA port instead of the USB 3.0 port I get the same speeds over 2.4GHZ wifi. 8.5MB/s write; 3.3MB/s read.

When the laptop is wired to the router with Cat5, HDD drive connected to the eSATA port is slower than when the HDD was on the USB 3.0 port. 34MB/s write; 3.3MB/s read. The write is significantly slower (USB 3.0 was 65MB/s)

Does that give you any insight into what might be the bottleneck? Thanks for your help!
 
Have you ruled out the GoFlex? You could try a USB key or other USB device and see if it continues.
 
If I hook the GoFlex directly to my laptop USB3.0 port or to an Nvidia Shield Android TV USB 3.0 port, I get the speeds listed below. I assumed this meant the drive works fine. Could I be wrong about that?

Transfer from laptop to HDD: 75-80MB/s
Transfer from HDD to laptop: 75-80MB/s

Transfer from Nvidia shield to HDD: 17.5MB/s
Transfer from HDD to nvidia shield: 25MB/s
** The local storage on my shield was a mounted 64gb, UHS1 class 10 microSD card with 85MB/s
 
If I hook the GoFlex directly to my laptop USB3.0 port or to an Nvidia Shield Android TV USB 3.0 port, I get the speeds listed below. I assumed this meant the drive works fine. Could I be wrong about that?

Transfer from laptop to HDD: 75-80MB/s
Transfer from HDD to laptop: 75-80MB/s

Transfer from Nvidia shield to HDD: 17.5MB/s
Transfer from HDD to nvidia shield: 25MB/s
** The local storage on my shield was a mounted 64gb, UHS1 class 10 microSD card with 85MB/s

Doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the HDD itself as the results when connected to a real computer show.

You may want to try different channels on the router and possibly even placement and orientation (even a few inches help sometimes). With 2.4GHz, you only want to test channels 1, 6 and 11 (and depending on your country, 13 also). With 5GHz you need to test each channel one by one (as they don't overlap like they do in the 2.4GHz band.

Don't use a wifi analyzer for this as it will simply confuse the process without giving any real info to make decisions on. Simply change the channel, reboot the router, and test for throughput and latency at a reasonable distance from the router (10' to 30'). When the 'right' channel shows up, you'll know. ;)
 
One thing to consider - The WRT1900 series in 2.4GHz should be run in B/G/N only mode - Auto does 11ac in 2.4GHz, and causes some significant performance issues with various clients...
 
Interesting. Thanks for the ideas guys! My laptop is 2.4ghz. Both the nexus 5 and shield tv are on 5 ghz. Everything maxes at 3MB/s read. I'll start out by setting the 2.4 to b/g/n to see if that helps. Then I'll move on to testing specific channels. I live a a subdivision so there aren't that many other routers within wifi distance (maybe 5) but I have seen one that is also on 5ghz channel 149 so that could be interfering with that side of things.

Much appreciated! I'll report back when I have more info.
 
If I hook the GoFlex directly to my laptop USB3.0 port or to an Nvidia Shield Android TV USB 3.0 port, I get the speeds listed below. I assumed this meant the drive works fine. Could I be wrong about that?

Transfer from laptop to HDD: 75-80MB/s
Transfer from HDD to laptop: 75-80MB/s

Transfer from Nvidia shield to HDD: 17.5MB/s
Transfer from HDD to nvidia shield: 25MB/s
** The local storage on my shield was a mounted 64gb, UHS1 class 10 microSD card with 85MB/s

The GoFlex controller may have an issue with the router. That's why I suggested trying a different USB device with the router.

I don't know anything about the GoFlex but I tend to stay away from the Seagate and WD external enclosure because there's always more to them (in terms of software) than just a SATA/USB controller. I prefer cheap enclosures and bare drives because they'll work with just about any device, router, PC, etc.
 
@htismage, I tried a usb 2.0 stick in the usb3.0 port on the router to see if maybe the GoFlex was the problem due to its controller. Doesn't seem like that's the case.

Transfer from laptop to stick: 5 MB/s (started at 11MB/s for a second, then decreased to 3.5 MB/s for the rest)
Transfer from stick to laptop: 3.2 MB/s

I'll go through another poster's suggestion next... switching 2.4ghz mode to channel 1, then 6, then 11 to see if any of those work better than auto setting.
 
@L&LD and @sfx2000 thanks for the ideas. I tested those out. Seems like I get the best transfer speeds with b/g/n and channel set to auto. That said, the read speed from the network drive never gets past 3.4 MB/s no matter what.

Testing with router set to 2.4ghz as b/g/n only, auto channel

Laptop to HDD: max 10.4MB/s (that’s an improvement)
HDD to laptop: max 3.4 MB/s

Testing with router set to 2.4ghz as b/g/n only, channel 1

Laptop to HDD: max 11.3 MB/s
HDD to laptop: max 3.25 MB/s

Testing with router set to 2.4ghz as b/g/n only, channel 6

Laptop to HDD: max 9.5 MB/s
HDD to laptop: max 1.89 MB/s

Testing with router set to 2.4ghz as b/g/n only, channel 11

Laptop to HDD: max 10.7 MB/s
HDD to laptop: max 3.27 MB/s


Lastly, I also tested transferring a file from my main laptop to an older laptop (with broadcom 4313GN 802.11 b/g/n wifi adapter). Both on 2.4ghz. I tried initiating the transfer from the old laptop. All of this is transferring from documents folder to documents folder, no external drive anywhere.

Pull from main laptop to old laptop: 2.8 MB/s
Push from old laptop to main laptop: 3.75 MB/s

Per this last test, an IT buddy told me that there is something wrong with the WAP and I should warranty/return the router because this sort of laptop to laptop transfer should be way way faster than this. Thoughts?
 
This is turning into quite the case study... You must enjoy all the testing and tinkering? Because again, if you just want to assure performance and be done with it, a NAS or workstation/server on an eBay'd x86 box would be many fold better. I'd leave the router and AP alone, in lieu of a storage-centric product for that role specifically. But to each their own. :)
 
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