N66U smb share very slow compared to FTP.

[Deleted member 27741]

When I open a small text file with FTP (filezilla) it takes about 1 second. The same file opened by smb share (Win 7) it takes about 7 seconds.

Opening a larger file, about 4.5 Mb, takes about 10 seconds with FTP, 20 seconds with smb. I understand that the smb share should be slower. But should it really be THAT much slower?

 

[Rankdropper84]

Do a speed test using both protocols and post back

 

[Deleted member 27741]

That is the really odd thing, now that I think of it. The copy speeds do not warrant opening files being so slow. Copying a file with smb I just got about 430 KB/s, ftp about 500 KB/s (currently over VPN so speeds will not be blazing fast). But opening the same text file from smb (20 sec) still takes about 2x the time it does to open it from ftp (10 sec).

 

[ColinTaylor]

What are you opening the file with?

 

[Deleted member 27741]

In this case the file is a small or large text file (syslog on USB attached to N66U) opened with notepad++ either from windows 7 (double-clicked from smb share folder) or from filezilla (double clicked from ftp client).

How about you guys? When you open a file from smb vs ftp what is the speed difference, more similar to the copy speed than it is for me? Is this normal?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Seems strange. I've just created a 7MB text file on the router (to avoid Windows caching) and then opened it with Notepad++ via SMB. Took less than 1 second.

Just tried it with FileZilla. Transfer time was about the same although it took a couple of seconds to display the file in Notepad (my default editor), which is normal for with Unix-type files.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I've just spotted your post #3 where you're saying you're using VPN.

In which case I not that surprised. Your ftp speed seems to be correct given that it is a simple ("non-chatty") protocol.

Remember that SMB has more of a "conversation" going on between client and server. The N66U has a pretty weak CPU which seems to have a big impact on SMB speeds anyway. Combine that with the VPN connection which will be using a lot of CPU to encrypt and compress the data in both directions.

What is the ISP internet upload speed at the router?

 

[Deleted member 27741]

I am only able to give vpn speeds because I'm away from home, but the same relationship prevails even when I'm on LAN. My ISP speeds at home are about 60 down, 7 up.

Can you guys think of any reasons why opening the file would take so much longer than copying the file? The transfer speeds are similar, it just takes so much longer to open. Weird. I also tried vanilla notepad, same thing. Perhaps the answer is to use ftp, but I think there is an opportunity to find a bottleneck somewhere here. Maybe it's windows?