Netgear WNDR4700 CENTRIA Review

[Guz]

I finally read the review, impressive. Darn near an all-in-one device (router/nas/DLNA).

One thing I can't find is the DLNA specs. What media type (MKV, MP4, MP3, etc.) of media will it serve? Does it transcode on the fly, or straight stream (let the final device figure it out)?

I'm really impressed that it handles NTFS formatted drives so well (as stated, better than ext4).

I would really like to get my hands on one to experiment with.

 

[thiggins]

The ReadyShare features are the same as in previous WNDR series products. All it does is scan files so that it can serve up titles to devices that can't scan network shares and discover files for themselves.

Transcoding? Really? C'mon, not even many standalone NASes do that...

 

[Guz]

I wanted to make sure that it DOESN'T transcode. I can't remember which device I ran into that did, but what a NIGHTMARE.

My google-foo is weak today and can't find a good detail on the current readyshare features, like can you specify just one directory (and it subs) to be scanned for DLNA? Or are you stuck with it scanning the entire drive contents?

Also, IPv6 on the WNDR4700? Yes(good)/No(bad)?

 

[thiggins]

My google-foo is weak today and can't find a good detail on the current readyshare features, like can you specify just one directory (and it subs) to be scanned for DLNA? Or are you stuck with it scanning the entire drive contents?

The WNDR3800 review covered the Genie firmware features. You can also download the WNDR4500 manual for feature details. The DLNA scan is for the whole drive

Also, IPv6 on the WNDR4700? Yes(good)/No(bad)?

I don't test IPv6. Same as other WNDRs. Modes are Auto Detect, Auto Config, 6to4 tunnel, Pass Through, Fixed, DHCP, PPPoE. The user manual is no help here.

 

[Razor512]

WNDR4700 NAS performance question

I was wondering if small net builder or anyone else encountered the same performance issue that I encountered.

With WD20EARX drive in the router, and testing speeds with large ISO files, my read speeds were close to 90MB/s and my writes were around 30-40MB/s

but when it comes to smaller files, eg 10-30MB files, the speeds slow down a bit and then after a few minutes of transferring, the (for reads and writes) the transfer begins to happen in bursts (eg it will read at 70-80MB/s for like 5-6 seconds, then it will stop sending data for about 4-5 seconds then it will start sending again, and this pattern repeats until you reboot the router then start the transfers again.

I will see if I can record a video of this issue, hopefully small net builder notices it and sees if they can convince netgear to fix it, then retest the performance when they do.

If you enable the console and run top (and focus on the process smbd), you will see that after a few minutes of transferring many small files, the free memory drops from around 140+MB free, to only about 8MB free, then the CPU usage drops and the transfer rate begins to exhibit that weird behavior.

To me, the low performance reported in the article seems to be due to poor memory management

(and to some extent this issue seems to happen with WAN to LAN performance, it can start off at nearly 900Mbit/s but it can only maintain those speeds for a short time though in that case I cant see why, it doesn't take much memory, and the CPU usage just drops down a little at which time the performance slows)

(PS wanted to mention that the built in formatting tool will not always properly align partitions, this causes reduced performance)

 

[Guz]

The WNDR3800 review covered the Genie firmware features. You can also download the WNDR4500 manual for feature details. The DLNA scan is for the whole drive

I don't test IPv6. Same as other WNDRs. Modes are Auto Detect, Auto Config, 6to4 tunnel, Pass Through, Fixed, DHCP, PPPoE. The user manual is no help here.

Both NO, dang.

Weird that you can specify particular directories to share, but you can't specify what directory to scan for dlna.

No IPv6 support is a big issue. It would be nice to start testing IPv6 in the reviews. Most ISP's are either going to enable soon (next year), or are already enabled.

 

[thiggins]

I did not see this effect. It wouldn't surprise me, however, if there were bugs that need to be fixed.

 

[Razor512]

The WNDR4700 does not transcode but it does update the DLNA list quickly. It lists every file format I tried (mainly different MKV's, mp4, avi, divx and a few others.

One issue though is the DLNA index is rebuilt when ever you reboot the router. If you have thousands of songs and a crap ton of video on it like I do, the router will spend 15+ minutes indexing after rebooting which can be annoying.


One issue with the review that I noticed is that I am getting higher performance figures across the board than what they are getting.

(around 30-40MB/s on average for writes and 70-90MB/s for the reads using ext4 (I formatted the drive my self using gparted since my first backup I connect the drive directly to my PC to enjoy 90+MB/s writes then additional backups are made directly to the router.

 

[DeucesAx]

I just bought the wndr4700 and am now debating whether to get an internal or an external hard drive. As I don't need the hard drive all the time I thought I should probably get an external one so I can turn it off when not needed. Does that have any negative effects I'm not aware of?

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

 

[L&LD]

That would defeat the whole point of the router you choose.

I'm almost positive that the router will spin down the drive when it is idle for a period of time. Better than having to be there and plugging it in/turning it on when you need to access a random file every time too.

 

[DeucesAx]

I read in multiple reviews that it doesn't spin down. I would really only use like once a week. Would it be as simple as turning the drive of an on, or would I need to mount/ummount in the software first?

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

 

[L&LD]

Were those reviews for current firmware?

I'd be very surprised if it didn't spin down.

Sorry, not sure about the other questions with this unit.

 

[DeucesAx]

I just got the router. The fan is REALLY loud. Louder 10 my ancient fridge while on. I can hear it behind a closed door. It's also not a usual fan sound, kind of a clicking.
I bought new of newegg, however when I called netgear to complain about it they told me it was manufactured and not under their warranty anymore. Literally told me I should sent it back and buy from a "proper" store like Walmart or BestBuy, lol
I'm debating whether to replace it or get a refund. Do you think this is an actual hardware defect or is it normal? Has netgear upgraded their fan in later manufactured models?

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

 

[TonyH]

Hi,
Is HDD hanging on USB port of a router called NAS?

 

[L&LD]

No, it is not a NAS.

NAS stands for Near Astronomical Speeds and USB has never provided that on desktops, let alone on a router.

 

[Razor512]

An internal drive is significantly faster.

USB has more CPU overhead, while the router has a proper controller which allows for good sata performance.

For best internal drive performance, format it as NTFS using your PC before installing it into the router.

This has allowed me to get consistently higher read and write speeds.

For large files you can hold about 40MB/s writes, and reads can still be around 70-90MB/s based on whatever random background crap that the router is doing at the time.

While router is not loud, but the sound of the fan is noticeable in a quiet room, so it is better to not have it in a quiet bedroom.

Other than that, the 4700 with the V1.0.0.52 firmware, is extremely stable even with the R7000, I still keep the 4700 as my main router because it has gone a year without needing a reboot.

The main area where these router based NAS devices that the IOPS suck so if you are dealing with small files, or making the storage multitask, the performance will drop significantly.

This is where a proper NAS, and especially a PC or old laptop turned into a NAS, excels. A proper computer has the power to throw more IOPS at the issue. (considering most purpose built NAS devices such as a drobo and many others can cost as much as a gaming PC before you even purchase any drives for it, if you need a ton of NAS performance, build yourself a proper NAS that will easily max out a gigabit connection, for a fraction of the price.

 

[sfx2000]

I read in multiple reviews that it doesn't spin down. I would really only use like once a week. Would it be as simple as turning the drive of an on, or would I need to mount/ummount in the software first?

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

Better to leave the drive spinning than to Spin-Up/Spin-Down for a couple of minutes - this is where most drives die...

Modern HD's in a NAS environment use very little power when idle and spinning...

Cost to replace is higher than operational costs over 2 years..

 

[Razor512]

while constant spinning up and down can cause issues, I feel that it will extend the life of the drive if it is being used very infrequently, for example I may go a day or 2 without using the drive (sometimes longer), I would like for it to spin down.

 

[thiggins]

while constant spinning up and down can cause issues, I feel that it will extend the life of the drive if it is being used very infrequently, for example I may go a day or 2 without using the drive (sometimes longer), I would like for it to spin down.

Spin it down if that is what you want. It's your money.

All my NASes are set to spin down pretty aggressively and haven't had a drive fail yet in going on 4 years. And when I do get a fail, the NAS is backed up.

 

[Razor512]

I guess it depends on how it is implemented, for example the worst possible case, I have a toshiba canvio personal cloud NAS, and it has a spindown feature, but it literally sends the NAS into a spin up and spin down loop constantly (probably every 5 to 10 minutes)

even if you disconnect the ethernet cable it still happens. if the NAS decides to for any reason, look at the drive, it spins up, then back down, and if any kind of traffic is sent to any port that it is listening on, it will spin up. Only got it because it was cheap used. Lots of disappointed customers due to the horrible software, without ever bothering to check if it did standard network shares. (simply using it for DLNA, and SMB shares, has made it work well with 35MB/s+ write speeds I just don't know what they were thinking when making the software.

On my PC I have it set to spin down my 1TB drive, and it will spin down and may come on probably 1-2 times per day.

How hard is it for these companies to just implement a proper spindown where it can stay spun down when the user is not wanting to access any data on the drive?