Poor USB Port Performance (file transfer speeds) - RT-AXE7800

[mccmw]

I posted this in another forum...figured I'd cross-post...specific to router. I have two RT-AXE7800s in mesh. On the main router I have an external 7200rpm HDD hooked up to the USB 3 port. Transfer speeds have been very disappointing. While I know it will never approach a dedicated NAS (which I intent to invest in next year), I can only manage 15 - 20MB/s via either SMB or FTP. On a previous Linksys Wifi5 router I could manage 65 - 70 MB/s.

I have tried:

- QOS on/off
- USB 2 vs. USB 3 setting.
- Mounting/unmounting drive...and running the health check from within the desktop Router GUI (OCT 2025 stock firmware - 25204)
- Internet download and upload speed are good. It is apparently a router upload speed issue.

Are there settings I'm missing (e.g. port forwarding or something) that I should add (if so, what should I put) or is this just a hardware limitation...i.e. my speeds are normal and this just isn't a good router to use as a makeshift NAS? I know it isn't a "premium" model but it did get decent reviews when it came out. Are there other ASUS 6E or 7 routers that perform much better when used as a file server? Thanks in advance for any explanation or advice.

 

[degrub]

decide which post you want and delete the other one please.

Search on the forums for slow USB drive on router. This has been discussed many, many times.

 

[bbunge]

I posted this in another forum...figured I'd cross-post...specific to router. I have two RT-AXE7800s in mesh. On the main router I have an external 7200rpm HDD hooked up to the USB 3 port. Transfer speeds have been very disappointing. While I know it will never approach a dedicated NAS (which I intent to invest in next year), I can only manage 15 - 20MB/s via either SMB or FTP. On a previous Linksys Wifi5 router I could manage 65 - 70 MB/s.

I have tried:

- QOS on/off
- USB 2 vs. USB 3 setting.
- Mounting/unmounting drive...and running the health check from within the desktop Router GUI (OCT 2025 stock firmware - 25204)
- Internet download and upload speed are good. It is apparently a router upload speed issue.

Are there settings I'm missing (e.g. port forwarding or something) that I should add (if so, what should I put) or is this just a hardware limitation...i.e. my speeds are normal and this just isn't a good router to use as a makeshift NAS? I know it isn't a "premium" model but it did get decent reviews when it came out. Are there other ASUS 6E or 7 routers that perform much better when used as a file server? Thanks in advance for any explanation or advice.

What is the size and format of the drive (Asus does have a drive size limit per router model). Does the drive have its own power supply (recommended). WIFI or Ethernet file transfer?

 

[mccmw]

Hi

decide which post you want and delete the other one please.

Search on the forums for slow USB drive on router. This has been discussed many, many times.

The best I could do was edit the other thread and replace the content with "delete." I can edit but don't have the option to delete.

 

[mccmw]

What is the size and format of the drive (Asus does have a drive size limit per router model). Does the drive have its own power supply (recommended). WIFI or Ethernet file transfer?

The drive is 14TB and NTFS. it is a 3.5" drive in enclosure with dedicated power supply. I have had the same results using Wi-fi (SMB or FTP) as well as from an external wired device, connecting to the router via FTP/WAN IP.

 

[bennor]

Are there other ASUS 6E or 7 routers that perform much better when used as a file server

As previously suggested; use the forum search feature, if you haven't done so already, to see the many past discussions (and complaints) on slow USB speed from USB storage devices attached to an Asus router's USB port. Bottom line, the router is not a NAS.

It is best to test from a computer wired directly to the router via Ethernet. Other factors like the USB hard drive itself, what is running on the router, how the USB drive is formatted, how many and how large the file(s) are being copied, any extenders, switches or AiMesh nodes between the computer and router may also play a part in drive speed. According to the following link the max supported partition size for your router is 4TB when partitioned and formatted for EXT4 or NTFS. While people can and do often likely use larger sized drives, the Asus support document is what it is.

ASUS Router Plug-n-Share Disks Compatibility List

 

[mccmw]

Thanks for the table. I did a search as you recommended...I did find one thread with similar situation, I think (though different router model) This weekend I may try doing a full factory reset and see what that does...painful to set back up but if I can get the results he/she did (40MB/s), then it is improvement. Admittedly, these routers (I have two in mesh) have not been the experience I had hoped when I upgraded from AC to AX. The software and settings can be very unstable.

 

[SteverinoLA]

I have no problems w/my 8TB drive and RT-AX86U router. Speeds are as good as they can be on my network 50-90mb/s.

 

[ColinTaylor]

The drive is 14TB and NTFS.

If the slow transfer rate is mainly when writing to the drive it's possible that the NTFS driver is too inefficient for a single 14TB filesystem and you're hitting a router CPU limit (you'd see this on the Network Map page). You'd likely see better throughput generally if you use a native Linux filesystem type like ext4 or by using multiple smaller NTFS partitions.

 

[mccmw]

If the slow transfer rate is mainly when writing to the drive it's possible that the NTFS driver is too inefficient for a single 14TB filesystem and you're hitting a router CPU limit (you'd see this on the Network Map page). You'd likely see better throughput generally if you use a native Linux filesystem type like ext4 or by using multiple smaller NTFS partitions.

Thanks. I just tested download with a large drive....same slow speed. It may be like you said...single large drive, single large partition, NTFS. Would allocation/cluster size have anything to do with it? Would changing from default 4K to something like 32K or 64K make a difference...or not?

 

[mccmw]

I have no problems w/my 8TB drive and RT-AX86U router. Speeds are as good as they can be on my network 50-90mb/s.

Thanks...is that Mb/s or MB/s? If the prior...than mine is good...if the latter...than I would be happy with 50! Admittedly, I have other software glitches with this router/firmware...maybe this is another one. If I can find some time this weekend, maybe I'll try and do a full factory reset and network rebuild (without importing settings) and see if that improves things. Otherwise, I'll assume it is hardware limitation. Admittedly, when I bought these a few years ago, I thought they would be more "popular" than they ended up. This model seemed good at the time...but never got Merlin/gnuton firmware...and have not been the upgrade to previous Linksys routers they replaced. I would be happy with your speeds...

 

[Notconnected]

Thanks...is that Mb/s or MB/s? If the prior...than mine is good...if the latter...than I would be happy with 50! Admittedly, I have other software glitches with this router/firmware...maybe this is another one. If I can find some time this weekend, maybe I'll try and do a full factory reset and network rebuild (without importing settings) and see if that improves things. Otherwise, I'll assume it is hardware limitation. Admittedly, when I bought these a few years ago, I thought they would be more "popular" than they ended up. This model seemed good at the time...but never got Merlin/gnuton firmware...and have not been the upgrade to previous Linksys routers they replaced. I would be happy with your speeds...

What controller is on the USB connected drive, is it jmicron / JMicron
Try lsusb in the terminal and see if throws up the controller info. If so then you have a problem that can not be fixed.

You are trusting a lot of data to one dirve, failure will be a real pain, best off with smaller ones and more bakup copies, an old computer stuffed with HDD's or SSD's connected via ethernet and samba set up would be my choice, probably cheaper too.

 

[Tech9]

This model seemed good at the time...

No, this model was overpriced entry-level RT-AX58U V2 with one extra radio. The built into BCM6756 2-stream radios were serving 2.4GHz and 6GHz band and the extra 4-stream BCM6715 was serving 5GHz band. This configuration was offered for few hundred dollars more and obviously the popularity was low. Add frequently reported software issues with ASUS AXE-class devices on top.