RT-AC68R Samba Server Speeds Slow and Fluctuates (Merlin 40_beta1)

[IanEnc]

I am a complete beginner with NAS or using a router to share. Since I have the RT-AC68R and it has basic capabilities, I thought I might try it out.

Using Merlin's 40_beta1 firmware, I set up Samba sharing on a USB2.0 thumb drive I have.

I am able to get the clients on my network to see the drive, but the transfer speeds are horrible at best.

When the USB was formatted with NTFS, the router would hang during large file transfers.

With FAT32, the speed would fluctuate up and down (see attached).

I downloaded MiniTool from Partition Wizard and formatted the drive to Ext4, because I heard that is more efficient.

My speeds still are extremely slow and keep going from 10MB/s to 0B/s. (see attached).

This is using my wired PC to the router. I am using a C2G Cat6 Cable that is 10ft long.

The USB drive is USB2.0.

Could it be the USB drive that is causing some sort of bottleneck with the speed?

I tried searching in the forums, and didn't come across much. Should I be trying a different way to share files to Windows clients?

Thanks in advance.

 

[IanEnc]

These are write speeds to the USB drive.

I just tried to read from the USB drive, and I was getting a steady 18MB/s.

Is this what's expected with write speeds?

 

[RMerlin]

These are write speeds to the USB drive.

I just tried to read from the USB drive, and I was getting a steady 18MB/s.

Is this what's expected with write speeds?

Yes. USB2 performance on these routers will be around 10-15 MB/s. You are able to reach a bit higher while reading because of the extra CPU muscle the AC68 has, and there's a good chance your USB2 flash drive is also limited to close to 20-30 MB/s (very few USB2 flash drive can actually push USB2 to its limit).

 

[IanEnc]

Thanks for the response, Merlin. I looked up the USB drive I am using, and the reviews stated it had a write speed of 4MB/s on average.

It appears the router floods the drive with data, which then bottlenecks and slows down to a crawl.

I will have to invest in a USB3.0 drive.