Doesn't make sense...to me!

[yock1960]

Hi!

New to the site/forum, which is a treasure trove of information, but I can't seem to pick up the solution to my problem, it's probably here somewhere though! I'm not sure this is the best forum to post this...but it's a bit of a hodge-podge!

I've been a fairly generic home networking type, with connectivity problems from time to time, but recently I decided to buy a NAS to share files. I had hoped more easily and faster, but this has been a mixed bag. It all works, but where I wanted/expected the most speed, I get the slowest.

I'm in a tri-level with a cable provider as my ISP. The cable modem is on the main floor as this is where the first split occurs. I have a Belkin N+ wireless router connected to the cable modem and apart from a variety of laptops; some g, some b, I have a desktop on the lower level connected to the router by a Netgear Powerline AV200 pair. I originally thought that the powerline adapter was the problem, as I have a red led signaling the worst/quality connection. After reading here for the last few days, I pulled the adapter from downstairs, connected to a laptop (and got green led's) and had pretty much the same transfer speeds, which hover around 2MBps. I actually get worse than this downstairs with the red led, but it's in the ballpark.

I have tried a number of other solutions....bought a PCIe wireless adapter for the desktop, very poor signal down there with similar transfer speeds. Next, I bought an ASUS EA-N66 and used it in the direct connect mode, where it plugs directly into the Ethernet port. Good signal according to the LED's, but poor transfer rate; around 2-2.5 MBps. I even brought it upstairs to the same room as the router and am using it right now on a laptop....same results.

If I connect my laptops straight to the router using an ethernet cable, I get anywhere from 8MBps to 11MBps....different machines/filetypes I guess or some other reason...they are similar numbers and something I would like to get to on the machine downstairs.

If it weren't for the powerline adapter still getting poor results even with the apparent good connection, I'd say it had something to do with wireless. But now I don't know.

I upgraded the firmware on the router, my adapter drivers are up to date according to Windows (Win7 Home Premium x64).....it doesn't make sense!!!!

Steve

 

[thiggins]

So your problem is low transfer speed from laptop to NAS? How are you measuring the speeds that you are quoting?

 

[yock1960]

Not a laptop, a desktop connected to the router by Powerline adapter.

Just the speed that windows reports for the filecopy. Maybe not accurate, but apples to apples for what I'm doing. I have made some progress in speed, if not understanding. I've been reading the "How to Improve Network Performance" articles, along with some of the articles on Powerline Adapters. I turned off the wifi radio on the router and going through the Powerline (xav101v2) from two outlets in the same room and got up to about 4.5MBps (green LED). Moving the adapter back downstairs and moving it to another socket, away from where the UPS is plugged in (green LED now, mostly) and I get about 3.5MBps. This is about a 2x improvement over the original values for downstairs. If I could double that, I think I'd be satisfied for now.

Now, why does turning wifi off help? Less for the router to do?

I'll be returning some items that I've purchased trying to 'fix' this problem, going back to the articles above, I need to absorb the info in the 3 articles. A newer router and switch may be in order. I could turn the current router into an AP. I couldn't find throughput values for the xav101, are the newer ones enough better to justify upgrading? Any improvements in connection quality over the older models?

Thanks for the reply!

Steve

 

[thiggins]

If you look at the Powerline Charts, you'll find top throughput for AV200 products is ~45 Mbps, which is 5.6 MBytes/s. If you want a shot at higher throughput, you'll need to try a pair of AV500 adapters. Problem with AV500 is that throughput drops more with distance than AV200. Here's a plot comparing the two.

Turning off the router radio might be minimizing conducted power supply noise. Try moving the powerline adapter that is near the router to another outlet. If you can't do that, try putting the router's power wart on a short extension cord (3-6' should do it). This could add enough filtering to make the difference.

And, of course, in both cases, the powerline adapters should be plugged directly into wall outlets.

A new switch isn't going to help. A new router might. But I'd try a pair of AV500 adapters first, after experimenting and getting best performance with the AV200's you have.

 

[yock1960]

Well, I have a solution, a compromise of sorts.

I returned the items that didn't do anything much to help and guess they couldn't have really, since they were both wireless. Well maybe if I had a really strong signal at 150, but I'd have to refresh my memory on 802.11N throughput.

I bought a new (refurbished Netgear WNDR3700v3) and an Actiontec PWR500 Kit. Leaving the Belkin N+ setup, I attached the new Powerline adapter and was getting ~4.8 to ~4.9 MBps; an improvement (with wifi radio on). Still not quite there though.

Next I hooked up the Netgear router. Throughput to the NAS dropped to about 3MBps; go figure. At this point I moved the NAS downstairs and connected it to the Actiontec 4 port adapter. Now speeds are around 12.5 MBps. This is good.

Would using the Belkin router hooked between the NAS and the Actiontec adapter give me gigabyte speeds, the desktop is capable of 1000? Or would I need a switch?

One good thing about the router is that it's dual band. At least me phone supports it. Seems to test faster on Speedtest.net at 5G.

Steve

 

[thiggins]

Would using the Belkin router hooked between the NAS and the Actiontec adapter give me gigabyte speeds, the desktop is capable of 1000? Or would I need a switch?

The Belkin N+ LAN ports are a Gigabit Switch. If you want to use it just as a switch, be sure to leave the WAN port unconnected and shut off its DHCP server.

The Actiontec adapter's Ethernet port is only 10/100.

 

[yock1960]

That worked well! The line from the powerline adapter goes into the router and the NAS and desktop are also plugged into the router. File transfers from the NAS are 'lightning fast' now; a little bit faster than from my old Seagate Freeagent USB 2.0 external drive.

Wish I'd thought of that before buying the Actiontec set. They had Netgear AV500 refurbs for $40! Hmmm.

Steve

 

[thiggins]

Is everything now connected via Ethernet?

 

[yock1960]

Well:

modem->Netgear WNDR3700->Powerline->Belkin LAN Port->NAS->USB Printer
______________|____________________________|
______________|->Sony SMP N200_____________|->Desktop->USB Ext. HD
______________|
______________|=>Wifi==laptops===smartphones

(spaces didn't work....no tabs?)

I took the USB drive off the NAS when I discovered that I couldn't delete existing files. It's alot more useful to have the printer attached to the USB anyway, since the desktop sleeps when I'm not using it and whenever I want to print from a laptop, I had to go wake it up.

Thanks for your help! This has been interesting, educational and a little fun...once it all worked.

My original idea for the NAS was to centralize my astro-imaging data so that I could access it from the desktop or laptop. It is centralized now and I'll see how that works; I need to work on/modernize my wireless devices...802.11g and figure out the 65mbps connection on this 802.11n laptop. I'm also seeing some potential for my own little cloud; recorded video, podcasts, etc.. I think the next NAS will have to be multiple bays!

Steve

 

[thiggins]

Glad to have helped. You are using Powerline the right way, i.e. having it handle the least demanding link in your network. Enjoy!