Faster transfer speeds on USB 2.0 than 3.0 on AC

[polish_pat]

Hi Guy, thanks for accepting me on this forum. I'm glad i found it.

I Have a Dell XPS 12 equipped with AC.
My router is the RT-AC68U.
Firmware is Merlin 379.49.

I started using Merlin a few month ago because sometimes my USB drive would disconnect and I'd have to reboot router to have it going again. I still have that problem but only when my HDD is connected to my 3.0 port. 2.0 doesnt have that problem. I'm not sure why but I have a more serious issue i would like to solve.

I'm connected to 5ghz, obviously, to take advantage of AC band. I have a 5TB Seagate 3.5in HDD connected to my router, but my issue is present on any harddrive I use. The HDD is USB 3.0 and when i transfer directly from it to my laptop, I hit speeds of 120mb/s on average. The problem is, when drive is connected to my USB 3.0 port on my router, I transfer at about 12-17mb/s. When I connect that same drive on my USB 2.0 port, I hit speeds of 27 to 30mb/s. I dont understand how my USB 2.0 port is giving me better and more stable performance.

This problem has been existent since day 1. I bought this router when it first launched in the USA and has been present on both stock and merlin firmwares.

Does anybody know why this could be? I've check around the forum a bit and have not found any relevant information.

 

[Nullity]

I think that the USB 3.0 standard causes more interference with wifi than USB 2.0, so there is a "USB 3.0 Interference reduction" setting somewhere that you may need to disable.

That is all I know. Searching the forum should give you better info.

 

[polish_pat]

Ya it's on Wireless - Professional

Will try that and post feedback after a few tests.

Thanks

EDIT: Ya, much worse. Down to under 5mb/s. Def need to keep the option enabled

 

[polish_pat]

Anybody else have any suggestions?

 

[RussellInCincinnati]

The Asus router USB 3.0 ports unfortunately do not work optimally with every flash drive. You could accept USB 2.0 speeds and just use the device in the USB 2 port as you described. Have no clients that complain about only 30 megabytes per second coming off of their file server. Clients do seem to notice the quick random access times (directory displays, loading documents, etc) that they get from a solid state drive, even when it is on a USB 2.0 port...since most of the time most people are not doing bulk file copying for a living.

You could also buy an inexpensive NAS for $90 dollars that will probably do everything you could possibly want as far as filesharing. Not so terrible, you may have already spent about twice that just on the WiFi router. In computers, if the problem is not worth $90 dollars to fix then it isn't much of a problem.

 

[polish_pat]

So if I understand, it's not about settings or firmwares, it's about the technology not being on point?

Anyways, I bought the AC68U because I wanted to skip the NAS altogether. I don't mind using the USB 2.0 port as 30mb/s is fine with me.

 

[daffy]

I have a 5TB Seagate 3.5in HDD connected to my router, but my issue is present on any harddrive I use. The HDD is USB 3.0 and when i transfer directly from it to my laptop, I hit speeds of 120mb/s on average. The problem is, when drive is connected to my USB 3.0 port on my router, I transfer at about 12-17mb/s. When I connect that same drive on my USB 2.0 port, I hit speeds of 27 to 30mb/s.

On my Asus AC68U, with a WD Portable 2 TB USB 3.0 disk, I get decent performance on the rmerlin firmware.

Without overclocking of the router, I get 50 MB/s read/write performance on the USB 3.0 port, measured via the LAN.

With overclocking the router to 1200/666, I get 65/55 MB/s performance.

From my reading on the matter of USB 3.0 performance on routers, I hear that
* shielding is very important (cable [length] and drive enclosure)
* CPU performance is a major driver (see overclocking, above)

 

[BobF]

Note USB 3.0 performance setup:

USB 3.0 performance choice 2.4 wireless vs 3.0 USB speed
USB 3.0 and 2.4 GHz radio interaction (professional mode)

Go to 2.4Ghz professional mode, Reducing USB 3.0 interference
If (enable) this reduces 3.0 usb performance in favor of 2.4 wifi.
If (disable) you get better 3.0 speed.

If in (enable) mode it basically reduces the 3.0 performances to the same
as the back USB 2.0 port.

 

[polish_pat]

On my Asus AC68U, with a WD Portable 2 TB USB 3.0 disk, I get decent performance on the rmerlin firmware.

Without overclocking of the router, I get 50 MB/s read/write performance on the USB 3.0 port, measured via the LAN.

With overclocking the router to 1200/666, I get 65/55 MB/s performance.

From my reading on the matter of USB 3.0 performance on routers, I hear that
* shielding is very important (cable [length] and drive enclosure)
* CPU performance is a major driver (see overclocking, above)

I Had a WD EliteBook 3TB USB 3.0 and now Seagate Expansion 5TB and have the same performance on both

 

[howarddavidp@gmail.com]

The Asus router USB 3.0 ports unfortunately do not work optimally with every flash drive. You could accept USB 2.0 speeds and just use the device in the USB 2 port as you described. Have no clients that complain about only 30 megabytes per second coming off of their file server. Clients do seem to notice the quick random access times (directory displays, loading documents, etc) that they get from a solid state drive, even when it is on a USB 2.0 port...since most of the time most people are not doing bulk file copying for a living.

You could also buy an inexpensive NAS for $90 dollars that will probably do everything you could possibly want as far as filesharing. Not so terrible, you may have already spent about twice that just on the WiFi router. In computers, if the problem is not worth $90 dollars to fix then it isn't much of a problem.

A cheap NAS is much less than $90 RussellInCincinnati, look at a Linksys NSLU2, on Amazon starting at $27:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0001FSCZO/?tag=snbforums-20

With the open firmwares, you can get a complete Nix build and do whatever you want, in a NAS that is the size of a pack of smokes, and is completely silent and has no moving parts. I have 2 of these, and they work great.

I still would like to fix or resolve whats wrong with my RT68U's USB3 connection, I might do MErlin this weekend and see if that helps. I am having the same issues:

1) USB3 random disconnects
2) USB3 won;t see drive unless a reboot
3) USB3 just wont see the drive for a day or longer, reboots stopped helping, works fine on USB2

I don;t use my WiFi often, most of my stuff is wired, but my wife has not complained about it so I assume its working.

David