SOLVED Help me improve my transfer rates please :)

[zpliptzy]

So, heads up: I am very new to NAS terminology. I got tired of having the same data across all the computers on my network, so I backed it all up, and created my NAS from the following hardware:

Intel D2500HN CPU/Motherboard (Intel Atom D2500 cpu-dual core 1.8GHz processor)
8gb DDR3
4x2TB SATA drives

I have a random 2-port SATA card plugged into the PCI slot to be able to handle all the drives. I installed FreeNas 8 64 bit successfully, configured it in the most basic way possible following this guide:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/241978/how_to_build_your_own_networkattached_storage_system.html

I also input settings from the 2nd post from protosd on this post:
http://forums.freenas.org/showthread.php?5338-Browsing-directories

When copying files to the shared folder on the NAS, I get about 1MB/s transfers. While reading, I am able to read standard def media, but hi-def is kinda choppy. I dont need screaming speeds, just want to stream my media to my computers ;( The NAS is connected via ethernet, the client computers are wirelessly connected. Help please!

 

[palmboy5]

What speeds do you get when your client computers are connected by wire?

 

[zpliptzy]

So after a bit of work, I got tired of it all and went back to square one. I removed all the tunables, and the stuff that was in the Aux Parameters in my CIFS shares properties. So now I'm back to basically a fresh install. For now, all my computers are connected directly to the router via ethernet cables, and I get transfer rates of about 10 MB/s. So connecting directly helped, but I've read that some people are getting 50+MB/s, and I'd like to know what I'm missing.

 

[praecorloth]

10MB/s sounds suspiciously like the transfer speeds you would get if you were connected via 100 megabit connections. Can you just confirm for us real quick that your computers and router are gigabit capable? I would assume that any computer built within the last few years is going to be gigabit capable. The router, however. For some unknown reason, new 100 megabit routers are still in the wild.

 

[zpliptzy]

OMG, you called it man. 10/100 router, everything else is 10/100/1000. Swapping it out today :)

 

[ProtoSD]

Then you might try restoring the tunables etc. after also. There's a FAQ question specifically about this problem because I've seen it happen here so often.

 

[palmboy5]

You don't necessarily need to swap out the router (since those cost more, particularly the gigabit models). A 5 port gigabit switch can be had for $20 and you simply do:
Internet --> 10/100 Router --> 10/100/1000 Switch --> client computers

 

[zpliptzy]

So I got a Gigabit switch, put that in, and I instantly saw transfer speeds of 40-95MB/s-Huge jump from the 1MB/s I was getting last night. Havent even applied the Tunables yet. I'll tune up the install a bit, but things are looking much better now :) Thanks for all the help, and hopefully I can understand at some point what all these variables I'm putting in actually do, so I can tune it per my preferences. Thanks again everybody!

 

[FireWire2]

Zpliptzy

Sorry to hi-jack the thread.
I tried to install FreeNAS to D2500HN. It failed very time... Can you tell me how that you did install the OS

TIA

 

[zpliptzy]

No problem-I found out I can just install the 64 bit version on another computer, and then move the usb over to the NAS. Boot up the NAS, and look for the IP address of the NAS on your router IP table. From there, just type the IP of your NAS into your browser, and you can configure it from there.