Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[mcd0234]

I am currently getting between 55-70Mbps when copying data between the two drives in my DNS-321 or about 110Mbps max when writing data to the DNS-321 from my MacBook Pro computer. I have a gig ethernet port on the Macbook Pro obviously as well as the DNS-321 and my Dlink DIR-655 n router has gig ports too. Lastly, I have made sure that there are only 5e cables running through the network.

When I set the DNS-321 to enable jumbo frames and do the same thing on the Macbook Pro, it actually decreases the performance. If I have the jumbo frames set to 9000 on both devices I get about 20Mbps max, if I set both devices to 3000 jumbo frames I get about 40Mbps(ish). I don't understand why turning on jumbo frames actually makes the performance worse. I'm not really seeing any advantage with the routers, DNS-321 and laptops gigabit ports. I must be able to get better speed than this, what am I missing here.

Is it my DIR-655 n router that is the problem? I can't find any mention on jumbo frames in its documentation, so perhaps it doesn't support them. If not, what do I need to get to replace it to increase the speed as I copy many GB of data every day back and forth onto the network drives so I'd really appreciate some advise. Thanks

[gunrunnerjohn]

I don't think the DIR-655 supports jumbo frames.  That being the case, the reduced performance is due to the large frame going out, getting rejected and then being sliced up and sent again.

Just get a gigabit switch that does support jumbo frames and stick it in front of the router, connect everything to the switch.  That's how I run my network.

[mcd0234]

Thank you for answering. That makes sense, I thought the DIR-655 may be the main hold-up. I have been thinking about getting a switch anyway as I've recently run out of ports on the router. I've noticed though, when I copy something from one of the DNS-321 drives to the other, the data actually comes to my computer from the one drive and then back out to the second drive in the DNS-321. So, even if I had a gig switch with jumbo frame support between the DNS-321 and the router would the data actually move around the network any quicker.

Clearly not an expert (my question makes that clear) but I thought a switch just added ports. A router is still needed to 'route' the data. So the data would go to the switch but then on to the router and then back through the switch to the DNS-321. If I plugged my computer and the DNS-321 into just the switch, would the data not get sent to the router, just through the switch? Thanks again

[gunrunnerjohn]

The "router" function is strictly the NAT layer that is between WAN <-> LAN transition, the four ports on the router are just a simple Ethernet switch, no routing functions take place between the ports.

Addressed traffic between two Ethernet devices will go direct through the switch, it won't go to the router.  I have a 100mbit router on my network, and the gigabit transactions all work just fine with jumbo frames, the router never even sees most of the traffic.

[dutch_in_seattle]

So if I hook up an Ethernet switch (say, a Netgear FS105, which I have lying around in my closet) to my router and connect the DNS-321 to the switch rather than the router directly, could I potentially speed up copying between the DNS-321 and my Windows XP computer because it bypasses the router?

Thanks!
Ron

[mcd0234]

Thanks again. That is good news, makes the switch I was going to buy an even better purchase now. I'm guessing it would be better to leave the 10/100 devices like the PS3, printer & old pc on the 10/100 ports of the router and put the gig port devices like the two NAS devices, laptop and Apple TV on the new gig switch.

Looking through the forum, I suppose my speeds aren't that slow compared to other peoples experience but they are not as good as what some people say they get. Copying about 300GB right now between the two DNS-321 drives and it is floating between 50-78Mbps each way which is about 100-160Mbps total (so 13-18MB). Still need the switch though going forward so it may help things out. Thank you again for the explanation.

[gunrunnerjohn]

You can use the router's ports for 100mbit devices, or connect them to the switch.  The key issue is that anything that uses jumbo frames be on the switch.  10/100 devices do NOT use jumbo frames, so if anything, they're the ones to use the extra router ports for.

Your speeds are decent, the jumbo frames may help somewhat, but don't expect the speeds to triple or anything like that.

[gunrunnerjohn]

So if I hook up an Ethernet switch (say, a Netgear FS105, which I have lying around in my closet) to my router and connect the DNS-321 to the switch rather than the router directly, could I potentially speed up copying between the DNS-321 and my Windows XP computer because it bypasses the router?

Nope, won't do a thing.  The switch on the router is at least a 100mbit switch, so you haven't accomplished anything.

The reason that mcd0234 will get a performance increase is because of gigabit jumbo frames, that doesn't apply to your situation.  You will have more Ethernet ports available if you're running out on the router...

[mcd0234]

gunrunnerjohn, since you seem to be knowledgeable about this stuff and knew the Netgear product even that dutch was talking about I have a slightly odd question. In my apartment, I pick up about 14 wireless networks, but until last month I was getting a good wireless signal of about 60Mbps with my DIR-655 n router. Since then, I think somebody else has moved in as my wireless speeds top out at 20Mbps and often are as slow as 3-5Mbps so its just totally wrecked my wireless performance (tired everything in 655 settings such as channels etc). I am also going to get a dual band n router to replace the DIR-655 to get a decent wireless network speed back again but as a follow on from our above messages are you aware of any dual band n routers that do support jumbo frames? Just thinking I could kill two birds with one stone as it were, wrong forum I know but it does follow on from the questions above so thought I'd ask just in case there is such a dual band n router with jumbo frame product. Thanks

That way I could put the PS3, Apple TV, printer and old pc back on wireless and leave the new dual band router's ethernet ports for the things that do support gig ports & jumbo frames

[gunrunnerjohn]

Offhand, I don't know of any gigabit routers that support jumbo frames, but I've never really looked.  I don't put a high premium on gigabit ports on the router, I have gigabit switches that do the trick.

For the wireless issue, you could download and run this Xirrus Wi-Fi Inspector: http://www.xirrus.com/library/wifitools.php

It will allow you to see the wireless networks and relative strengths so you can pick the optimum channel.

You can also boost your signal if you have a removable antenna with either a hi-gain antenna or a booster amplifier, or even both.  Here are some typical examples.  The directional antenna would obviously only work if all of your wireless equipment is on one side of the router.

Hawking [HSB2] Hi-Gain WiFi Signal Booster: http://www.hawkingtech.com/products/productlist.php?CatID=32&FamID=72&ProdID=187

Hawking [HAI7SIP] Hi-Gain 7dBi Omni-Directional Antenna: http://www.hawkingtech.com/products/productlist.php?CatID=32&FamID=58&ProdID=214

Hawking [HAI15SC] Hi-Gain 15dBi Corner Antenna: http://www.hawkingtech.com/products/productlist.php?CatID=32&FamID=58&ProdID=152

[mcd0234]

thanks again

[dividedhighw]

Offhand, I don't know of any gigabit routers that support jumbo frames, but I've never really looked.

Both the DIR-825 and DIR-855 support jumbo frames.  Of course, the communicating hosts must both be configured for jumbo frame support (e.g. via driver properties).

AFAIK, no Linksys SOHO routers with gigabit ports support jumbo frames.

HTH,
DH

[gunrunnerjohn]

Both the DIR-825 and DIR-855 support jumbo frames. 

They don't mention jumbo frames at all in either of the manuals, so they must not be that proud of that "fact". 

[mcd0234]

Thank you both for the information. I was searching the forums last night and found a Dlink support page that says the DIR-655 supports jumbo frames up to 4000 which I was surprised at. After reading that, I went through the whole procedure again and once again my speed plummeted with jumbo frames setup on the DNS-321 and laptop (no settings in the configuration pages for the DIR-655 to enable jumbo frames and the support page didn't mention how to enable it so I assume its just automatically meant to handle it).

I need to get a switch anyway with gig ports, so fingers crossed I'll have better luck with that between my router and NAS's / laptop. I think that when I need more space again in about 10-12 months I will just turn one of my old tower pc's into a Ubuntu file server NAS as I'm sure I'll get much better performance and be able to add 5 drives with it setup properly - although at the cost of a lot more electricity of course! Thanks for the info

[gunrunnerjohn]

I wouldn't put much faith in jumbo frame support for products that don't list it in their specifications.