Troubleshooting extremely slow wireless transfers for CIFS

[wondercow]

I've set up a CIFS share on my FreeNAS 9.3 box in a home environment so Windows clients can back up important files. The system isn't heavily utilized, but file transfers are far slower than I would expect. I can usually upload to the FreeNAS share at 1-2 MB/s, sometimes getting all the way up to 15 MB/s if I'm lucky but with very pulsatile speeds. I suspect I have something set wrong, as the systems have no problem reaching much higher network speeds, and the FreeNAS server's CPU and memory show no spikes during transfers.

FreeNAS system specs:
ThinkServer TS140
Xeon E3-1225 v3
32 GB ECC RAM, DDR3-1600
4 x 5 TB WD Red drives in RaidZ1, pool currently at 4% usage
FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201602031011

CIFS Settings:

Share Settings:

All clients are Windows 10 systems on modern, high end hardware with sufficient RAM and connected via 802.11n or ac. Here is an example transfer to the FreeNAS box:

I know that Wifi isn't always perfect, but I have no problems maxing out my router's bandwidth (Asus ac series) and so it seems CIFS really ought to be performing better than this.

I have followed the example HDD testing in https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/checking-new-hdds-in-raid.12082/#post-85381 and am maxing out the bus, so I don't think the HDDs are the problem, I don't think the CPU or memory are the problem since resource usage isn't maxed, I don't think Wifi is the problem since other transfers are much faster, so that leaves configuration, I think.

Is there anything that I'm obviously doing wrong here? Thanks!

 

[DrKK]

Nothing is jumping out at me.

There might be two troubleshooting/narrowing-down steps I'd perform:

1) Try setting the max SMB version to 2.0. See if it makes a difference.
2) Can you set it up, temporarily, as wired to the router? I always keep a 100-200ft cable around just for this purpose for temporary troubleshooting to rule out something with the wireless.

 

[wondercow]

Hi DrKK,

Thanks so much for your response. Changing SMB version didn't seem to have an effect, but plugging into wired shot me right up to 110 MB/s transfer speeds, so I guess the problem is Wifi! I'm really embarrassed I didn't try that before...was just too lazy to carry the laptop over to the router. Interestingly, even connected on 802.11ac on 5Ghz with no obvious interference from neighbors and my laptop about 3 inches from the Wifi antenna, I still wasn't peaking over 16 MB/s. Clearly, I have some twiddling to do with my connection settings.

I know this is a FreeNAS forum and not a router help forum, so feel free to tell me to bug off with this question, but do any Wifi experts know if I have something messed up for CIFS here?

QoS off, I tried toggling both jumbo frames and NAT acceleration with no success, and I tried both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands with no change. Beyond that, most relevant settings shown:

 

[DrKK]

This is not the first time, nor will it be the last time, in which one of the Asus routers in this series has not given complete satisfaction.

The next logical step, of course, is to compare what happens when you use a known-good wireless router (e.g., a Ubiquiti).

Odds are good that's it's just another Asus router, doing just another poor wireless performance, and nothing you've done. You might try third party firmware. Perhaps merlin's firmware (if it's available for your model), or Tomato.

 

[wondercow]

Ah, good point. I'd been meaning to check out Merlin anyway, so I just loaded that up but got no change in speeds. I think I have an old Linksys WRT150n running DD-WRT in a closet somewhere (not that it's exactly a good ground truth for speed...but it's what I've got access to for now) that I will try to find. In any case, I'm satisfied that the problem is with my Wifi and not with FreeNAS. I do feel dumb because every single thread says Wifi will be the problem and I was so convinced it wasn't in my case (ah, hubris), but thanks for your responses.

I'm told that my neighborhood is slated to get Google Fiber early in the Atlanta rollout, so I may end up finding more Asus shortcomings soon when my connection really gets to stretch its legs...

 

[Ericloewe]

Which Asus model are you using?

 

[DrKK]

Are you sure there's no interfering signals? Wireless keyboards/mice...femtocells....a bunch of fluorescent lights...if you go directly to speedtest.net and just do a speedtest on wireless, what kind of numbers do you get?

 

[Ericloewe]

Are you sure there's no interfering signals? Wireless keyboards/mice...femtocells....a bunch of fluorescent lights...if you go directly to speedtest.net and just do a speedtest on wireless, what kind of numbers do you get?

It could also be just a shitty WiFi driver on the router. The RT-AC87U, for instance, is infamous for its 5GHz radio (rushed to market by Quantenna) being troublesome.

 

[wondercow]

This is actually a RT-AC68U. I bought a RT-AC87U initially, discovered that its 5 GHz was essentially useless, and ended up selling it on eBay in order to buy the 68U.

I'm hesitant to say signal interference is the problem, as I can switch to 2.4 GHz and get 100% identical speed results. I'm in a standalone house, and there aren't many other neighbors' Wifi networks showing up on the SSID scanner. Speedtest.net is pegged at 30/6 Mbps, which is exactly what I pay Comcast for so no surprises there. (Actually, wait, I ACTUALLY get what I pay for from Comcast? Must be a mistake...).

 

[Ericloewe]

RT-AC68U? Mine works fine.

 

[wondercow]

Ah, good to know. What kind of speeds are you getting with CIFS? All the way up to 100 MB/s or so? Did you have to tune the wireless parameters or are you basically on defaults?

 

[depasseg]

Note to OP - Change the post's title from CIFS to Wireless.

 

[wondercow]

Good call...updated.

 

[Ericloewe]

Ah, good to know. What kind of speeds are you getting with CIFS? All the way up to 100 MB/s or so? Did you have to tune the wireless parameters or are you basically on defaults?

Definitely not over WiFi. But I did use to get 20ishMB/s - with a matched PCE-AC68 across a rather thick concrete slab. The RT-AC87U performs similarly (though it has serious issues with some 5GHz devices).

Mostly defaults, with some tuning of the channels used.

Never expect to get anywhere close to the nominal speeds WiFi is marketed at. 50% would qualify as excellent.