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Wireless Performance Issues with Vista and the ReadyNAS
By dbott | September 20, 2009
There are a number of users of Microsoft Vista that have issues when trying to access their ReadyNAS Duo and NV+ devices over a wireless connection. When Vista was first released, there were wide-spread complaints about Vista’s performance and all sorts of tips and tweaks on how to disable auto-tuning. Since the release of Service Pack 1, most of these problems have disappeared.
Even with Vista SP1, some ReadyNAS owners are finding the read performance to be excruciatingly slow when using Vista over a wireless connection. From my experience, it seems to be a combination of Vista and the type of wireless chipset (which is tied to the driver), as not every laptop running Vista has this issue.
It’s also interesting to note that the same hardware running Windows XP or Linux does not experience performance problems, nor does every computer running Vista. For example, my wife’s Lenovo Thinkpad running Vista with Intel wireless N card does not exhibit this behaviour, but my dad’s Dell running Vista with Broadcom wireless G does. My Dell laptop running XP and wireless G does not exhibit this behaviour.
Under normal circumstances, changing the MTU on the NAS to a lower number should force Vista to auto-adjust it’s MTU, but it does not seem to work as expected and is detailed here: http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/vistaMTU.htm
… even though MTU of 1430 is set for best performance on my router, Vista still has the default windows setting of 1500 on both the wireless and ethernet network cards – this is despite the auto tuning feature that is supposed to automatically adjust the MTU figure.
I have found that setting the MTU to 1430 for the wireless card on the Vista laptop to be very effective at resolving the performance issues when reading and writing to the ReadyNAS. This allows the NAS to leave the MTU at it’s default setting of 1500 for optimized performance with other clients.
This work-around is based upon the tutorial provided by the folks at http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/vistaMTU.htm and modified for users of the ReadyNAS (as well as to preserve the information in the event this information is removed from their site).
Fixing the Problem:
- First, make sure that you’re running SP1.
- In Vista, open an administrative command prompt:
Vista Administrative Command Prompt
- Next, we need to find out the name of our wireless connection. At the command prompt type:
netsh interface ipv4 show subinterfaces
You should see something like this:
Vista Network Connection Names
In the example above the interface name is Wireless Network Connection and the MTU is currently set to 1500. Make note of the interface name.
- At the command prompt type the following command:
netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface "Wireless Network Connection" mtu=1430 store=persistent
Setting the MTU in Vista
- At this point, you should be a reboot away from normal expected wireless performance (around 2-3 MB/s for 802.11g connections).
- Make sure the MTU on the ReadyNAS is set at it’s default value of 1500. In Frontview, go to Network > Interfaces > MTU and verify that it’s set to 1500.
If this does not work for you, try adjust the MTU in Vista to 1460 and/or 1492.
Other useful tips when working with Vista from the ReadyNAS FAQ:
- How to get rid of the security warning when using Internet Explorer 7 or Vista
- I’m getting poor performance with Windows Vista. Is there anything I can do?
- Why am I not able to access ReadyNAS share that is password protected with Vista?
- Troubleshooting Performance Issues
Slow Wired Performance with Vista / Windows 7:
Slow access over 10/100/1000 wired connections. The ReadyNAS employs an aggressive hardware acceleration for optimum throughput, however some wireless routers, wireless adapters, and 10/100 routers are unable to handle this acceleration. Try setting the MTU on the ReadyNAS to 1492 to disable this aggressive mode.
Topics: ReadyNAS, Tech | 17 Comments »
October 4th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Wow..incredible performance improvement. I have been struggling with Vista / ReadyNAS for a while now… and extremly bad performane. This article just saved my day. Thanks !!!
/M
October 12th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Another forum member (CRS_H) posted about a possible issue with wireless N here:
http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=34153&p=188343#p188335
October 13th, 2009 at 9:09 am
As far as I can tell, the optimal settings are:
NV+/Duo Settings:
MTU on NV+/Duo: 1500
Jumbo Frames: OFF
Speed/Duplex Mode: Auto-negotiation*
*Some 10/100 routers don’t auto-negotiate very well, so if your wired speed are low, try adjusting this setting to 100 Mb Full-Duplex or 100 Mb half-duplex
Vista Settings:
MTU on Vista wifi adapter: 1430
MTU on Vista wired adapter: 1500
After making the necessary changes, be sure to reboot both devices to makes sure the settings are in effect.
January 3rd, 2010 at 2:52 am
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Upgraded an HP nc8430 notebook from XP to Windows 7 (64-bit) a few days ago. Accessing the Readynas Duo and hard drives on other computers on our home network when wireless was quick when using XP. After the upgrade, it could take a minute to open a 1mb jpg stored elsewhere on the network. Same problem with Word documents and other files. After setting the MTU to 1430 by following your instructions, things are back to normal.
January 10th, 2010 at 6:32 am
I’m having these problems but with Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit version. I’ve tried the suggested changes to the MTU figure bo so far to no avail (though I have only been re-booting the PC, not the ReadyNAS, which I will now try).
At the moment, I’m stuck, can’t copy anything to the NAS without file failures happening.
Any further suggestions very welcome
Thanks
February 2nd, 2010 at 12:59 pm
[...] Wireless Performance Issues with Vista and the ReadyNAS [...]
March 10th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
I had the same issue with Readynas Duo and Windows 7 Home Premium.
Simply setting MTU on netbook to 1430 as your instructions solved it.
Thanks
April 18th, 2010 at 7:29 am
Just fixed my Lenovo Laptop – was really getting frustrated that my home network strategy wasn’t working out after buying it ! Now have iTunes fine on it and you can browse images on the NAS etc.
Brilliant !
But why have Microsoft not fixed this yet even in W 7 ???
April 25th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Hi Want to say thanks a LOT, This fix` my poor speed from my HTPC with Wire to the nas box. I had about 200KB/S without this setting… now i have 11MB/S…
You saved my day… now its movie time
May 15th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
[...] Wireless Performance Issues with Vista and the ReadyNAS [...]
June 11th, 2010 at 4:14 am
Hi! Thanks! I set my MTU to 1430. I now have 3 Mb/s.
June 25th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
Phfew. This saved me from a very big disappointment with my new hardware. Although I must say not a very user friendly fix needed for fairly basic functionality. But, I guess it is not an ipad…
July 1st, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Thank you! This was great.
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Similar problem as some above – VERY slow file transfer with Lenovo x200s, Windows 7 Pro 32, and ReadyNAS NV+. Couldn’t get your solution to work – see *2 below
Solutions attempted
I have tried the following solutions:
*1 Mapping NAS B shares to a network drive using IP address rather than DNS.
No visible improvement.
*2 Command line: “netsh interface ipv4 show subinterfaces”, to see MTU preparatory to resetting it to 1430 (or 1460 or 1492).
Command not found. True whether I run the command as administrator or regular. Some suggest this only works in Vista.
*3 Setting “oplocks” on for the relevant share in NAS Frontview |Network |Performance
No visible improvement.
*4 Running IOMeter as described in -5 above.
laptop A Read 1.72, Read 1.07 MB/s
laptop D Read .04, Write .84 MB/s
Vastly lower than the ReadyNAS results, so perhaps I’m doing something wrong. But D results still far lower than A.
Solutions not attempted
!1 I have not tried Radiator 4.1.7 beta, though some suggest this may help.
I’m not keen to risk essential data (even backed up) on a beta.
!2 Some solutions suggest installing and messing with Samba.
That is far beyond my technical expertise.
July 2nd, 2010 at 2:08 pm
It *should* work. I just tested on both a Windows 7 Pro (32-bit and 64-bit) and it worked as expected:
64-bit Version of Windows 7 Pro
C:\Users\admin>verMicrosoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
C:\Users\admin>netsh interface ipv4 show subinterfacesMTU MediaSenseState Bytes In Bytes Out Interface
------ --------------- --------- --------- -------------
4294967295 1 0 23660 Loopback Pseudo-Interface 1
1500 1 24129245 908280 Local Area Connection
C:\Users\admin>netsh interface ipv4 show subinterface "Local Area Connection"MTU MediaSenseState Bytes In Bytes Out Interface
------ --------------- --------- --------- -------------
1500 1 24131789 909003 Local Area Connection
32-bit Version of Windows 7 Pro
C:\Users\dbott>netsh interface ipv4 show subinterfacesMTU MediaSenseState Bytes In Bytes Out Interface------ --------------- --------- --------- -------------
4294967295 1 0 15653002 Loopback Pseudo-Interface 1
1500 1 5245469969 4303407861 Local Area Connection
C:\Users\dbott>verMicrosoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
July 2nd, 2010 at 2:46 pm
ReadyNAS Duo was excrutiatingly slow with my VAIO running Win 7 over wireless (on wired LAN it was OK).
Setting MTU to 1430 to the Wireless Connection brought back life. MTU is still 1500 on ReadyNAS as well as Wired LAN.
Thaaaannnnkks!
July 4th, 2010 at 7:20 am
hi,
i have done this and it works great butt, now i have a new router the WNDR3700 and it is a nice router butt…..
i have got a Atheros AR928X wifi card in my laptop.
butt it just go on a/b/g and not on the n standard after a driver update it works great butt not on the Readynas NV+ it is dogslow again, i dit some work with the MTU butt nothing works. i placed the old driver back and it works ok again, on the g standard(2,6 Mb/s) butt i dit not buy the router for this, i need it to work on the n standard.
Do you have got a tip or trick for this?
My 2nd option is to buy the WNDA3100 for my laptop but wil it work or not on the n standard?
kind reagards,
Michel