Time Capsule - POST YOUR PERFORMANCE

[mmoran27]

1) It is nearly silent but you can hear the fan at all times and definitley hear the disk copying a file to it.

2) Wireless performance is definitely slower than airport extreme.

3) Wired performance sucks and this is why it is going back to the store. Wired performance in the range of 2-3Mbps whereas my NAS throughput is 17Mbps for the same file.

It appears that the Time Capsule is pausing every couple of seconds where throughput drops to zero for a second or so and then continues. This was repeatable every time (Does on Wired Gigabit or wireless).

I cannot believe noone has reported this. Or is this unit defective?

I exchanged the defective unit and performance on the unit is much better.

2) Transferring the combo update for 10.5.2 yields 15-16 Mbps
3) Same over wireless is about 6.5 Mbps

The pauses no longer exist on this one. The last one must have bad sectors on the disk or something. Apple swapped it on sight in the store no questions asked.

[mmoran27]

Come on people, Lets post some benchmarks for the TimeCapsule

[Yvan256]

Come on people, Lets post some benchmarks for the TimeCapsule

I have yet to setup mine. How would you benchmark it (aside from timing the copy of a huge file)?

[Virgil-TB2]

I have yet to setup mine. How would you benchmark it (aside from timing the copy of a huge file)?Yeah, ...

1) post exactly how you are benchmarking so we can replicate the process and compare numbers.

2) are you talking time machine backup or regular file transfers because they are not the same thing.

3) My own (subjective) experience so far is that wired backups are fine but that wireless connectivity is far worse than the old linksys "g" gear I replaced it with and has periodic drop-outs where the devices are trying to find each other.

In other words the exact opposite of your experience I guess.

[Future Blues]

Performance has been pretty good after I set up a sysctl.conf file with the following in it:

net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0

It has improved my transfer speeds significantly (numbers coming to the blog soon).

I've also managed to softly crash the TC (make it completely unresponsive, while the light is still green) by canceling a large (6Gb) wireless TM backup and then attempting to do something else with the TC disk. I had to unplug it to get it working again.

Other than that, no problems to report.

[Squelch]

My wireless was horrible at first too, and I called Apple Care. The guy there told me to switch it to channel 9 instead of what it was on, (11, by automatic) and I now get great performance all through the house. I asked him why 9, and he just said that it's what all the techs there use, and he didn't know any technical reason. :confused:

So try channel 9. It might help. :)

[Evo-L]

My wireless was horrible at first too, and I called Apple Care. The guy there told me to switch it to channel 9 instead of what it was on, (11, by automatic) and I now get great performance all through the house. I asked him why 9, and he just said that it's what all the techs there use, and he didn't know any technical reason. :confused:

So try channel 9. It might help. :)

How do you change the channel?

[skorpien]

Transferring an 8.52 GB folder from my wired PC (10/100 base ethernet) to my MBP through TC (wireless N only 5 GHz) and I'm getting a fairly consistent rate of ~6.5 MB/s FWIW (that's ~52.4 Mbps if I've converted right)

I know it's not exactly the best way to do a benchmark, but I thought this might provide some idea of performance?

[The Stig]

I haven't tried Time capsule yet but I have tried a N Base Station with a HD connected through USB and it was slow. Here were my results:

through airport I get a write speed of about: 2.5 - 3.5 MB/s

through the base station connect with Enet: pretty much the same.

Connect to my PC through enet to base to MB (airport) shared: slower still about 1 MB/s

Straight into my MB with USB - 16.4 MB/s

Straight into my MB with firewire - 29.5 MB/s

Is Time capsule pretty much the same or does it transfer files faster?

Thanks,

the Stig

See my full post at:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=281280

[Celeron]

My wireless was horrible at first too, and I called Apple Care. The guy there told me to switch it to channel 9 instead of what it was on, (11, by automatic) and I now get great performance all through the house. I asked him why 9, and he just said that it's what all the techs there use, and he didn't know any technical reason. :confused:

So try channel 9. It might help. :)

You shouldn't use channel 9, it overlaps with channel 6 and 11. Really, with wireless, the only channels that should be used at 1, 6, and 11. These don't overlap with each over.

By choosing 9 you're asking for interference from any nearby access points that are using channel 6 or 11.

[dalvin200]

How do you guys see your transfer rates?

is there an apps that tracks this? or some math formula?

[mmoran27]

I think you mean to say that you are getting a transfer speed of 6.5 Mbps and not MB/s, correct?


See CNET performance review

http://reviews.cnet.com/network-storage/apple-time-capsule-1tb/4505-3382_7-32818587.html?tag=prod.txt.1


Transferring an 8.52 GB folder from my wired PC (10/100 base ethernet) to my MBP through TC (wireless N only 5 GHz) and I'm getting a fairly consistent rate of ~6.5 MB/s FWIW (that's ~52.4 Mbps if I've converted right)

I know it's not exactly the best way to do a benchmark, but I thought this might provide some idea of performance?

[skorpien]

I think you mean to say that you are getting a transfer speed of 6.5 Mbps and not MB/s, correct?


See CNET performance review

http://reviews.cnet.com/network-storage/apple-time-capsule-1tb/4505-3382_7-32818587.html?tag=prod.txt.1

Well I was using Activity Monitor's Network tab, and unless I'm mistaken, that uses Mega Bytes (MB) per second, not Mega Bits (Mb) per second. Let's just say that it took my computer about 20 minutes to transfer the folder. Take 8.2 GB (roughly 8397 MB if you multiply by 1024 MB/GB) and divide that by 1200 seconds (number of seconds in 20 minutes), you get about 7 MB/s. So, despite that review, it seems my network is indeed transferring at a sustained 6.5 MB/s... This is also computer to computer (not downloading it from the net), without any other processes running (as soon as I start browsing, downloading or anything else requiring network access, that rate drops).

Edit: Also, the part of the review that you're referring to actually measures the read/write speeds of the internal hdd of the TC. If you look at the lower bar graphs about the network throughput, my results fall within the range of the results and don't deviate much at all.

[gnasher729]

My wireless was horrible at first too, and I called Apple Care. The guy there told me to switch it to channel 9 instead of what it was on, (11, by automatic) and I now get great performance all through the house. I asked him why 9, and he just said that it's what all the techs there use, and he didn't know any technical reason. :confused:

Your neighbor might be using Channel 11 and cause interference, and changing your own equipment to any channel other than 11 might help. Unless you have a neighbor interfering on Channel 11 on the left side, and another neighbor who followed Apple Care advice and switched to Channel 9 on the right side, then you need to switch to Channel 7 :)

[saltyzoo]

My wireless was horrible at first too, and I called Apple Care. The guy there told me to switch it to channel 9 instead of what it was on, (11, by automatic) and I now get great performance all through the house. I asked him why 9, and he just said that it's what all the techs there use, and he didn't know any technical reason. :confused:

So try channel 9. It might help. :)

This is full of awesome win! :D 5 years from now there will still be people hard setting their wiFi routers to channel 9 because of this. :p

[HLdan]

I think you mean to say that you are getting a transfer speed of 6.5 Mbps and not MB/s, correct?


See CNET performance review

http://reviews.cnet.com/network-storage/apple-time-capsule-1tb/4505-3382_7-32818587.html?tag=prod.txt.1

I think you are mistaking bits for bytes. I have the 1TB TC and my transfer rates are at 60M(bits)/sec which is equals 7.5M(Bytes)/sec.

The math is to multiply by a factor of 8 which would be 7.5MB X 8.

[mmoran27]

I think you are right, I just grabbed the number from ISTAT without thinking.

I think the results are more like 6.5 MBps and 52 Mbps. I think CNET got it wrong also because they also list Mbps in both benchmarks.


I think you are mistaking bits for bytes. I have the 1TB TC and my transfer rates are at 60M(bits)/sec which is equals 7.5M(Bytes)/sec.

The math is to multiply by a factor of 8 which would be 7.5MB X 8.

[Squelch]

How do you change the channel?

Open Airport Utility in your Utilities folder. Click on the Time Capsule. Click manual Setup. Click on Wireless. Click the double arrow next to "Channel:" and change it to 9. Restart. Enjoy.

You shouldn't use channel 9, it overlaps with channel 6 and 11. Really, with wireless, the only channels that should be used at 1, 6, and 11. These don't overlap with each over.

By choosing 9 you're asking for interference from any nearby access points that are using channel 6 or 11.

That's funny, because both my neighbors are on 6, and I was using 11. After switching to 9, I get much better reception.

Your neighbor might be using Channel 11 and cause interference, and changing your own equipment to any channel other than 11 might help. Unless you have a neighbor interfering on Channel 11 on the left side, and another neighbor who followed Apple Care advice and switched to Channel 9 on the right side, then you need to switch to Channel 7 :)

Actually, both of my neighbors are on channel 6, one with an open WRT-54G, and the other with a closed network that I haven't bothered with.

[RockTheGlobe]

Channels 7 and 9 aren't working for me... My Net connection is still slow. Any other suggestions?

[toddbee]

mine is slow too. any suggestions? is this product a lemon?

[Virgil-TB2]

mine is slow too. any suggestions? is this product a lemon?get a free utility called "iStumber" from versiontracker.com.

With it you can see all the wireless setups within range and what channels they are using. Set the router to use a channel no one else is using. On the other hand the standard "automatic" channel setting in the TC does this all by itself.

[toddbee]

i used istumbler. thanks for the recommend. it seems slow when connected via ethernet too

[ljones]

My performance seems to have dropped after the update. i was getting about 2MB not Mbps. Now it's jumping around in the 400kb range. WTF.

** Aparently, running iStumbler in the background will cause this. All seems normal. I can't reach my high on speedtest.net though...

http://www.speedtest.net/result/248206831.png

[The Stig]

What kind of data transfer rates are people getting connecting over N when sending or receiving files???

The Stig

[digitalfx]

My performance seems to have dropped after the update. i was getting about 2MB not Mbps. Now it's jumping around in the 400kb range. WTF.

** Aparently, running iStumbler in the background will cause this. All seems normal. I can't reach my high on speedtest.net though...

http://www.speedtest.net/result/248206831.png

According to iStat I get a max speed of 2MB/s...it fluctuates between 400KB/s and 2MB/s.

I am on 5Ghz N Only.

BTW- The only option I have on channel is "AUTOMATIC". I am unable to change the channel on N only

[ljones]

in iStat i have seen 6mb and 3mb pop up every so often, generally 2mb, and lows in the 400kb range every so often, but that may be based on certain websites. I'm on a 802.11n/g/b compatible setting. I have mine set to automatic, and i tested at various channels, automatic seems to work fine. it tends to jump to Channel 9 every time.

My Mac Pro is about... 20 feet from the Time Capsule. And i have about 8 networks in my area that pop up, all below 50% signal strength, and all were either channel 1 or 6 according to iStumbler.

[gpasq]

Just backed up 101G over wired in about 3.5 hours. That works out to about 8.2 MB/sec (right?).

When I had Norton Antivirus running, backups were literally impossible. 60M after hours and then it would hang.

If you have Norton Virus, kill it.

[RockTheGlobe]

Tried cycling through the channels, tried flushing the DNS... no joy. Still experiencing a several-second lag time when I punch up a website. Once the site is found, it'll load quickly, but there's definitely a delay when I first put in a new URL or click on a link that boots me to a new website.

[RockTheGlobe]

Tried cycling through the channels, tried flushing the DNS... no joy. Still experiencing a several-second lag time when I punch up a website. Once the site is found, it'll load quickly, but there's definitely a delay when I first put in a new URL or click on a link that boots me to a new website.

I updated the firmware yesterday to 7.3.1 when the pop-up told me there was new firmware available... seems to have helped my issue a fair amount -- not totally fixed, but for many websites, they'll come up much more quickly than the 5-6 second hangtime I was experiencing before.

[stubeeef]

using an iMac 2ghz core2, getting around 1.8MB transfer rate. That is with Mail/Safari and all other apps that might use wireless modes shutdown. I used the info from Activity Monitor in network screen.

Sucks

[xraydoc]

10-13MB/sec file transfer and Time Machine speeds over 802.11n.
Just did a SpeakEasy broadband speed test showing 31Mbit/sec (31,213Kbps) down and 1.6Mb up, though it is almost 3AM and Comcast's SpeedBoost or whatever they call it does favor the short burst download at higher speeds versus longer sustained speeds. But still, when I can download an iTunes song in less than 2 seconds, I wont complain.

[grimslade]

On 5GHz, i can get good speeds, but the range in my apartment is awful, or else there is some sort of interference thing going on. I can't hold a connection outside of the room that the TC is in. On 2.4GHz, I'm getting peak rates (per iStat) of 1.5 MB/s, up and down.

[JAT]

Tried cycling through the channels, tried flushing the DNS... no joy. Still experiencing a several-second lag time when I punch up a website. Once the site is found, it'll load quickly, but there's definitely a delay when I first put in a new URL or click on a link that boots me to a new website.

What does "flushing the DNS" mean? Try new DNS servers. Search the net for what's hot right now.

[RockTheGlobe]

What does "flushing the DNS" mean? Try new DNS servers. Search the net for what's hot right now.

Doing a DNS flush means clearing out the DNS cache your computer has accumulated. When you input a URL, your computer will save the name-resolution request so it doesn't have to look it up again when you go back to the site.

Open Terminal and use this command:
dnscacheutil -flushcache

[fletchnj]

i used istumbler. thanks for the recommend. it seems slow when connected via ethernet too

I have mine connected via wired ethernet too, and it's slow as molasses.

[neilah1]

I did a 60gig first time TM backup to my Time Capsule today via wired ethernet -- took about 2-3 hours.

I only wish there was a utility that would unmount the TC drive when I sleep my MacBook!

I received the drive today, unpacked it, and applied the new firmware update. No stuttering or delayed DNS resolutions on my side, and while I see in the thread someone said the wireless is slower than a normal AirPort Extreme, it's better than the old AirPort Express I was using for the last year!

[ParishM]

I only wish there was a utility that would unmount the TC drive when I sleep my MacBook!


why is this important ?

[grimslade]

I have mine connected via wired ethernet too, and it's slow as molasses.

Can you quantify "molasses"? :cool:

[Nimiety]

Just got a Time Capsule of my own, so here are my feelings and results so far.

Both Apple TVs are seen at a TX Rate of 130 Mbps wirelessly (I think on the 5mhz range, slower on the 2.4mhz range). My main PC which is cabled directly (asus p5k-se motherboard so gig lan) and has auto detected the lan at a gig which is good, but throughput does not seem to go above 100mbps.

I did a backup of an HD connected by esata to the main PC over to the TC and it's traffic pattern never rose above 100 mbps - I really was expecting it to rise as far as the write speed of that drive would handle and would be happy with at least a few hundred mbps.

It seems like this is not inconsistent with others?

[lawrengw]

I’ve recently bought my first Apple computer in the form of one of the new aluminium 13” MacBook, along with a 500GB Time Capsule and 160GB Apple TV. I wanted to make sure I was getting the best possible data transfer rates on my Time Capsule’s wireless network so today I decided to carry out a series of tests while making changes to the Wireless Channel ID and Radio Mode being used.

In case you want to compare my results, the models of MacBook and Time Capsule are below…
13” Aluminium MacBook (MB466B/A) with Mac OS X 10.5.5
500GB Time Capsule (MB276B/A) Software Version 7.3.2

The tests were all carried out from the MacBook, which was positioned about 20 metres from the Time Capsule and separated by two internal walls.

The test itself was to see how quickly a 18.7MB file could be transferred from the internal HDD of the Time Capsule to the desktop of my MacBook. I used the Network section of the Activity Monitor utility to get the data. Here are the results…

Radio Mode: 802.11n (802.11b/g compatible)
Channel Auto – Received: 7.77MB/s Sent: 91.09 KB/s
Channel 1 - Received: 5.5 MB/s Sent: 65.81 KB/s
Channel 2 - Received: 5.52 MB/s Sent: 62.36 KB/s
Channel 3 - Received: 6.39 MB/s Sent: 69.36 KB/s
Channel 4 - Received: 5.56 MB/s Sent: 60.76 KB/s
Channel 5 - Received: 6.27 MB/s Sent: 73.98 KB/s
Channel 6 - Received: 5.53 MB/s Sent: 86.47 KB/s
Channel 7 - Received: 5.84 MB/s Sent: 69.79 KB/s
Channel 8 - Received: 7.98 MB/s Sent: 90.46 KB/s
Channel 9 - Received: 5.55 MB/s Sent: 66.73 KB/s
Channel 10 - Received: 4.93 MB/s Sent: 58.92 KB/s
Channel 11 - Received: 7.92 MB/s Sent: 93.59 KB/s
Channel 12 - Received: 7.72 MB/s Sent: 90.99 KB/s
Channel 13 - Received: 4.69 MB/s Sent: 56.49 KB/s

As I’m planning on always using the mixed Radio Mode due to the fact that I’ve also got an iPod Touch which isn’t N capable I’ve carried out less extensive testing on the other Radio Modes available and left all three on Automatic Channel selection. Here are the results for those tests…

Radio Mode: 802.11n only (2.4GHz) - Received: 6.65 MB/s Sent: 78.87 KB/s
Radio Mode: 802.11n (802.11a compatible) - Received: 4.72 MB/s Sent: 56.46 KB/s
Radio Mode: 802.11n only (5GHz) - Received: 7.61 MB/s Sent: 91.30 KB/s

The results of the tests did surprise me slightly as I’d read a few posts that said Channel 9 was always a sure bet for a good quality signal. The outcome is that I think I’ll stick with 802.11n (802.11b/g compatible) Radio Mode and Automatic Channel selection as there doesn’t seem to be an outright winner in the speed stakes amongst the other Channels and Radio Modes.

[emt1]

why is this important ?

It's not.