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New to Mac’s & MacOS. Networking Issue…

JemTheWire

JemTheWire

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 10, 2012
282
174
Manchester (UK)
As the title says, I am a Mac and MacOS newby. I simply couldn’t resist the Mac Mini. Being well into the Apple ecosystem it was a natural choice for me. I am still finding my way round the MacOS way of doing things but doing OK for now coming from using Windows all my life, it is a bit of a shock.

But I have an issue that I simply cannot sort.

I have a QNAP NAS that I use for backing up my data. It works very well on my PC and I get the max theoretical file transfer speeds when backing up my ‘stuff’. However, when I connect to my QNAP and try to back anything up I get speeds in the kB range which is beyond useless.

It doubt it’s my physical connection because my Internet speed test is over 500GB/s and no trouble with disconnects etc.

I have tried SMB and SFTP with same results.

This is a major stumbling point for me as I really need to get this working. I feel it is a protocol issue rather than a hardware problem

FWIW I have not made any configuration setting changes on my network or QNAP and if I use my PC, which is still connected, I still get full network speed transfers.

HELP!

Thanks for reading.
 
Last edited:
If you are using an Ethernet to USB-C adapter, especially the one Apple sells, it may not work at full speed due to no drivers. The Anker adapter works well at full speed. It has to do with the chipset in the adapter.
 
I don't own a QNAP, but I would check if you can add iperf3 to it. On the Mac you can use homebrew to brew install iperf3. You can then run one side as the client and one as the server and check what bandwidth you are getting between the two.

If QNAP doesn't support adding iperf3, then you can install it on your Windows machine and run it from the command line.

iperf3 is a really useful tool, and it can maybe point you in a direction if SMB is the issue or if it is a network issue. It's worth playing with - I use it a lot to make sure everything is as it should be on the network.

I know that you said that you have good internet connection from the Mac (although you probably made a typo with the 500GB/s speed - if not, I want some haha - I imagine you meant to say 500 mb/s)

For what it's worth I have Macs running both as file share servers and clients to other Macs, Windows and Linux machines, and it works fine. I have 10g networking, so my network is faster than the spinning rust drives that the shares serve out.

The only issues I have had with SMB and Mac was when Apple had introduced a bug when acting as a SMB server - but that seems to have been corrected.
 
raythompsontn said:
If you are using an Ethernet to USB-C adapter...
Click to expand...
Mac mini G4 has on board ethernet. He shouldn't be using an adapter.

QNAP has some support pages for slow file transfer:

www.qnap.com

What should I do if I'm experiencing Slow File Transfer issue over Ethernet/thunderbolt/USB?

Applicable Products All NAS series Diagnose If you meet slow file transfer issue over the network, follow the steps below to dia ...
www.qnap.com www.qnap.com

www.qnap.com

What should I do if I'm experiencing Slow File Transfer issue?

Applicable Products: All NAS series If you are experiencing slower than usual file transfer speed, you may run some tests ...
www.qnap.com www.qnap.com
 
chabig said:
Mac mini G4 has on board ethernet
Click to expand...
G4? Do you mean M4?

I merely asked about an adapter as there may have been a hub, or docking station involved. I know from experience that Apple’s Ethernet gigabit adapter runs at 100Mbs speed when connected to M4 pro. At least the one I bought two years ago. Just eliminating any possibilities.
 
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raythompsontn said:
If you are using an Ethernet to USB-C adapter, especially the one Apple sells, it may not work at full speed due to no drivers. The Anker adapter works well at full speed. It has to do with the chipset in the adapter.
Click to expand...
Oops. Already asked above.
 
tonmischa said:
Could you provide a link to that product please?
Click to expand...
The one that I have, that Apple apparently no longer sells, would not perform at 1GB speeds when connected to my MacBook. The adapter would perform at full speed when connected to my Surface Laptop. I bought the Anker adapter and it works at 1GB speeds.
 
Thanks for the tips. I haven’t had chance to check further as I had been working.

I do not use a Ethernet adaptor as there is no need as devices have Gigabit Ethernet ports. I only disabled the WiFi as it was suggested to do so, it hasn’t made any difference to speeds.

I have tried downgrading SMB on my QNAP from 3 to 2.1, then 2 but no difference.

The Ethernet connection on both devices is confirmed to be negotiated at full 1 gigabit speeds.

I cannot understand why the same NAS with the same settings can transfer data at max speeds when connected to my PC, but only at a few kB when connected to my M4 Mac.
 
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