External HDD on Airport Extreme slow

Hi,

Its my first time to use the Airport Express Base Station, and I connected an external USB2 2.5 laptop drive with 80GB and 5400RPM as for specs.

I did a speed test with my current Samba server on the same Lan, and it way outperformed the copy speeds coming from the AEBS's HDD.

My network consist of a modem of course, and on that hangs my AEBS. From the AEBS I have a LAN connection to my Samba server (Debian with 80GB share) and with USB2 my external HDD. My MacBook connects with 802.11n to the AEBS. I copied a file to the SAMBA on the server, and to the USB HDD on the AEBS, and the Samba server took it twice as fast. Reading had the same difference.

I just wonder. Why is it slow? Is this just the nature of the AEBS's disk sharing? If this is the case, I dont see much point having it.

Thanks,

Ben

One word - USB

Depends on your use for it as to whether any USB connected storage device will cramp your style or not.
Even FW400 will almost cut in half the read and write times for large files.

Hi

I didnt have this issue with USB yet. I mean the speed we are talking about here is about 50Mbit/sec. My LAN is 100MBit/sec and from the Samba server I am pulling data at 95MBit/sec approximately. From the USB through AEBS only with 50 or even less MBit/sec. That is outrageous, and I am sure the problem is not with the USB connection, but with something else, like the way AEBS serves the share up, etc.

Any experiences?

Thanks

Ben

I repeat - one word - USB

is slow. It will not compete with your Lan, nor much of any other connection when it comes to speed.

Here is a link to some of my own tests with a direct connection comparing USB, FW400 and FW800.

You can do some googling and find the same results repeated pretty much over and over again.

And the easy way to test it out for yourself - connect this external via USB directly to your computer and run some timed tests moving data back and forth. The only way you'll really know where an issue lies.

Hi

Thanks for the link, I did read it, and its an interesting comparison. The problem is that my setup is still much slower than what you have in your figures, and I also copied all the contents currently on the External disk via a straight USB connection to my macbook, so I know the USBs speed. But when its on the Airport, it performs much slower, which is the problem.

I am just wondering about people who have the Airport Express, what speeds do they seem to get?

Thanks

Ben

Can't answer that one for you since I don't use the AE.
You might post some of your timed results. That will give anyone using an external with the AE something to compare with.

However, one thing to note, having been a hardware enthusiast in the windows realm myself, there is not nearly so much of that type of tweaking to get the best and fastest happening on the Mac side.

bobtomay said:

However, one thing to note, having been a hardware enthusiast in the windows realm myself, there is not nearly so much of that type of tweaking to get the best and fastest happening on the Mac side.

Click to expand...

Right, and this is what I am afraid of too. If thats the case, the router stays anyways, as the N speed is thrilling nevertheless, but I will be forced to buy a standalone NAS for the shares. On a side note, I am working on a "silence the house" project, and the idea is brought to me by the wife of course. She doesnt like the sounds the servers produce. I am getting a fanless CF based server for the Mail and SSH purposes, and the NAS for the Samba file shares, and when I am done, the servers will be put asleep for now.

I will post some copy speeds if I get to it, meantime someone with Experience on AEBS and Disk Sharing, please sound your opinion,

Thanks a lot,

Ben