Question about copying files over the network

[athlonFan]

I am curious on how this copying files over network works exactly.


I have 2 NASes at home, connected to the same switch including my computer. The 2 NASes basically serve as backup, both are almost identical in content and previously, I just run SyncToy to synchronize the 2 NAS.


My question is: If I run synctoy from my computer to sync 2 NASes in the network, will the files pass through my computer from NAS1 to NAS2? or do files go directly from NAS1 to NAS2?

[bravoexo]

Really depends on the transfer protocol Synctoy and your NASs support. And, at the very least, some data does go to your synctoy app to determine the synchronization rules to follow.

[motion55]

I think the files travel from NAS1 through your PC to NAS2. You can verify by checking the volume of traffic on your PC's ethernet interface. It's not efficient and the resulting speed is only half if the files were sent directly from NAS1 to NAS2.

If possible, you should run the file sync program from one of the NAS. Rsync?

[athlonFan]

I think the files travel from NAS1 through your PC to NAS2. You can verify by checking the volume of traffic on your PC's ethernet interface. It's not efficient and the resulting speed is only half if the files were sent directly from NAS1 to NAS2.

If possible, you should run the file sync program from one of the NAS. Rsync?

This I have to research. I have set these up a few months ago hastily because of a failed internal hdd (which I haven't tried recovering yet)

[jojitb]

It will pass through your PC. If I remember correctly you need something like FXP protocol for that

or if your NAS has linux under the hood with access to a terminal you can setup scripts to do it.

[WallyWest]

Yes it will pass through the PC. Same thing also happens when transferring from one hard drive to another hard drive when both are connected to the same NAS.

[jojitb]

^^ yeah. kaasar ano.

But at gigabit speeds it's still bearable. Doing that with 100baseT (100mbps) will suck though.

[WallyWest]

My torrent downloader is a cdrking router with an HDD connected via usb.

I usually delete files from the HDD using a file explorer app on my smartphone but then I've found that it's way faster to access the router via telnet and do an "rm -rf" on the folder(s) that I wish to delete.

Is there an app that can do this with a gui? Kind of like a file explorer except it does things via telnet or ssh on the background.

Sent from my ASUS_T00J using Tapatalk

[WallyWest]

Here's the setup:

Router1: fiber modem/router with DHCP enabled.
Router2: wifi router with DHCP disabled.

Routers 1 and 2 are connected via WDS (I didn't want to run any cables between routers). Router 2 is not set up as a wifi repeater, btw.

PC#1 connects to the internet via ethernet cable to Router2.

If I were to connect PC#2 via ethernet to Router2 and I copy files between PC#1 and PC#2, will the file copying just be handled by Router2 or will the file still go through to Router1?

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[jeremypv]

it will be handled by both, in WDS setup, every packet that runs on either one end, will be copied to the other one.
for your question (i'm assuming performance), it's as if it is only handled by Router2 (but data will be duplicated to Router1)

[splerdu]

^ Will it do that? IIRC WDS requries every base station to forward to others, but if the LAN portion of the router is also acting as a switch then it should recognize that the packets from PC1 to PC2 don't even need to touch the base station and will thus avoid any WDS relaying requirements.

@WallyWest

Why not just do a traceroute between PC1 and PC2. That should show exactly what route the packets take. Then to test if those same packets are getting mirrored try doing a large file transfer from PC1 to PC2 while simultaneously doing an internet speedtest from router2, maybe from a third device.

If the packets from PC1 to PC2 are also being mirrored via WDS then speedtest will be affected by the file transfer because LAN level bandwidth is sure to saturate the wireless link.