USB File Transfer Expectations (Wireless)

At my previous house, using a 6-year old Linksys EA9500 router located near the client (desktop computer), I could transfer files to/from an attached USB drive at 50+ MB/s. When we moved into our current house, and the router was located about 25 feet away and below the client (i.e. next floor down), I got maybe 15 - 17 MB/s. I just upgraded our Wi-fi to (2) Asus RT-AXE7800 routers, one as the router and the other as AI Mesh node. I don't max out the 1 Gbps Internet connection but it is still pretty good...400 - 800 Mbps even with the upstairs Mesh node. However, I've noticed that 1) I can only access attached USB storage with SMB 1 enabled (I'm a little surprised that modern routers aren't SMB 2 or 3) and that the transfer rate didn't improve at all. Is there something I need to configure (Windows, drive, router?). I posted something similar in Asus Reddit thread but figured someone on here might have some ideas too.

I transfer files from my desktop to my mini pc and I'm getting around 20 to 25 MB/s. I was told that the likely reason was because my router is on another floor. Doing seaches I found a suggestion to switch from Private to Public. I tried it and it didn't make any difference. I think we're stuck with slow transfer speeds. I'm on my phone so I can't check to see if SMB 1 is on or off. If I ever find a solution I'll let you know.

Much appreciated. Admittedly, I was a little surprised that a router like the Asus was still limited to SMB1 (or any 2023+ router).

Winuser said:

I was told that the likely reason was because my router is on another floor

Click to expand...

Buildings are an issue at time when using Wireless/Wi-Fi, it can be the floors but can also involve lead-based paint [older buildings], insulation, metal siding, etc.

Since you are getting 400 to 800 Mbps to the Internet over that same WiFi connection, I don't think that WiFi is the issue here. It may simply be the support of USB devices on the router is slow.

As a test, you might try plugging your computer into your router with an Ethernet cable, just temporarily as a test. Now see how fast you can transfer data to / from that same USB connected storage. If you are not seeing a significant improvement, then the issue is not the WiFi.

Since you are sharing it from your router, I am assuming that the goal here is to make it available to multiple systems on the network. If you do have another PC, you might also consider connecting your USB storage device to another PC and sharing it from that system to see if access is faster.

Of course, since this is a USB device, you could always simply connect it directly to your PC.

If you have done the above tests and find access to be a lot faster when sharing from another PC, then one more option might be to dedicate a system to sharing your USB device(s). Yes, that may cost a few dollars, but here is how I did it:

I obtained a Mini PC. These can easily be found for well under $150 in the United States, often right around $100. I share my USB storage from that Mini PC. If I left the Mini PC on 24 x 7 it would cost me less than $10 per year to run, but I don't. I shut it down remotely when I don't need it. When I need to access my USB storage, I send a Wake-on-LAN signal to it to power it up and 30 seconds later my USB storage is available. By doing this it's likely costing me only about a dollar to run for a year. This also gives me readily available access to my storage from any system in my home.

Maybe not all of this is practical in your situation, but it's just some thoughts about possibilities to explore.