Mac OS and a home NAS

crapmanjoe

Hey,

I purchased a Dlink 320 (Product link a couple of years ago and had it working perfectly with a windows laptop.

Recently updated to a Mac air and now when ever i try to move through the folders using finder its incredibly slow (files / folder takes ages to load and sometimes dont load at all) - i thought initally it was my mac was slow but spent a few minutes googling it and it looks like this is a common problem for Mac OS and NAS). Problem is any sites that offered a solution were very tech speak heavy and I couldn't follow it.

Has anyone else experienced this problem and have a solution in laymans terms.

Thanks!

5uspect

How do you connect to the NAS? Via a web interface or through Finder?

You can use a few different protocols to talk to the NAS. Apple used to use something called AFP where as most *nix systems use samba (smb).
Newer version of OS X use smb2 which can cause issues with older NAS systems. You can make OS X use the older version to test it out - but this is a little technical for now.
You can even use an even older protocol called cifs if necessary so lets try that first.

For example, in Finder click Go>Connect to Server (the shortcut when in Finder is CMD+K).
In the window that appears you can enter the NAS details, and save them for later if needed by clicking the +.
Type in:

cifs://myserverhostname_or_IP_address

Where myserverhostname_or_IP_address is the hostname or static IP of your NAS.
Like this:


Click connect and let us know how you get on.

ZENER

I feel your pain !! I've searched high and low for a solution to this problem. I have a 2TB WD MyCloud device connected to a GB Switch, my iMac is also connected to the same switch. Directory listings are painfully slow, managing files is a pain and if I try to edit the info of a song in iTunes that's stored on the drive iTunes hangs for up to 10 minutes.

I've tried mapping the drive, accessing via SMB, AFP and CIFS all to no avail - slow slow slow . . .

The annoying thing is that a virtual Windows 7 machine running in Virtual Box on this same iMac has no such issues !! Access from my MacBook via WiFi is only marginally better yet from my iPad is fine ! I've been through the last few versions of Mac OS X from Snow Leopard (10.6) to Yosemite (10.10) with similar results. I don't believe there is an issue with the drives, it's definitely a Mac OS issue. Strangely accessing the drive via Wi-Fi on the iMac works better though not as good as a Windows machine - a complete contradiction !

Ken

5uspect

I must be pretty lucky so. We use a QNAP NAS in work and I've a couple of different units at home that I don't have any issues with - they're as fast as Windows at least. Here are a couple of videos of me accessing music files and large RAW files (~25MB each). I'm connected to a 3TB WD MyBook something or other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aqohq3i3gA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIzz5U4dMSE

crapmanjoe

Yeah i was originally connecting through SMB and that looks like it was the problem

I changed to AFP and its working better (still not great mind and no where as good as windows)

Ill try the CFIS option later this evening and report back