Question about LAN

Thank you. I am all about security. It all sounds very good and I will definitely be looking at it again (I didn't know you can put your router on VPN, I thought it is only client based). However, as it stands I don't really have any spare megabits to give away. A few posts back I posted my speed test. 4Mb down and 0.5 up with 30+ ping. If I am getting the fibre (minimum guranteed of 52 Mb), then I can throw some of them away. As it stands, if I am uploading something for my client, noone at home have internet for hours. There is really not much to play with at the moment.

Router is Sky Hub 3.0 (I'm with Sky).

VPN is a [host <-> client] based system, so your laptop is the client, and it has to connect back to a host. Some home routers don't allow you to set them up as a VPN host, so you might have to set that up on your NAS instead, and forward a port to the NAS for VPN traffic only.

This is safe and a typical setup for small businesses, as I deal with daily.

When you're away from home and sending data to your NAS, your laptop will actually be using the downstream on your home Internet connection, not the upstream, because you're effectively "downloading" the data to your NAS, i.e. uploading to it from your laptop.
 
@=adrian=
I agree with NinjaMonkeyUK, you should use (Set a static / bound IP on the NAS). I would recommend bound IP to MAC address, also called "reserved IP". If you assign static IP you will also need to configure the rest of networking like DNS, mask. If you use the bound or reserved IP the router will do all that automatically for you.

Any service from the outside world VPN, SSH or whichever way you use to transfer data from and to your home network will be considerably slow because all traffic has to go through your ISP and it will be limited to whichever speed they provide you with.
 
I understand that the VPN is paid. Which one is good so that I can see what kind of costs we are talking about. Which one do you recommend?

Thing is, I don't travel very often. Once or twice per year. I use mostly my desktop PC, and local network to transfer files to my NAS. I am away Friday for two weeks and that is when VPN would be ideal for me. I could securely send files to my NAS when abroad and have them backed up.

However, is it only from my router to NAS the the traffic will be encrypted, or the whole connection starting from my laptop abroad to NAS?

As it stands I plan to send files to my Google Drive when I want to backup and have NaS to monitor the folder and automatically download the files. It is not as secure, but free. I will have a look tonight of I can install VPN on that router and how much such service would cost.
 
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I understand that the VPN is paid. Which one is good so that I can see what kind of costs we are talking about. Which one do you recommend?

Thing is, I don't travel very often. Once or twice per year. I use mostly my desktop PC, and local network to transfer files to my NAS. I am away Friday for two weeks and that is when VPN would be ideal for me. I could securely send files to my NAS when abroad and have them backed up.

However, is it only from my router to NAS the the traffic will be encrypted, or the whole connection starting from my laptop abroad to NAS?

As it stands I plan to send files to my Google Drive when I want to backup and have NaS to monitor the folder and automatically download the files. It is not as secure, but free. I will have a look tonight of I can install VPN on that router and how much such service would cost.

VPN can be free. If your router or NAS are able to provide the service, it will be free. However, you will need to configure it and wont be able to, in such short period. No offence intended, but I very much doubt you will have the time to get all that working before Friday. This statement is solely based on your previous comment that you are not very familiar with network configuration and the like.

Google Drive is not a bad solution. It is pretty safe since they use secure protocols. I assume that you are going to be using https or ftps. The other solution is to download VeraCrypt, free, and encrypt a USB pen drive and take with you. Another can of worms if you are no familiar with encryption and the software. You time limit is very tight.

With VeraCrypt you can create a stand alone usb drive that it is encrypted and has the executable, meaning that you could use it in any computer and it would be the most secure way of having sensitive files protected. It is called a VeraCrypt Traveller Disk.

If you have a VPN setup the traffic will be encrypted from end to end. You will need a server in your NAS or router, that means that usually they have some app to configure to provide the service and a client in the laptop that you are taking away with you. The client is another app or program that talks to the server and creates a 'tunnel' between the two machines. It will be fully encrypted from end to end.
 
VPN can be free. If your router or NAS are able to provide the service, it will be free. However, you will need to configure it and wont be able to, in such short period. No offence intended, but I very much doubt you will have the time to get all that working before Friday. This statement is solely based on your previous comment that you are not very familiar with network configuration and the like.

Google Drive is not a bad solution. It is pretty safe since they use secure protocols. I assume that you are going to be using https or ftps. The other solution is to download VeraCrypt, free, and encrypt a USB pen drive and take with you. Another can of worms if you are no familiar with encryption and the software. You time limit is very tight.

With VeraCrypt you can create a stand alone usb drive that it is encrypted and has the executable, meaning that you could use it in any computer and it would be the most secure way of having sensitive files protected. It is called a VeraCrypt Traveller Disk.

If you have a VPN setup the traffic will be encrypted from end to end. You will need a server in your NAS or router, that means that usually they have some app to configure to provide the service and a client in the laptop that you are taking away with you. The client is another app or program that talks to the server and creates a 'tunnel' between the two machines. It will be fully encrypted from end to end.
Thank you

Oh I won't be attempting to do any more before Friday. I have a disaster of a week and now need to spend a lot of money... and I'm going away on Friday too. It will have to be just Google Drive this time. I just plan to log on to it as usual and copy files over there. NAS will copy them automatically to HDDs. Not sure if it is a secure connection or not.

I just had Sky calling me again today, telling me that there is a problem with my fibre broadband order and I need to call them back again tomorrow.
 
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I'm a bit late to the party, but a few passing points:
* Often a new Qnap consumer NAS will run off and index stuff for the various Media Stations, you can see this in the resource monitor.
* It's a 2-bay NAS, are you running it mirrored, JBOD or striped? If not mirrored what's the backup solution? Do note even if mirrored you still need to back it up, as that doesn't help if someone deletes the wrong files.
* Also if mirrored might have been doing delayed mirroring (i.e. as soon as you select that it appears as a volume, but actually it sorts itself out in the background over quite a number of hours, it's user-transparent as anything you write gets mirrored as you do it and it just mirrors the rest of the disks over time, eating system resources).
* They default (last I looked) to SMB (Microsoft networking) v2.1, you can enable v3, which is better, but they have had some issues (I'm sticking on 2.1 for now but I might be a little picky, it's allegedly all fixed, um...).
* Qnap have had lots (!!) of firmware issues the last 18 months, you really want to be on the latest one (644), probably (certainly nothing later than 516 unless it's the latest one, oh and nothing earlier than 516, really!!).
* If encrypted I'd really suggest letting it store the password on the NAS, as they've had a lot of issues with people entering the password on boot (mainly just very very long startup times).
* Can be worth making a user with read-only access to any media, so you can let people play and not worry about finger trouble.

BTW I always preferred 5e to 6 as it was easier for 1Gb chips to drive (having done a number of GbE designs over the years). Or maybe we just got sold a lot of iffy Cat 6, who knows...
 
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I just bought NAS, started backing up my PC. Getting 10-11 MB/s. Backing up my PC will take 3 days. It is not a disaster, as I am not in great rush or anything, but just thinking aloud here. Would I get much better speed if I upgrade my network.

Bellow is a little graph of what my network currently looks like:

Desktop PC (with Intel® I219V network card - gigabit) --------> Cat 6 cable --------> 2x TP-Link home plugs capable of 600Mbps ---------> Cat 5 or Cat 6 cable (not sure) -------> Sky Hub (100Mbps)

Am I right in thinking that if I upgrade the router to gigabit and change the router cable to make sure it's Cat 6, I should be getting better speed? What speed can I expect? Is it worth my while?

The homeplugs are a serious bottleneck. The Skyhub may be dragging down the whole network too. Basically, every part of the network needs to support Gigabit speeds to ensure it runs properly. I'd also make sure the cables are fully wired and capable of gigabit speed. I've had a rogue cat5 cable that dragged down the whole network.
 
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cat5 or 6 will not matter until you start using 10Gbit/s. I think your NAS or homeplugs are the bottleneck here. I had a QNAP TS-210 and wow that was really slow at everything so I upgraded my NAS. What NAS do you have by the way?

I can actually prove it if you fancy a trip to Bangor University where I work in IT Services. I can show you a transfer rate of 970Mb/s up/down full duplex using cat 5.


What type of cat5?

Cat5 cables are broken into two separate categories: Cat5 and Cat5E cables. Cat5e (enhanced) became the standard cable used for most network installations about 15 years ago while basic Cat5 was all but abolished. Although the Cat5 cable can handle up to 10/100 Mbps at a 100MHz bandwidth, the newer versions of Cat cables are significantly faster.

Cat5e cables can be up to 10 times faster than Cat5 and have a greater ability to traverse distances without being impacted by crosstalk.

Cat6 is only a few years younger than Cat5e and while Cat6 cables can handle up to 10 Gigabits of data, that bandwidth is limited to 164 feet — anything beyond that will rapidly decay to only 1 Gigabit (the same as Cat5E).

There is a newer Cat6A version of Cat6 though which utilises an thicker plastic casing that helps further reduce crosstalk. The biggest distinguishing difference between Cat6 and Cat6A cables is that Cat6A can maintain 10 Gigabit speeds for the full 328 feet of ethernet cable.

For most home and small business purposes, Cat5E and Cat6 cables should be more than sufficient. If you are a heavy commercial user with heavy network demands then you'd probably want to use Cat6A or mabe even Cat7? For most home networks either cat5e or Cat6 would be more than adequate.
 
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Also just reading again. You cannot use another router with sky. You are stuck with the slow router. So just add a 1gb switch

I'm under the impression that you can swith the SKY router into modem mode and connect an external router to it?
 
If your router does AC1800 or better Wireless you might be better with that, as that's about 1Gb Ethernet speed. Plus you can use one of these to connect slower Wireless devices:
EA-AC87 | Networking | ASUS Africa
 
If your router does AC1800 or better Wireless you might be better with that, as that's about 1Gb Ethernet speed. Plus you can use one of these to connect slower Wireless devices:
EA-AC87 | Networking | ASUS Africa

It should be noted that 5GHz wifi is less effective over distances than 2.4GHz. It is sometimes suggested to use 2.4Ghz as opposed to 5GHz if your home wifi is effected by the distance from your router and or the construction of the building. 2.4GHz is more robust than 5GHz despite the speed advantage.
 
It should be noted that 5GHz wifi is less effective over distances than 2.4GHz. It is sometimes suggested to use 2.4Ghz as opposed to 5GHz if your home wifi is effected by the distance from your router and or the construction of the building. 2.4GHz is more robust than 5GHz despite the speed advantage.

Except there's a ton of stuff on 2.4GHz and most houses are fine at 5GHz... of course if you own a stately pile you're on your own... :)
My house has brick walls for all the internal walls (yes, so if I get it rewired every room in the house will need redecorating... oh the joy). From my AC2600 router at front right ground-floor room to my EA-AC87 (AC1800) WiFi->Ethernet box rear right upper floor I'm currently getting 1073Mbps... or if you prefer I can write to a TS253A NAS connected there at over 70MB/s (from a PC in the lower right rear room via AC1900 link to router).
 
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I'm a bit late to the party, but a few passing points:
* Often a new Qnap consumer NAS will run off and index stuff for the various Media Stations, you can see this in the resource monitor.
* It's a 2-bay NAS, are you running it mirrored, JBOD or striped? If not mirrored what's the backup solution? Do note even if mirrored you still need to back it up, as that doesn't help if someone deletes the wrong files.
* Also if mirrored might have been doing delayed mirroring (i.e. as soon as you select that it appears as a volume, but actually it sorts itself out in the background over quite a number of hours, it's user-transparent as anything you write gets mirrored as you do it and it just mirrors the rest of the disks over time, eating system resources).
* They default (last I looked) to SMB (Microsoft networking) v2.1, you can enable v3, which is better, but they have had some issues (I'm sticking on 2.1 for now but I might be a little picky, it's allegedly all fixed, um...).
* Qnap have had lots (!!) of firmware issues the last 18 months, you really want to be on the latest one (644), probably (certainly nothing later than 516 unless it's the latest one, oh and nothing earlier than 516, really!!).
* If encrypted I'd really suggest letting it store the password on the NAS, as they've had a lot of issues with people entering the password on boot (mainly just very very long startup times).
* Can be worth making a user with read-only access to any media, so you can let people play and not worry about finger trouble.

BTW I always preferred 5e to 6 as it was easier for 1Gb chips to drive (having done a number of GbE designs over the years). Or maybe we just got sold a lot of iffy Cat 6, who knows...
It's a 4 bay NAS and I have 3 x 4TB HDDs inside. RAID 5. The Cat 6 cables seem fine so far. I should have fibre speed after my holidays, so will be able to test the whole network a little better then. But so far, it seems ok.
 
The homeplugs are a serious bottleneck. The Skyhub may be dragging down the whole network too. Basically, every part of the network needs to support Gigabit speeds to ensure it runs properly. I'd also make sure the cables are fully wired and capable of gigabit speed. I've had a rogue cat5 cable that dragged down the whole network.
I have a gigabit connection between NAS and my PC. My internet relies on homeplugs. But even with with fibre I will be getting 80 Mbps max. Homeplugs are rated to 600 Mbps. Even if I go with worst case scenario of 100Mbps, I should still be OK.
 
At the moment I'm abroad, so I cannot really do anything with my network. However, I read all the comments and will be going through them again when back home. Thank you all :)
 
It's a 4 bay NAS and I have 3 x 4TB HDDs inside. RAID 5. The Cat 6 cables seem fine so far. I should have fibre speed after my holidays, so will be able to test the whole network a little better then. But so far, it seems ok.

IMHO it's really worth getting an ID for the Qnap forums so you can see the firmware release threads, plus not upgrading until a decent number of people aren't screaming about it...
Oh and back it up! :)
 
One thing I forgot. Qnap NAS AFAIK all default to RAID scrubbing on the first of the month, which at the default priority can take a while and lower performance. My TS453A (Quad-core x86) takes about 12 hours to do 4x6TB drives. (RAID scrubbing is where they look for and fix any disk block errors that might have cropped up, if you have a fault-tolerant RAID like 5.)
 
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One thing I forgot. Qnap NAS AFAIK all default to RAID scrubbing on the first of the month, which at the default priority can take a while and lower performance. My TS453A (Quad-core x86) takes about 12 hours to do 4x6TB drives. (RAID scrubbing is where they look for and fix and disk block errors that might have cropped up, if you have a fault-tolerant RAID like 5.)
Yes, I have mine scheduled for the 1st of every month (IIRC) at midnight (RAID 5). I thought about changing it to something else, but most of the time I'm at work anyway, so don't really need NAS at night or in the morning.
 
Skimmed through the thread, if you are still having the speed issue with the homeplug setup, the bottle neck will defiantly be the homeplugs because although they are 600Mbps rated, they only have 10/100 ports on them (reading the spec from the amazon link posted). They can transfer at 600Mbps between them over the home power cables, but you can only get 100Mbps in and out of them with the 10/100 ports (from amazon "2 10/100mbps Ethernet RJ45 ports")
 
Finally!

Before
LNsvl3u.jpg


After
xoLKikP.jpg


I'm sure most of you are on X times faster than that, but for me this is amazing. First time ever I have crossed the 7Mbps barrier. Also that upload :cool:
 

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