QNAP TS-119PII with Different Wireless Device on Mac OSX File Transfer Performance Report

I did this test because uploading files to NAS is incredible slow today. The only different is my new WF2190 last week. I spends hours to do a full check of my NAS and eventually find out it is related to driver. I didn’t uninstall D-Link DWA-171 rev A1‘s Realtek driver before installing netis WF2190. During the test, I also learned the difference of my WiFi devices.

QNAP TS-119PII

QNAP TS-119PII runs QTS is an embedded Linux developed by QNAP. It contains:

1. Marvell 88F6282 which is a single core ARMv5TE-compliant 32-bit processor with 256K L2 cache.
2. 512MB RAM and is not upgradable.
3. Seagate Laptop SSHD 1 TB in single tray.
4. QTS is 4.2.4 build 20170313

QNAP TS-119PII with Mac OSX File Transfer Performance Report is a good reference to learn its capability.

Mac Mini Late 2012

I have upgrade my Mac mini Late 2012 to 16GB RAM and SanDisk Extreme Pro 480GB SSD. Now running OSX 10.12 aka macOS Sierra.

According to Mac Mini Late 2012 Teardown on iFixIt, it contains:

1. Broadcom BCM4331 supports 802.11n, and 802.11a @ 5GHz.
2. Broadcom BCM4331 supports 802.11n, 802.11g, and 802.11b @ 2.4GHz.
3. Max speed for 802.11n is 450Mbps @ 5GHz with 3T3R.
4. Max speed for 802.11n is 150Mbps @ 2.4GHz with 1T1R.
5. Broadcom BCM57765 as Gigabit Ethernet.

Asus RT-AC1200G+

According to ASUS RT-AC1200GP on WikiDevi, it contains:

1. Broadcom BCM47189 supports 802.11ac, 802.11n, and 802.11a@ 5GHz.
2. Broadcom BCM43217 supports 802.11n, 802.11g, and 802.11b @ 2.4GHz.
3. Max speed for 802.11ac is 867Mbps with 2T2R.
4. Max speed for 802.11n is 300Mbps with 2T2R.
5. Broadcom BCM53125 as Gigabit Ethernet.
6. Firmware is 9.0.0.4.382_10680.

D-Link DWA-171 Rev A1

The H/W ver: A1 is very important information but only show on a small label on the package or the last few characters of P/N on the device. Different hardware version might use different chips result in different performance and comparability.

According to D-Link DWA-171 rev A1 on WikiDevi, it contains:

1. Realtel RTL8811AU supports draft 802.11ac which is not 802.11ac.
2. Max speed for 802.11ac is 433Mbps with 2T2R.
3. Max speed for 802.11n is 150Mbps with 1T1R.
4. USB 2.0 interface.
5. OSX driver is Wlan_11ac_USB_MacOS10.8~10.12_Driver_v1830.10_UI_5.0.3.

netis WF2190

According to Netis WF2190 on WikiDevi, it contains:

1. Realtel RTL8812AU supports draft 802.11ac which is not 802.11ac.
2. Max speed for 802.11ac is 867Mbps with 2T2R.
3. Max speed for 802.11n is 300Mbps with 2T2R.
4. USB 3.0 interface.
5. OSX driver is RTLWlanU_MacOS10.6_MacOS10.11_Driver_1830.2.b19_1827.4.b22_DropDownMenu_5.0.2.b9.

Test Method

For security concern, I enable both WPA2 Personal and MAC filtering.

Test file is a single MP4 at 451.7MB.

Upload to TS-119PII through File Station. The Background Task windows provides upload Transfer Rate information. It’s using Hypertext Transfer Protocol instead of Samba or Apple Filing Protocol. More about how it works can be fund in How does HTTP file upload work? on StackOverflow.

Temperature is measured by smcFanControl 2.6. Computer fan runs at 5500rpm and the weather is 29°C to 33°C.

Performance and Temperature

	Theoretical (All @ 5 GHz)	Upload Speed	Mac Mini Temperature
Mac Mini Build-in	2T2R 802.11n @ 300Mbps	25MB/s	57°C
D-Link DWA-171 rev A1	1T1R draft 802.11ac @ 433Mbps	19MB/s	57°C
netis WF2190	2T2R draft 802.11ac @ 867Mbps	27MB/s	60°C

Analyze

Build-in WiFi (Broadcom BCM43xx) is about 20% faster than DWA-171 rev A1 (RTL8811AU). WF2190 (RTL8812AU) is fastest but Mac mini is also hottest.

More Thoughts

After testing with different devices, I have following conclusion:

1. Always use only one Realtek device and driver on the same OSX computer.
2. If you want to install a new driver, uninstall the others first.
3. Although a draft 802.11ac 1T1R device has better spec, it’s not always faster than a 802.11n with 2T2R.

Reference

1. Apple macOS Sierra
2. Apple OS X
3. Apple: How to connect with File Sharing on your Mac
4. Apple: Mac mini (Late 2012) – Technical Specifications
5. Asus: RT-AC1200G+
6. Datasheet: BCM57765
7. D-Link Wireless AC Dual Band USB Adapter DWA-171
8. eidac: smcFanControl 2.6 released
9. iFixIt: Mac Mini Late 2012 Teardown
10. MACお宝鑑定団：macg.co：Mac mini (Late 2012)は11n/450Mbps/3ストリームに対応している
11. Marvell: Marvell 88F6282 SoC
12. Microsoft: Windows Server 2012 R2
13. netis: WF2190
14. Prepare Your NAS File Transfer Performance Test with Mac OSX Client
15. QNAP
16. QNAP: File Storage & Sharing
17. QNAP TS-119PII
18. QNAP TS-119PII with Mac OSX File Transfer Performance Report
19. QNAP TS-119PII
20. QNAP: QTS
21. Samba
22. SANDISK EXTREME PRO SSD
23. Seagate Laptop SSHD Datasheet
24. StackOverflow: How does HTTP file upload work?
25. Thecus W5000 and QNAP TS-119PII with Mac OSX Wireless File Transfer Performance Report
26. Wiki: Apple Filing Protocol
27. Wiki: ARM architecture
28. Wiki: Gigabit Ethernet
29. Wiki: Hypertext Transfer Protocol
30. Wiki: IEEE 802.11a-1999
31. Wiki: IEEE 802.11ac
32. Wiki: IEEE 802.11b-1999
33. Wiki: IEEE 802.11g-2003
34. Wiki: IEEE 802.11n-2009
35. Wiki: Multi-level cell
36. Wiki: Network File System
37. Wiki: USB
38. Wiki: USB 3.0
39. Wiki: Wi-Fi Protected Access
40. WikiDevi: ASUS RT-AC1200GP
41. WikiDevi: Broadcom
42. WikiDevi: D-Link DWA-171 rev A1
43. WikiDevi: Netis WF2190
44. WikiDevi: Realtek