[6corewhore]

Just got a Synology DS211 to replace my "Time Capsule" that's been feeding my media via SMB/Ethernet to my Apple TV 2. Given "Time Capsule's" SMB limitations, is SMB still the best option or is there a better way to connect now that I have more options? Thanks!

Synology DS211 Information (can skip this, just added it in case it helps)
http://www.synology.com/us/products/DS211/index.php

LAN:
- Gigabit X1

Networking Protocols:
- CIFS
- AFP
- FTP
- WebDAV
- iSCSI
- Telnet
- SSH
- NFS
- SNMP

File Sharing Capability/Windows ADS Domain Integration:
- Domain Users login via Samba/AFP/FTP/File Station

DLNA/UPnP Media Server

PS3/Xbox 360 Support

Supported Audio Format:
AAC, FLAC, M4A, MP3, Ogg, Vorbis, PCM, WAV, WMA, WMA VBR, WMA PRO, WMA Lossless

Supported Video Format:
3GP, 3G2, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, DVR-MS, ISO, M2T, M2TS, M4V, MKV, MP4, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, MTS, MOV, QT, SWF, TP, TRP, TS, VOB, WMV, XviD, RV30, RV40, AC3, AMR, WMA3

Supported Image Format:
BMP, JPG (jpe, jpeg), GIF, ICO, PNG, PSD, TIF (tiff), UFO, RAW (arw, srf, sr2, dcr, k25, kdc, cr2, crw, nef, mrw, ptx, pef, raf, 3fr, erf, mef, mos, orf, rw2, dng, x3f)

Supported Subtitles Format: srt, psb, smi, ass, ssa, sub, idx, ifo

[jlor]

A lot of people swear by NFS
Otherwise FTP might work out well.

If you have windows machines in your home, then try out smb first. It may work better from Synology than from your Time Capsule.. And that way you can easily browse your media from windows machines as well.

[Starstream]

Go with SMB or NFS.

UPnP only if you don't care about losing library functionality.

[ChipsAhoy]

I've got a DS211 and use SMB. Works great, but in recent builds I've had to add the user and password into the URL. Browsing gets rejected. I believe that's because I have all guest access turned off, so your mileage may vary. In any case I just typed:

smb://[username]:[password]@[NAS_IP_Address] and it all worked a treat.

[6corewhore]

I've got a DS211 and use SMB. Works great, but in recent builds I've had to add the user and password into the URL. Browsing gets rejected. I believe that's because I have all guest access turned off, so your mileage may vary. In any case I just typed:

smb://[username]:[password]@[NAS_IP_Address] and it all worked a treat.

Thanks guys! I have SMB already configured for an attached "Time Capsule" connected via ethernet. I'll just simply replace the secondary "Time Capsule" on our WLAN with the Synology as it can act as both a media hub and "Time Capsule" device. The ethernet spec's on the aTV 2 are 10/100BASE-T, is this full ethernet or is the wireless N a faster connection? I assume the ethernet would handle throughput better than looping through our WLAN which may cause stuttering due to other systems on the network.

Thanks!

EDIT: So the Apple TV 2 doesn't support 1000 Ethernet?! I just realized.

[ChipsAhoy]

I haven't done any hard-core testing, but I have one ATV2 on ethernet and another on WiFi. In practice, there seems to be very little difference between them. They both work extremely well for me.

[pecinko]

I'm using Synology 209, SMB & Airport Extreme. And patiently waiting for AFP support :-)

[6corewhore]

I'm using Synology 209, SMB & Airport Extreme. And patiently waiting for AFP support :-)

Cool, waiting for AFP as well, and thanks for all the help, SMB it is until then

[Starstream]

BTW this is how you set guest permissions on a folder so you wont be bothered by username/password

* Log in to Synology Disk Station Manager.
* Go to Control Panel->User.
* Select guest account and click on edit.
* Deselect the box that says "disable this account" & click ok.
* Now go to Control Panel->Shared Folder.
* Select target folder (e.g video) and click on "Privileges Setup".
* Local Users should be selected
* For the guest user account tick the boxes for read only or read/write privileges.

[6corewhore]

Hey guys, thanks for all the advice. I just got the time to set the system up - configured a volume/share, am able to access via OS X 10.7 Finder, created folders for my media, etc. I've given proper access privileges to my admin and guest accounts (thanks for the tip Starstream!), etc. I have the Synology DS211 connected via CAT5e to an ethernet port on my "Time Capsule" (got rid of the other one I was using as an SMB share), and can connect to it given a static IP. However, unlike copying files to my "Time Capsule" from my Mac Pro, this thing is dead slow! 3 days to copy 200GB's of m4v's, which didn't take anywhere near that time before. I've used Cyberduck for FTP, etc but all seems slow.

As this doesn't have WiFi and I'm using the "Time Capsule" then connecting my aTV 2 via Ethernet to the router, this may pose an issue with accessing data from the NAS (wish it had another ethernet port). Thinking I may use a WiFi-N dongle and direct connect my aTV 2 to the Synology and bypass the "Time Capsule." I'd prefer a direct ethernet connection to the NAS.

Any thoughts on any of the above? Thanks! Hope everyone has a great weekend and thanks for your help.

[Starstream]

Well yeah thats definitely wrong speed wise for ethernet.

Try connecting the NAS directly to the ethernet ports on the router instead of the Timecapsule and see if that makes any difference.

Also have you enabled AFP protocol through Synology DSM (control panel->Win/Mac/NFS->Mac File Service) if copying files from a Mac that may work a bit better than Samba.

Lastly if your network card supports it jumbo frames may also give a speed boost, they can be enabled via the DSM-> control panel->network, you may have to manually enable jumbo frames support on your network card for the Mac but I'm not too familiar with OSX so cant be sure.

[pecinko]

Macbook pro, Synology 209, AirportExtreme & SMB (OS X 10.6.8)

wired transfers 25-30MB/s
wifi N 14MB/s

I don't have jumbo frames.

[pecinko]

Try connecting the NAS directly to the ethernet ports on the router instead of the Timecapsule and see if that makes any difference.

Time capsule IS router, but I would try with connecting NAS directly to a Mac. IMO, OS X 10.7 would be an issue here - i.e. problems of the early adopters :-)

[6corewhore]

Haven't had the time to check and test, thanks for the tips! Yeah, Time Capsule is simply an AEBS with a hard drive. Took 6 hours to copy a 15GB mkv from my Mac Pro to the Synology station connected to 10.0.1.9 on my router.

[Cranial]

Haven't had the time to check and test, thanks for the tips! Yeah, Time Capsule is simply an AEBS with a hard drive. Took 6 hours to copy a 15GB mkv from my Mac Pro to the Synology station connected to 10.0.1.9 on my router.

Wow, that's not so great.

Can you give us an idea of your whole network layout, with all devices and connection methods? (Wired, wireless, distance).

Even a basic diagram would help. With your components you should be able to achieve much better throughput.