Best way to connect NAS to Computer for USB transfer

[mambino]

So if I have a QNAP nas tvs 473 and I also want it connected to my computer so I can move files over quickly via USB instead of everything on internet what is the best way?

Is it to connect a USB 3.0 B on the front to my computer with one of these? https://www.amazon.ca/AmazonBasics-USB- ... .0+micro+b

Or do I find a usb 3.1 to usb 3.0 or usb c to the back of my computer (my computer motherboard has a usb c port)

[dolbyman]

I think you are mixing up internet and network ...

and usb quick access is just a virtual network adapter

[mambino]

so connecting the USB B from Qnap nas directly to my computer does not improve performance of transferring files?

[schumaku]

so connecting the USB B from Qnap nas directly to my computer does not improve performance of transferring files?

That's not the point here. USB is always a communication between a USB Device and an USB Host. Both your computer and the NAS are USB hosts - and these can't be connected back to back by USB for making one storage available to the other as the USB mass storage device class (also known as USB MSC or UMS) unit.

QNAP offers USB Quick Access on some models, permitting to connect typically small mobile devices like small notebooks (without physical Ethernet, or Fast Ethernet only) to the NAS. This is implemented by a network connection over USB, not USB MSC - as it would not make much sense to offer a block data access to the NAS physical storage blocks.

How is your computer communicating with the TVS-473 today? WLAN performance shortcomings can be overcome by using wired Ethernet. Something to consider to overcome the Gigabit Ethernet limitations would be 10 GbE infrastructure.

[mambino]

I've connected the tvs 473 to my router and my computer is also connected via ethernet to my router. Is this the best performance I will get? Sorry I must have misunderstood that creating a direct usb connection between the two would have sped it up

[dolbyman]

if everything is connecting via 1GbE ..ethernet will e your fastest transfer option

[Trexx]

I've connected the tvs 473 to my router and my computer is also connected via ethernet to my router. Is this the best performance I will get? Sorry I must have misunderstood that creating a direct usb connection between the two would have sped it up

Short of upgrading both devices to support 10GbE, your existing connections via 1GbE will be the best NW performance option you have. That being said, depending on what your use case is there are sometime more efficient ways to do things (move data/etc.) when you factor in protocol (SMB/AFP/etc.) overhead and such.

[mambino]

Thank you guys, so my use cases are very simple... ie move movies and music from my computer to my NAS.

So from what I gather here not minding the advanced stuff you guys talk about, connecting it all on one router over 1gbe connection is my best bet

[Trexx]

Thank you guys, so my use cases are very simple... ie move movies and music from my computer to my NAS.

So from what I gather here not minding the advanced stuff you guys talk about, connecting it all on one router over 1gbe connection is my best bet

Yup. That would be your best option. You would be better off using programs like robocopy/filezilla/etc. vs. just drag and drop with Windows in most cases. Movies (single large files) will move more efficiently than music (a lot of small files) in general.

[mambino]

Thank you guys, so my use cases are very simple... ie move movies and music from my computer to my NAS.

So from what I gather here not minding the advanced stuff you guys talk about, connecting it all on one router over 1gbe connection is my best bet

Yup. That would be your best option. You would be better off using programs like robocopy/filezilla/etc. vs. just drag and drop with Windows in most cases. Movies (single large files) will move more efficiently than music (a lot of small files) in general.

Thank you Trexx for your reply

So with something like filezilla I would just set up FTP access on my NAS and then use an ftp client to send files right? I see filezilla is a server and client, do I need to install the server side onto qnap nas? or is there already functionality where I just need to download the client on my PC and connect to NAS

[dolbyman]

why ftp ?

SMB (built into most modern OS) is working just fine

[Trexx]

why ftp ?

SMB (built into most modern OS) is working just fine

Agreed... just copy/paste in WIndows explorer isn't the most efficient. Gave some options for things like robocopy/etc. that are better at bulk file moving.

[mhuisman]

original poster says he has a TVS-473, which has a 5Gbit USB3 quick connect connector on the front side. Why are folks indicating that a 1Gbit (shared with everything else on his network and subject to his router's wims) be faster than the 1Gb NIC on the back? The guy says he has USB-C on his PC (but doesn't say what kind). The TVS-473 ships with two 10Gbit USB 3.1 connectors on the backside of the NAS.

So yes, there *is* the question of USB Host access or not, but on these machines (I have a TVS-873), I'm not convinced that only the 1Gbit NIC connector on the back is the fastest solution...

The TVS-473 would have 4x 1Gbit NICs on the back as well...

[dolbyman]

the quick connect emulates a 1gbit lan connection

but the speed is still slower than a regular 1GbE nic

the host only usb 3.1 ports are not that useful for computer to computer connections