NAS or NAS(AFP) in Finder?

[vestan_pance]

Hi,

In finder I have two icons under shared for my NAS - one is simply called NAS and the other is called NAS(AFP). I can connect to both using my admin and password and for all intents and purposes look exactly the same.

I haven't written any files yet to the NAS as I'm waiting for it to finish it's initial synchronisation, but should I worry about which path to use to save or access files on the NAS?

Thanks
VP

[schumaku]

Hi VP

NAS is using SMB protocol, while NAS(AFP) does make use of AFP protocol. Functionally both are equivalent, Apple does prefer SMB for connections to other macOS systems where both protocols are available (but mot differentiated).

In any case, you should not use admin for file access. Create personal user accounts for all users, combine these users with similar access rights into group(s), and grant the access rights to the shared folders based on the groups.

Regards,
-Kurt.

[vestan_pance]

@schumaku

Hi, thanks for getting back to me - I'm using the SMB share so all good!

What's the problem with using admin for file access - I am the only user of the NAS and I don't intend sharing it out, unless to my wife of course, and I trust her

Cheers
VP

[mgilbarrio]

Hi all.

My last test using NFS was better than SMB. I'm using Mac OS 10.12.4 (Sierra) and a QNAP TS451 like NAS server.

I have been using AFP, but recently, watching movies, the movies stopped during watch. Taking a look into the NAS process monitoring, I saw that the afpd process running from the user I use to mount the shares, was taking 80% and more of CPU usage. To start watching the film again, I needed to stop the AFPD process and restart it again. Then the process start good, but some days later, the process start to hang again and use a lot of CPU. So I decide to change the sharing protocol.

I really do crapy tests, I mount the same volume using SMB, and copy a 5GB movie to it. The transfer rate was more or less 40MBps, 320Mbps apron. (my network is 1Gbps), doing the same test using NFS, the transfer rate reach more than 90Mbps, more than 720Mbps, very near to the 1Gbps. From the machine to the NAS there are 2 switches, so there are some delay between nodes, but all the path is 1Gbps.

MAC Mini ---- Switch1 --- Switch2 ---- NAS

So my recommendation is to use NFS instead SMB. NFS is a UNIX native protocol. To use it, you can do it opening a Finder window, and pressing keys "Cmd+K", and write in the window:

nfs://user:password@IP_Address_of_NAS/Share_Name

And the MAC will mount your share using NFS.

BYe...