Slow Transfer Rate

[wstam]

I have similar behavior on the Javelin. It slow down to only 1 or 2 MB/sec reading rate after running for days. After reboot, it back to 30-40 MB/sec over the Gigabyte network.

The PC and the Javelin is connect via an Acer Gigabyte unmanage switch. I turn off all service except DLNA server. The Javelin is manually assign static IP.

I also only have 1 WD Green 2T drive in the Javelin. It should not be the Green drive problem.

Just after reboot, the CPU usage is only 3-4% and Memory usage is about 1/5 in the Javelin status page when the Javelin is idle.
When the Javelin slow down, the CPU usage is about 25-30% and Memory usage is about 1/2 in the Javelin status page when the Javelin is idle.

I guess something wrong in the Javelin's OS that keep locking more and more resource in time.

[wstam]

I turn off all service (Web Directory, BT, DLNA, iTune, MySQL) and protocol (Mac, FTP, UNIX) except the Windows protocol for file server. My Javalin now run stable even after 5 days of running.

I root the Javalin. Telnet and use TOP command to check the cpu usage. It is only 0% to 1% when it is idle.

I am going to turn on the service one by one and find out which one slow dow the Javalin.

[wstam]

I turn on the DLNA. Monitor the CPU usage by the Telnet/TOP for a day and decide to turn it off.

When it just turn on, the MediaSpider and FFMpeg process use up most the CPU due to the media scan.
After the media scan done, the FFMpeg process do not fire up, but the MediaSpider process fire up every 1 or 2 minutes. Each time the Media Spider process will run for around 10s and the CPU usage is as high as 100%. During this time, the Javalin has very very slow respond. In the mean time, some process fire up occasionally and use about 10%-20% CPU usage for several second.
Why I can't schedule the DLNA re-scan? The Re-scan can only be automatic or manual.

Once I turn off the DLNA, all those process are gone. The Javalin respond back to normal. No reboot require.

DLNA will slow down the Javalin in every 1 or 2 minutes, but it is still not the root cause of the slow down. In my last attempt without the Telnet/TOP check, I have DLNA and all protocol turn on and running for 3 days. After it slow down, then I turn off the DLNA. I still have to reboot to bring the Javalin back to normal.

I am going to try other protocol.

[ruben00]

I got DLNA turned on on my Javelin, I'm going to try turning it off to see if i get better performance than the previous numbers I posted!

Good work so far wstam, definitely following your work!!

[wstam]

I turn on all the protocol (Windows, Mac, FTP, UNIX) and turn off all the service, my Javelin still running stable after 5 days of uptime.

I have 2 media players (Asus O!Play and Patriot PBO) connect to Javelin via Window protocol and non-stop playing My Little Pony TV series for 2 days (using Repeat-ALL option in the player). In the mean time, I run BT from my computer and save directly to the Javelin; I also copy large video files from Javelin. My Javelin is running rock solid and all players play the video smoothly.

I will turn off the DLNA service forever.

One more thing I notice, the TOP command report most the memory is used up, but the memory usage from all the listed processes is only sum to a few percentage. I can’t find where the memory used up. Also, the Javelin Management web only report 1/6 memory is used.
However, in my last test that after turn off DLNA and before reboot, I saw a virtual memory swapping process run occasional. I guess the major cause of the slow down is the virtual memory swapping. If the DLNA has memory leak and occupy a big amount of memory, the memory reside in the swap file size will be very large and slow down the Javelin significant. In this case, only reboot will release the memory and bring back the performance.

To test this guess, use a player non-stop playing video from Javelin via DLNA for several days. Once the slow down is happened, using the Telnet/TOP to check the status.

I am lazy now and I will not perform the above test. Hope someone can do the test and let use knows the result.

[VulgarHandle]

I will turn off the DLNA service forever.

I registered to these forums, specifically to bump this thread and give many thanks to wstam.
What I quoted solved all my problems. Thank you very much.

[chienpourri]

It totally makes sense that this would be the cause of the problem. This service constantly scans your files to update the DLNA index. There must be a memory leak of some kind with that service, which means the devices gets slower and slower over time as RAM fill up and never gets released. You need a reboot to start fresh again, but stopping the service also works well.

While I agree that this is not a solution for someone who needs DLNA, for those who don't it's an easy fix.

Maybe Patriot has a fix for that in the upcoming v2 firmware, or at least instead of a 24/7 DLNA scan maybe we could choose when the scan happens (once a day, once a week week or manually by pressing a button).

[VulgarHandle]

The whole interface needs a massage. Clicking buttons on the "Home" menu will automatically turn on certain services, which I'll list:

Just clicking the "Download Station" button will turn on "BT Server", it then occupies the "Server" tab in "Download Station" with 11 BT servers, which it then tries to connect to.

Clicking the "Media Center" button will turn on "DLNA Server"

Clicking the "itunes Server" button will turn on "Firefly Media Server"

[COBRASoft]

Any progress on this DLNA problem? I just installed my Caviar Red HD's in RAID5 and streaming sucks like hell. It stutters every half a minute. Almost all services are turned off and the NAS is connected to my Sony Smart TV through a gigabit router from D-Link.

[SARBound]

Make sure you have a fully-compliant gigabit network cable.

I usually make my cables myself out of Cat 5e, but for some reason, the one I made to use with the Javelin wouldn't hit gigabit speeds. The Javelin also recognized the link as 100 Mbps (rather than 1000 Mbps).

Using the provided Cat6 quality Ethernet cable solved all issues I had. I get around 27-29 MB/sec most of the time.