Dear D-Link, Alpha Networks, Realtek .. I own a DWA-192 and I get satisfied

Update 15-11-2016

I have added extra options to the SMB configuration of Openmediavault

In a last test I got almost 5.5 tot 5.75MB/s downloading data from my NAS to my Win10 notebook.

By adding these ‘options’ my speed improved with almost 600% from 5MB/s to 30MB/s

max protocol = SMB2
max xmit = 65535
socket options = TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY SO_SNDBUF=65535 SO_RCVBUF=65535
read raw = yes
write raw = yes
max connections = 65535
max open files = 65535

Update 21-08

I am getting (its wierd) more satisfied, now the Wireless is stable and I do random tests

First of all I was testing PC Windows 10 –> Debian Linux, so a write action, my rant was about the write speed. But actually I think I cannot be complaining a lot when I achieve 20 to 30MB/s write speed .. ? can I?

Today I tested a read speed from NAS (Debian with OMV, (OpenMediaVault)) and here I get speeds between 40 and 45MB/s .. so .. although I would like to have faster write speeds, the read speed is showing expected speeds.. .

original rant below;-)

…..

First of all .. I am geek, like to test, read manuals (not user manuals but engineer manuals or technical manuals) to find and read about settings to see how they can be finetuned for optimal results.

Maybe it’s due to myself, but why is there not a decent manual for the DWA-192? settings explained? best settings used … documentation is dramatic.

Last week I bought a DWA-192. It’s being used in The Netherlands under Windows 10 and I am testing towards a HP Microserver running VMWARE with a host running Debian 8. Normal speeds on Gigabit copper wire are around 78 to 80MB/s

The speed advertised for the DWA-192 within Windows 10 is between 1.1 and 1.3Gbit/s with this I expect at least speeds between 300 and 500mbit/s, but I achieve much lower (180 / 220mbit/s)

update (one day later): due to just wait .. and maybe time of test I see better results. Speed is improved towards 250 to 300 mbit/s

My AP environment consists of 3 APS’s

Ubiquity AC LR in the attic
Ubiquity AC LR 1st floor
Ubiquity AC Pro living room (the DWA-192 is connected to this one). I know that I get much lower speeds when using 1 or 2 but I am using it at 3 .. and expect the full potential ..

The notebook is 4 meters next to the Ubiquity AC Pro. I have a good wireless connection (Images will follow) due to the wireless connection speeds of 1.1 and 1.3Gbit/s

Dear D-Link, please request your engineers at Alpha Networks that they will contact Realtek to see how interoperability between AP’s can be improved. I really like to help to test, things I did many years.

There are a few things:

the advanced settings in the network driver are not described, So it is a needle in a haystack to see what are the best settings (I did test a lot of settings and see various results
Enable / Disable QoS shows dramatic changes in performance
default using the WLAN on auto rather than choosing 802.11ac or a combination of both is causing the DWA-192 not to connect to its max speed, only Wifi speeds: 450 or 600 (if lucky), forcing the device on 802.11ac/n/a is showing higher speeds ..
Windows SMB copy shows around 20 to 30MB/s at a connection speed of 1.3Gbit/s this is ‘dramatic’ I am expecting here 45 to 60MB/s
Update: SMB is also improved to max 40MB/s

iperf used between my Windows 10 and linux box is showing between 170mbit/s and 220mbit/s which is in line with the Windows SMB copy

update: iperf3 is showing ‘higher’ results now to max 300Mbit/s .. but still not a 400 to 500Mbit/s I am expecting.

Of course I would like to fingerpoint towards Ubiquity’s AP but I have seen that other AP’s can achieve higher results towards the Ubitquity’s AC Pro device

Of course specific settings like using VHT80 etc are set otherwise the connection speed could not achieve 1.1 or 1.3Gbit/s

So how to achieve a higher throughput speed, something I am seeking.

Anyone?

b.t.w. Altough speed is not everything, the wireless is absolutely stable !

Weatherstation and TE923 USB issues on a Raspberry Pi

I am using Weewx to read data from my weatherstation

But once in a while I have issues:

starting the driver / python app
after x days no data is being collected (and not being ftp-ed) and a restart does not function

I used the standard release of Weewx 3.5.0

Lucky there is a fanbase and group on google groups where you can ask questions.

This weekend I upgraded my TE923 driver to version: 0.18rc8. (meanwhile (22/7) this version is released as 0.18) This version can be found in the github repository and it seems to me that this version is solving some issues I had, but at time of writing I am still testing.

With this new driver I had also to make some changes to that driver and to my Raspberry Pi.

I modified the TE923 Python driver: I commented this line out:
```
 self.devh.reset()
```
(somewhere around line 1530, this caused the message that the USB part was not being claimed by python. (in previous driver versions this was not being reported, so it has to be something in the driver causing this. By commenting this line out, it is making sure that there is no ‘fake reset’ of the usb part. (Note: I did not test what will happen if I am using this line again in combination with the 2nd modification / addition I made).
and I found a special line for the Raspberry Pi to init the USB for usage with the TE923 driver:

sudo nano -w /etc/udev/rules.d/99-te923.rules

add this line:

ATTRS{idVendor}=="1130", ATTRS{idProduct}=="6801", MODE="0660", GROUP="plugdev", RUN="/bin/sh -c 'echo -n $id:1.0 > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usbhid/unbind'"

and save it
with

udevadm control --reload-rules
you reload the settings

now stop / start weewx again (/etc/init.d/weewx start / stop / start etc..

Update: 1 week after I wrote this the weatherstation stopped responding again ..
Cause: the SD card had no space left.
here a tip: if you use raspbian, make sure your whole SD card is being used. My Linux install was not extended with the option in the raspbian config. This options allows you to use the whole SD card size

use raspi-config and use the option to expand the filesystem

Update 2:

Server has more than 51 days of uptime… and still running smooth

Update 3:

Server is now up for 147 days. Due to some own power stuff and relocations I had to stop it for a while
but still happy that it is running smootly

HP Microserver Gen8 G1610T booting with USB & ODD

I have 3 4 HP Microservers and 2 3 of them are running OpenMediaVault

I want to use the 4HDD’s of the Microserver soley as Data disks and not the OS. For this you have options:

Boot from SD card, boot from USB (internal) and than use the Datadisks. The problem here is that it is not wise to have many write actions to a SD card or USB thumbdrive.

To solve this issue: I use an old 2,5″ HDD connected to the ODD port. (ODD power cable & internal free SATA port)

To be able to boot from the 2,5″ HDD you need a number of items

Sata Cable
OKS-38523 (SATA Floppy Cable) (€ 3,99)
USB Thumbdrive (preferred 2 if you do not use a SD card)
2,5″ HDD (or SSD)

Size, in this, does not matter.

First connect the hardware (cables & HDD), do not insert the SD card or USB thumbdrive, do not insert the 4 Data disks (SATA) yet.

Make sure you use AHCI mode for the disks, the RAID module of HP cannot be used.

Install the OpenMediaVault ISO on the SD card, than make sure in the BIOS of the HP Microserver you can boot from it when starting the device. Insert the SD card in the slot and boot, install Openmediavault, it will detect the 2,5″ HDD

After installation: remove the SD card, Openmediavault will boot. Please remember: the 4 DATA disks are still not inserted. If you do so: OpenmediaVault will not boot, insert the USB Thumbdrive to the internal USB port.

Make sure that SSH is enabled within OpenMediavault or that you have access to the shell.

Below installation is derived from this german manual

in the GUI of OMV you can find the installation point of the USB drive, in my situation: /dev/sdb

Clean the disk with the command:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb count=1000

Make a bootable partition (very important to make it bootable in the interface !!)
cfdisk /dev/sdb

and do format it. (I formatted it as ext3)
mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb1

mount /mnt /dev/sdb1
update: it is possible that your new debian version need to mount the device as ‘mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt’
I had this issue when I was installing OMV 4.x (updated: 11-04-2018 /dd/mm/yyyy)

Install grub:
grub-install –no-floppy –root-directory=/mnt /dev/sdb

Please note (when printing this: before no-floppy is dash dash (- -) (same for root-directory) and there is a space after /mnt[space] /dev/sdb

Find the device.map in /mnt/boot/grub, it is possible that you do not have it, than read further. cause than this part does not apply. (with latest debian installations it is not necessary anymore). But in my initial OMV 3.x installation I had. So If you have a device.map check the boot order:

(hd0) /dev/disk/by-id/ata-Samsung_HDD_840__500GB_S3C6NSBD57N
(hd1) /dev/disk/by-id/usb-_FreeCom_Memory_05B209083439BC14-0:0

Make sure you switch the boot order
(hd0) /dev/disk/by-id/usb-_FreeCom_Memory_05B209083439BC14-0:0
(hd1) /dev/disk/by-id/ata-Samsung_HDD_840__500GB_S3C6NSBD57N

Activate Grub:
grub-install –root-directory=/mnt /dev/sdb

Please note (when printing this: before root-directory there is a dash dash (- -) and there is a space after /mnt[space] /dev/sdb

grub-mkconfig -o /mnt/boot/grub/grub.cfg

Turn off the device, insert the 4 SATA disks and boot

01-08-2016 I’ve updated the info after noticing a missing mount and the dashes and spacing was hard to see when printing this ;-)