QNAP NAS Slow performance

[Enquiries]

Hi I run a part time photography buisness - Only I am not getting far becasue I spend more time fixing my IT than doing anything prodcutive. I seem to have a very slow conncetion to my QNAP TD-451D2. Anything local or on plug in drive is fast - but my image catalog in on the NAS which is super slow - my editing software is just stuck all the time waiting for the NAS to load/transferfile/read (or much of anything).
I have cat -6 cables connecting my lap top to my router (std virgin media router) - then a cat-6 cable to my NAS. I do not connect them direct as I want to be able to access the NAS drive when travelling. (not that that it is ever successful as its so slow everything times out).
The drive is set to RAID 4 - reboot to a schedule weekly
I use HBS Backup sync to create cloud backups.
Using most of the drive space - so trying to do a clear out but can't without the system actually working!
I'm not technicl - so need things in simple language.
Please advise....Thanks!

[ed]

It sounds like your QNAP TS-451D2 is really holding you back, especially when it comes to accessing and editing your photography files. Here are a few steps you can take to improve your setup:

First, try connecting your laptop directly to the NAS with an Ethernet cable to see if that improves speed. If it does, your current router might be the bottleneck, and upgrading to a more powerful router could help.

Regarding your NAS configuration, it seems like you're using RAID 5, which is a good choice for balancing storage and redundancy. However, if your drives are almost full, it could be slowing things down. Try to free up some space—keeping at least 10-20% free can help with performance.

You should also make sure your RAID array is healthy and fully synced. If needed, you might want to resync or rebuild the array to ensure everything is working properly. Additionally, consider disabling any unnecessary services or apps running on the NAS that might be consuming resources.

However, given the ongoing performance issues, it might be time to consider upgrading to a newer NAS model. The QNAP TS-464, for example, offers better hardware, including a faster processor and support for NVMe SSD caching, which can significantly improve speed when working with large files like photos. This upgrade could save you a lot of time and frustration, allowing you to focus more on your photography and less on IT issues.

If you do decide to upgrade, the TS-464 would be a solid choice that should offer a noticeable boost in performance and future-proofing.