WAN folder sharing options

walilkoa · May 1, 2020

my wife's company is all working from home at the moment, and normally they edit files (indesign, word/excel/etc) directly on their windows server via SMB network sharing. they have VPN access into the office, but because of the chatty nature of SMB, even on gigabit internet, file transfers are abysmally slow. copying the files to their laptops and editing and reuploading isnt much faster than editing on the server itself, either. editing a 30MB pamphlet in indesign would take 30-40 minutes just for opening and saving.

i know that there are some tuning parameters that can help a bit, and i've let their it person know about some of the changes that could make workflow a bit better, but i was curious to know if there is /any/ system that would alleviate this problem. switching from SMB to another protocol like NFS would require readding all of the shares, which is no great shakes for the it guy if the performance boost is good. however, most of the information i've found so far on WAN network folder shares usually directs users to just scp the files to their workstations, edit, and then scp back to the server, which would be a change in workflow for all company members.

is there a technology that uses a similar file-streaming model instead of the block-based models for nfs/smb, which would allow a shared folder to be mounted as a network drive in windows, avoiding the need for a change in workflow and allowing files to be opened directly on the server? or, should we look at just setting up sftp or winscp and train the employees to work on files locally instead?

Elsa Ballerina · May 1, 2020

Hello walilkoa,

(On-Site): Is the overall performance to access, edit, save the file(s) on the SMB at an acceptable level?

- No problems accessing other files, servers SMB's, good performance overall?

(Off-Site): Is this happening with only a specific network path, server(s) network access too?

- Is this happening with other employees working remotely?

Honestly, they are many scenarios that could cause this but I would first check (On-Site) overall network, access performance and determine from there if this is a problem within (On-Site) issue or (Off-Site) remote into (VPN) servers.

Just off topic but maybe related, ISP's have played a role due to COVID-19 on prioritizing network access which has been notices by several employees from remote location on access corporate servers via VPN.

Anyhow, I hope that you find out the root cause and that you can all work properly from home without feeling that you are on Dial-up modem mode.

Regards,

Elsa Ballerina