I have Synology Drive connected via quickconnect - works great and the on-demand download with the , however, … sometimes I want to download a bunch of RAW files and I’d rather do that via smb ethernet and not over my WiFi, and definitely not via a quickconnect server. Is it possible to tell Synology Drive to use the ethernet when connected?
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You mix terminology of different natures or kinds, which leads to your confusion.
QuickConnect (=HTTP) and SMB are network protocols. Both can work and are independent of a wired Ethernet connection or WiFi: the physical layer.
When you configure a QuickConnect ID in your Synology Drive client, it will use QuickConnect. This can be Ethernet, WiFi, or both, depending on how you connect your device.
The same is true of SMB: it can connect over Ethernet, WiFi or both.
And the final question: yes, you can have multiple connections between your device and the NAS. Both QuickConnect and SMB are at the network protocol layer, and both Ethernet and WiFi are at the physical layer.
And with regard to speed: SMB is faster than HTTP, and Ethernet faster than WiFi.
Paul - thank you for your reply.
I’m a retired wireless physical layer signal processing engineer (modulation, coding, receiver design, etc.). Antenna waveforms to bits - that’s my purview. So I think I understand what you are saying. That said, I’m pretty ignorant about most things above the MAC or link layer.
I get that QuickConnect and SMB are network layer, but I understood that QuickConnect traffic goes through a Synology server, whereas my SMB connections were configured for specific links in the network. See - I’m a newbie above MAC. Forgive me, my physical layer mind goes bonkers.
Let me have another shot. Did the fact that I configured my Synology Drive to use Quickconnect prevent Synology Drive from using a better link (speed, cost) when available?
I think your response says the answer is no. But please continure to inform!
QuickConnect is an intelligent service. It should detect that your computing device and the NAS are on the same (local) network and not relay any traffic through the Synology service. And if that computing device is connected via Ethernet, it will use that link layer.
Thanks again, Paul.
I think I figured out my confusion. I have a PowerBook (PB), my Synology NAS, and a LTE-broadband modem/router/WiFI access point/gateway (aka: “the router”). The NAS has two Ethernets: NAS 1 is connected to the router, and NAS 2 is a direct connection to my PB (when plugged in). NAS 1 is on the same network as WiFi. There is no router for the NAS 2 - PB connection, but it is a separate network. So the NAS has two IP addresses (and both are static).
I tell the Synology Drive how to connect Client → Sync Task → + Create. If I create the task using Quickconnect, then the PB communicates to the NAS via WiFi => router => NAS 1. (I’ve omitted the router <=> QC server, which is likely bypassed after the connection is established - right?) But it is still going ove WiFi, and that will slow it down.
If I create the Sync Task using the NAS 2 eithernet connection (by entering in the NAS two IP address), then it is just direct eithernet between the PB and the NAS, which is noticeably faster.
So, need the NAS 1 connection for when I leave the house, and NAS 2 when I want to move RAW files. An alternative might be to connect the PB directly to the router and not use NAS 2, but the router only has two ethernets and one is used for another application.
Unfortunately, there does not seem to be an elegant way to switch Synology Drive between the two. I have to delete the current Sync Task and create a new one for every switch.
I guess I need to buy an ethernet router.
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I may be off base here as both of you are far more qualified at this than I, but have you considered going in via DDNS? Just a thought. [Disrgeard, sorry for the clutter.] On second thought, it seems apparent the router is seeing the request coming in from one device (wired PB) then going out to another device (PB again) but not discerning they are one-in-the-same.
Sky - that’s not it. The router can only access the PB and the NAS via its network (192.168.0.xxx). The LAN 2 direct connection PB ↔ NAS direct connection is a separate network (169.254.xxx.xxx). While the NAS has two ethernet ports, it is not a router, so the two networks are not connected.
The right solution (I believe) is to add an eithernet port to the router’s network and connected everything through the router. There would then be two physical connections between the PB and the NAS: PB ↔ router ↔ NAS with the PB ↔ router connection being either eithernet or WiFi. But then everything is on one network (192.168.0.xxx), and so the router can do its thing and rout through the eithernet, not WiFi, as Paul is saying. My problem is that I don’t have enough ethernet ports on the router. I either have to get rid to the cable I have plugged into the routhers second port, or add a second router to get more ports.
I think I have a solution. The second router port is for an IP phone (which uses DECT, not WiFi, over the air). I bought a WiFi-eithernet adaptor to put the phone base on WiFi freeing up the port for the PB.
I noticed you already solved the issue. Indeed, it is best to use a single network segment going through the switch built into your router. If you like to expand in the future, buy an Ethernet switch (not a router) and connect it to the router.
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Oops - MAC layer <=> switch, Network Layer <=> Router
But not bad for a guy who is more comfortable with MIMO-OFDM stuff. 
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