So long as Tailscale maintains their free tier, they would fit OPs needs just fine. If they move to get rid of, or otherwise enshitify the free tier, there would likely be time to move to wireguard or something similar.

Yeah, nfs v2 3 or 4 can make a difference. I don’t know that many use v2 anymore. If you’re using the current release in your distribution and didn’t specify a specific version, I would guess you’re using v4.

They’re all just dumb consumer switches. Nothing managed… yet.

I’ve looked into NFS multiple times. I work in HPC implementation and believe me I know about SMB/CIFS performance (or lack thereof!)! I just haven’t had the time to figure out ID mapping. What NFS version do you use, and how do you handle file ownership on the shares? I suppose it’s all read-only, so that would make it a bit easier?

This sounds pretty great, TBH. I think I’m probably tied to Synology for the foreseeable future with my parents’ and my NAS being each others off site backup. I know there are other ways to do it, but the investments are already made on both ends. Plus, they’re retired, so the 1522 with 18TB drives wasn’t a small expense for them!

Aside from looking at the current activity on the server web page, where might I look to see if this is true?

Agreed! The library is populated by my parents and me. I’d have to look again, but i think it’s around 12TB.

Everything’s wired. Router is a TP-Link BE63, 2 APs w/ wired backhaul. Shield is on the same switch as the synology. STBs are throughout the house, but generally max 3-hops to the Shield/Synology. All Netgear bluebox 1Gb dumbswitches. At some point in the near future, I plan on getting this stuff to a central switch, so everything is a leaf switch away from it.

ETA: if I’m watching something, the network is generally pretty quiet. I have most data-intensive things (downloads, backups, off-site replications) set to happen in the wee-hours.

Got it: qbit == qbittorrent. I’ve thought about getting the remaining docker containers off of the Synology. I may look into that this weekend.

The network testing I’ve done (iperf and file transfers) hasn’t revealed any issues. I’m seeing consistent 1Gb speeds. I could try some wireshark monitoring, I guess.

limit qbit upload speed

Not sure what you’re referring to here.

I see no other issues from the network. The thing that “changed” is me trying to watch 4k stuff on my plex server. Up until recently, I didn’t bother with 4k. No real reason for trying it now, TBH. I’ve never felt that 4k was necessary for home viewing on anything smaller than a 100” screen (my largest if 75”).

I’ve updated the OP to answer this. I think serving the media from the spinning disk is the heart of the problem.

I have thought of that… Most of the daily driver systems in the house are Macs, so it would probably work out pretty well.

My dad and I each have Synology NAS. We do a hyper sync backup from one to the other. I back up to his and vice versa. I also use syncthing to backup my plex media so he can mount it locally on his plex server.

This really is the answer. The more services you add, the more of your attention they will require. Granted, for most services already integrated into the distro’s repo, the added admin overhead will likely be minimal, but it can add up. That’s not to say the admin overhead can’t be addressed. That’s why scripting and crons, among some other utilities, exist!