Airport Extreme Local File Server - Restrict access to some files/folders and terrible write speeds

You are expecting far too much from an old extreme.

Exactly which model is the AE?

The write speed of the disk will depend on loads of things..

If you use El Capo make sure you mount the disk in Finder with SMB network not AFP.

ie manually mount using Go, Connect to Server and type in the command,

SMB://10.0.1.1 (or whatever the Extreme IP is).

Secondly use HFS+ (Mac OS extended journaled) format on the drive. It is only reasonable format. FAT32 is terrible.

You might find it is better to force it to earlier SMB with the older AE.. and even though in my testing SMB is better.. for a really old laptop type disk.. test AFP so you can also try mounting the drive,

CIFS://10.0.1.1 or use AFP://10.0.1.1

The old 160GB drive especially a laptop 4200RPM type can be slow as slow doing a heap of small files.. test on one large file.

Second thing: Is there a way to create a second partition on the drive that requires a different password from the other? Or a way to make certain files/folders on the server password protected?

You can setup multiple users and passwords.. I do not recommend it.. but it is possible.

See the disk tab in the airport utility.. change the disk password to with accounts.

NOTE all existing files will disappear.. even with Admin password I could not make them work.. so you need to load all the files all over again.

A better method is to use encrypted virtual disk file.. either DMG type or Sparsebundle.

See How to create a password-protected (encrypted) disk image - Apple Support

Note some work done by Tesserax.. one of the Guru's here.

AirPort Disk - Throughput Testing

A1143 came in two models.. one with 100Mbit ports.. that is the first.. and then 1000Mbit ports.

I still think you are expecting too much from a Gen1 AE no matter what speed the ports.

I'm supposed to be getting a write speed of 0.5 - 17.5 MegaBYTES per second.

😁

They are certainly not committing themselves are they.

I will try and reproduce some of the numbers.. although I have to say Tesserax values always seem higher than I can achieve.

Here is a Gen4 TC with a USB Samsung 850EVO SSD.. I must admit I am surprised at the read speed.. the write speed is spot on.

Here is the speed to a Gen3 AE which is about the oldest one I have that works.. I have a Gen1 TC but the USB seems to be dead.

These look more like the speeds I was expecting.. this is still to the ssd.

This is to a standard 1TB samsung 5400RPM 2.5" drive.

There is also some issues with El Capo.

Note also the power of the USB is very limited.. you must use a powered USB hub on these old Airports.