# Turning LAN compression off
**URL:** https://forum.syncthing.net/t/turning-lan-compression-off/2714
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [May 12, 2015, 5:56am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/turning-lan-compression-off/2714 "2015-05-12T05:56:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SyncDuck](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/SyncDuck)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2015, 5:56am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/turning-lan-compression-off/2714/1 "2015-05-12T05:56:52Z")
How can I turn compression off for LAN connections?
Somehow I seem to be unable to find the config.xml documentation.
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### Author:  [@AudriusButkevicius](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/AudriusButkevicius)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2015, 6:22am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/turning-lan-compression-off/2714/2 "2015-05-12T06:22:18Z")
You cannot do that. You can only adjust whats compressed overall, not in LAN
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### Author:  [@SyncDuck](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/SyncDuck)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2015, 6:45am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/turning-lan-compression-off/2714/3 "2015-05-12T06:45:27Z")
Thanks for the quick response.
I’m going to open a new topic about my poor LAN transfer performance using incredible amounts of system resources. Hopefully there is another solution for this.
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### Author:  [@josuah](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/josuah)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2015, 6:57pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/turning-lan-compression-off/2714/4 "2015-07-14T18:57:15Z")
Hello,
Where can I find a relevant guide about compression options ? I’ve searched this forum and [docs.syncthing.net](http://docs.syncthing.net), to no avail so far.
I’d just like to understand what compression means, what are its advantages and drawbacks (mainly on system resources) and choose accordingly.
Cheers.
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### Author:  [@calmh](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/calmh)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 7:00am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/turning-lan-compression-off/2714/5 "2015-07-15T07:00:08Z")
If you have compressible data in your folders (text files, word documents, source code, …) set it to “Always” for best performance. If you’re syncing photos, movies, already compressed data like zip files, leave it at “Metadata”. Don’t set it to “Never” unless you have extremely low powered devices where every CPU cycle matters. And in that case Syncthing may not be for you at all. 😄
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### Author:  [@josuah](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/josuah)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2015, 7:24am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/turning-lan-compression-off/2714/6 "2015-07-15T07:24:23Z")
Quick & neat, very thanks @calmh
PS : Syncthing, not for me? are you kidding? 😝
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### Author:  [@josuah](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/josuah)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2015, 11:29am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/turning-lan-compression-off/2714/7 "2015-07-16T11:29:40Z")
Re.
Hello @calmh
I have ~ 20GB of documents, 70GB of music and ~10GB of photos, spread within different repos and, of course, different devices. What could be the best compromise for compression settings ? My main concern is the NAS, which has a less powerful CPU than other devices.
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### Author:  [@uok](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/uok)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2015, 11:35am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/turning-lan-compression-off/2714/8 "2015-07-16T11:35:27Z")
I usually set “never” for all devices in the same LAN and “metadata”/“always” for the rest, depending on the power of the other devices and the internet connection speed
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### Author:  [@josuah](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/josuah)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2015, 12:47pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/turning-lan-compression-off/2714/9 "2015-07-16T12:47:29Z")
Noted, this is my config : 1 Laptop, 1 phone, 1 tabled, 1 NAS, all on the same LAN, during weekend and in the evening. But I bring Laptop + phone + tablet at work, so they all access the NAS over the internet during the day. This is for over the same LAN vs over the internet.
On the other side, I’ve listed my repos to show the mix. All these being synced on the NAS, what would be the “ideal” compression settings for the NAS ?
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@uok](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/uok)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2015, 5:09pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/turning-lan-compression-off/2714/10 "2015-07-16T17:09:18Z")
as @calmh said because most of your files are music and photos you could set all to “metadata”
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/system)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2017, 12:58pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/turning-lan-compression-off/2714/11 "2017-05-12T12:58:34Z")