From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jun 24 00:28:06 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 73B9F37B401 for ; Tue, 24 Jun 2003 00:28:06 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mx0.dmpriest.net.uk (mx0.dmpriest.net.uk [62.13.128.30]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D879043FB1 for ; Tue, 24 Jun 2003 00:28:02 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from kpielorz@tdx.co.uk) Received: from Study.tdx.com (adsl-blk-2-62-13-130-232.dmpriest.net.uk [62.13.130.232]) by mx0.dmpriest.net.uk (8.11.6/8.11.6/Kp) with ESMTP id h5O7Pge77201; Tue, 24 Jun 2003 08:25:42 +0100 (BST) Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2003 08:28:14 +0100 From: Karl Pielorz To: Shawn Ramsey , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <512328439.1056443294@Study.tdx.com> In-Reply-To: <009701c339ed$b89daf40$85dd75d8@shawn> References: <009701c339ed$b89daf40$85dd75d8@shawn> X-Mailer: Mulberry/3.0.3 (Win32) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Subject: Re: Network Performace X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2003 07:28:06 -0000 --On 23 June 2003 18:12 -0700 Shawn Ramsey wrote: > I am having some issues with network performance and am wondering if > anyone has any suggestions... the box in question has 2 100BT interfaces, > and an Intel (em driver) fiber Gigabit. The Gigabit connects to a switch, > and the two fast-e are WAN connections to our ISP(s). This box seems to > be using an awful lot of CPU cycles relative to the traffic it is > pushing, which is around 65-70Mb inbound, and 20-30 Mb/outbound(on > average), which seems to be about its limit. This is an Athlon XP 1500 > box, 256MB RAM, top shows 90+% interrupt usage, CPU usually has about > 5-10% idle. Gigabit is on a 32-bit bus, and Gigabit is on an IRQ shared > with unused USB and onboard NIC which is also not used. Should I be able > to push more than 100Mb sec with such a system? It is not doing anything > else, no NAT, one IPFW rule. OS is FreeBSD 4.7-RELEASE. All depends how big the packets are etc. - 90% interrupt time is fairly typical of x86/PC kit shoveling lots of small packets. Try looking into FreeBSD's "polling" mode - i.e. interrupt free Network cards. If your shifting a lot of small packets (such as online gaming stuff etc.) - you may find your milage pretty limited using standard PC kit - as the x86 architecture wasn't really designed for shifting lots of small packets around [as I've seen many a time in the past :(] -Kp