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Date:      Mon, 30 Jan 2023 16:17:22 -0500
From:      Paul Mather <paul@gromit.dlib.vt.edu>
To:        FreeBSD-STABLE Mailing List <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Slow WAN traffic to FreeBSD hosts but not to Linux hosts---how to debug/fix?
Message-ID:  <95EDCFCA-7E3F-458F-85A6-856D606B9D98@gromit.dlib.vt.edu>

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TL;DR: When working from home, I can max out my residential 200 Mbit =
network connection when downloading from remote Linux hosts at $JOB but =
only manage about 20% of my max residential connection speed when =
downloading from remote FreeBSD hosts at $JOB.  When at $JOB, both =
FreeBSD and Linux hosts have no problem saturating their GbE connections =
transferring between each other.  Why is this and how can I debug and =
fix it?

I have a 200 Mbit residential cable connection (Xfinity, 200 Mbit =
down/~10 Mbit up).  I've noticed recently that I can easily get 10--20 =
MB/s download speeds when transferring data from Linux hosts at work but =
when I try to download that same data from the FreeBSD hosts I use the =
speed usually tops out at 3--4 MB/s.  These are Linux and FreeBSD hosts =
that are on the same subnet at work.  Transfers from the FreeBSD hosts =
at work (within-subnet and within-site) are fine and match those of the =
Linux hosts---often 112 MB/s.  So, it just appears to be the traffic =
over the WAN to my home that is affected.  The WAN path from home to =
this subnet is typically 15 hops with a typical average ping latency of =
about 23 ms.

The FreeBSD hosts are a mixture of -CURRENT, 13-STABLE, and =
13.1-RELEASE.  I had done some TCP tuning based upon the calomel.org =
<http://calomel.org/>; tuning document =
(https://calomel.org/freebsd_network_tuning.html), but removed those =
tuning settings when I noticed the problem but the problem still =
persists.  The only remaining customisation is that the 13-STABLE has =
"net.inet.tcp.cc.algorithm=3Dcubic".  (I notice that -CURRENT now has =
this as default so wanted to try that on 13-STABLE, too.)  The FreeBSD =
systems are using either igb or em NICs.  The Linux systems are using =
similar hardware.  None has a problem maintaining local GbE transfer =
speeds---it's only the slower/longer WAN connections that have problems =
for the FreeBSD hosts.

It seems that Linux hosts cope with the WAN path to my home better than =
the FreeBSD systems.  Has anyone else noticed this?  Does anyone have =
any idea as to what is obviously going wrong here and how I might =
debug/fix the FreeBSD hosts to yield faster speeds?  My workaround at =
the moment is to favour using the remote Linux hosts for bulk data =
transfers.  (I don't like this workaround.)

Any help/insight is gratefully appreciated.

Cheers,

Paul.=



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