Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 11:26:39 -0400 (EDT) From: User LAFFER1 <laffer1@adsl-68-76-19-75.dsl.klmzmi.ameritech.net> To: Andreas Ntaflos <daff@dword.org> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 100Mbit/s LAN slow, TX only ~3MB/s (esp. file transfer) -- why? Message-ID: <20040715111952.I88240@adsl-68-76-19-75.dsl.klmzmi.ameritech.net> In-Reply-To: <20040714161459.GA98907@Pelargir.arda> References: <20040714161459.GA98907@Pelargir.arda>
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THe realtek driver in freebsd is very poor. I have a Dlink DFE 530+ with a realtek chipset and the machine would actually reboot once a week (small mail server) and had unusual statements in the log about oversized frames. I replaced it with a 3com 3c905c and it works great now. (even though the 3com driver is supposed to be poor as well with no tx/rx offload support that works right) On the flip slide, I recently bought a new system and copied over data from my windows xp and freebsd installs to the respective new installs on the new system. The windows installs did around 4Mb/s and the freebsd installs appeared to do 5-7Mb/s. In freebsd i used ftp and in windows i used the standard CIFS/SMB stuff. The old system has a 3c905b and the new system has a 10/100/1000 intel chipset. I have them connected to a 4port broadband switch router (SMC). Another words, your performance is a tad bit slow, but you are using realtek cards. They are not known to be the best. The intel card has slow negotiation issues in freebsd and windows and fixed settings for 100 fd result in packet loss even though auto negotiation uses the same settings. Sometimes I wonder if any nics work right. :) I tend to like the 3com cards just because they are consistent at least. On Wed, 14 Jul 2004, Andreas Ntaflos wrote: > Hello list, > > here's the situation: a small LAN with two FreeBSD machines (one > 4.10-STABLE, one 5.1-RELEASE-p11), one Gentoo box, one Windows 2000 > Laptop. All the machines have 100Mbit/s capable network interfaces, > configured for full duplex and auto-negotiation, and actually running > in 100baseTX-FD mode (5.1 uses rl0, 4.10 dc0, Gentoo and Windows are > also equipped with RealTek RTL8139 NICs). > > They are all connected through CAT5 UTP cables and a 5 port 100Mbit/s > switch. All machines except the FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE box are quite > capable (800MHz--1GHz, 128MB--640MB RAM, (U)DMA mode harddisks, etc). > The 5.1 box is an old 200MHz Pentium-MMX, 64MB RAM, slow disks. > > Here's the problem: Using FTP to transfer a 600MB file (ISO image) from > one FreeBSD machine to the other runs only as fast as 3MB/s (maximum). > Transferring the same file from the Gentoo box to one of the FreeBSD > machines runs equally slow. Transferring the file from the Gentoo box to > the Windows 2000 laptop however runs fine with about 10MB/s. > Transferring from FreeBSD to Windows 2000 is slow again (2--5MB/s). > > Using SCP gives me a maximum of 1MB/s tranfer rate, on all possible > connections and client pairs. I suppose this could be SCPs fault since > it needs a fast CPU to encrypt and decrypt the data, but 800MHz and 1GHz > ought to be enough so that this shouldn't be a bottleneck, hm? > > I've also tried connecting the machines directly via a crossover cable, > to no avail. 4.10 <--> 5.1 is still 3MB/s, Gentoo <--> Windows 2000 runs > even faster, and Gentoo <--> FreeBSD is also about 2MB/s. > > I remember that about a year ago with the same setup (except for the 5.1 > box, which I didn't have back then) FTP speed was most excellent, > transferring a 1GB file took about 3 minutes. Now it seems to take > forever to copy just 50MB. > > So why could this be? I am mostly interested in the two FreeBSD > machines, why would that be such a slow connection? Because the 5.1 box > is quite old? Could the RealTek card have a problem? The switch is > almost certainly not faulty. Also why would a transfer between the 4.10 > box and the Gentoo machine take so long? As I mentioned, a year ago I > was enjoying TX rates of almost 11MB/s between the two of them. > > I believe at least part of the problem lies with the FreeBSD machines, > so I am asking for ideas on what this issue could be, how to > investigate further to track down the possible sources of the problem > and how to solve it. > > Sorry for this lengthy post, I tried to give as much information as > possible and make clear that I have already invested a good amount of > time and effort to debug and solve this myself, but I am running out > of ideas. I also posted on two other boards but nobody could suggest > anything actually useful. > > I refuse to believe that this is the expected mode of operation for FTP > (and even SCP) :-) > > Any help would be greatly appreciated! > > Thanks in advance! > > Andreas > -- > Andreas "daff" Ntaflos | "A cynic is a man who knows the price of > daff AT dword DOT org | everything, and the value of nothing." > Vienna, AUSTRIA | Oscar Wilde > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >
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