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Date:      Sat, 25 Aug 2001 12:21:15 +0200
From:      Alson van der Meulen <alm@flutnet.org>
To:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: slooooow ping reply and 60% packet loss on 3c509
Message-ID:  <20010825122115.C7358@md2.mediadesign.nl>
In-Reply-To: <3B875DF5.6C7FCF8A@earthlink.net>
References:  <3B875DF5.6C7FCF8A@earthlink.net>

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On Sat, Aug 25, 2001 at 01:12:38AM -0700, Cherie & John Carri wrote:
> Hi all, I'm a FreeBSD newbie trying to get a FreeBSD web server going
> for use on a small local intranet. You can classify me as a layman with
> above average understanding of operating systems, but I'm no Unix
> sysadmn. With 'The Complete FreeBSD" clutched in one hand I successfully
> set up FreeBSD 4.2 on a 200 MHz Pentium (call it Samwise) with a 3c509
> NIC . Default kernel settings seem to work, ep0 appears normal, and I
> configured the card to IP address 192.168.0.3.
> 
> I can ping 192.168.0.3 from a terminal on the same computer (Samwise)
> with no problems; I am also running Apache on Samwise, and I can open up
> Netscape on Samwise, browse to http://192.168.0.3 and see the HTML pages
> I put in Apache's htdocs directory. So it appears that my NIC is
> operating correctly, and so is Apache.
> 
> This computer is connected via a single crossover cable (no hub) to a
> Win98 machine (Frodo) with an SMC 1244TX 10/100 NIC. Frodo has IP
> 192.168.0.1.
> If I ping Frodo from the FreeBSD computer, I get nothing for up to
> *twenty seconds* (!), then about 60% packet loss after that. Using
> Netscape on Frodo to try to look at http://192.168.0.3 (i.e. at Apache
> on Samwise) times out with a "server down or unavailable" message.
> 
> I swapped in a spare 3c509 card into the FreeBSD machine, same results.
> I hooked up my third computer (Bilbo, 192.168.0.2), also running Win98
> and with an SMC 1244TX card, in place of the FreeBSD computer, and the
> two Win98 machines happily ping each other with no problems and sub
> millisecond reply times, i.e, my cable and the two SMC NIC's are okay,
> as are the software settings in the Win98 machines.
> 
> What am I dealing with here? Is this a hardware problem with the old
> 10MHz 3c509 not playing nice with the supposedly auto-negotiating SMC
> 10/100 cards in deciding at what frequency to run the network, or do I
10Mbit, not 10Mhz

the 3c509 uses 10Mbit, half-duplex speed, the SMC card might use 10Mbit,
full-duplex, that would explain the behavior you see. Try forcing the
SMC nic to 10Mbit, half-duplex and see if that helps

I don't know how to force nic speeds in win98, maybe some nic specific
config tool? anyone?

> need to change something in software?  Something to do with allowed
> hosts? Suggestions?
hosts.allow only applies for tcpwrappers stuff, i.e. stuff ran thru
inetd. It won't affect pings, only ipfw/ipf firewall rules do, but i
don't think they'd cause packet loss. If you see packet loss, it's prolly
some hw problem...

because of the nature of the TCP protocol, transfers over a link with
much packet loss will still succeed, since the packets are resent if
lost, but you'll see a major performance loss with 60% packet loss.

HTH, Alson

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