[SOLVED] Erratic Network Transfer Speeds


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After I believe my server was completely 100% fixed, I started to transfer move HD movies to it only to find out that a 30 gb movie was transferring at 4 MB/s, when it usually transfer at 30 to 42 MB/s.  I usually drag the movies from my W7 PC (gigabit connection) to the Movie share folder from my server.

 

This is my set up W7 PC and Server connected to a gigabit switch.  Win 7 PC ethernet light are flashing green, lights in the gigabit switch are solid green, but the led light flashing at my server's ethernet hook up are yellow (flashing) and the other one orange.  They used to be both flashing green.

 

I stopped the transfer, turned everything off PC, router, switch, server and turned everything back on.  I started the transfer again, and the speeds went up to 30 MB/s, but I noticed that the light in the server ethernet port were still yellow (flashing) and the other solid orange.

 

I proceeded to do another transfer.  The speed went from 800 KB/S to 4 MB/s, and slowly reached 33 MB/s.  Towards the end of the transfer the speed started to slow down from 33 MB/s to 15 MB/s.  I am transferring another file right now, and the speed started at 25 MB/S, went down to 15 MB/s, and it went back up to 29.5 MB/s.

 

I've never seen my server having such sporadic transfer speeds.  I called a friend of mine who is somewhat of an IT Tech, and he said that there is a possibility my MOBO's ethernet port might be going bad.

 

If this is possible, how can I check if the port is going bad?

 

NIC info (from ethtool)

Settings for eth0:

Supported ports: [ TP MII ]

Supported link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full

                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full

                        1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full

Supports auto-negotiation: Yes

Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full

                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full

                        1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full

Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes

Speed: 1000Mb/s

Duplex: Full

Port: MII

PHYAD: 0

Transceiver: internal

Auto-negotiation: on

Supports Wake-on: pumbg

Wake-on: g

Current message level: 0x00000033 (51)

Link detected: yes

 

NIC driver info (from ethtool -i)

driver: r8169

version: 2.3LK-NAPI

firmware-version:

bus-info: 0000:02:00.0

 

Ethernet config info (from ifconfig)

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:e0:4d:c6:d2:e0 

          inet addr:172.16.0.3  Bcast:172.16.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:17896222 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:5085151 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:524941221 (500.6 MiB)  TX bytes:318258409 (303.5 MiB)

          Interrupt:26 Base address:0x4000

syslog-2012-04-14_1.txt

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Perhaps eliminate your other hardware by connecting your Win7 box directly to Unraid (use a known good working ethernet cable too.)  Assuming both are on a static IP of course, so no need for DHCP assigned addresses....

 

All my devices have an assigned IP address via router.  I've got my W7 PC and Unraid connected to the same switch.  The ethernet cable is brand new just changed it a month ago since I was having the same issues as I am having today.

 

However, I turned off DHCP vis unmenu setting, and the fastest transfer speed I got was 3.9 MB/s.

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What I'm talking about is eliminating your switch and router as a possible cause - connecting directly from the W7 box to the unraid box will do this - just assign both a static IP in the same subnet as your DHCP addresses and give it a crack.

 

I see what you mean.  I'm at work right now.  So, I'll give that a fey tomorrow when I get home.

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Perhaps eliminate your other hardware by connecting your Win7 box directly to Unraid (use a known good working ethernet cable too.)  Assuming both are on a static IP of course, so no need for DHCP assigned addresses....

 

I did that, and I was not able to communicate with the server at all.  I've got two devices that are not gigabit.  So, I put those with the switch, and I connected my PC and server to the WNDR3700 directly.

 

I tested 4 different cables.  Two Cat5, 1 Cat5e and 1 Cat6.  They all had the same result.  I also noticed that when the server was off, the router showed a solid yellow led light were the server was connected.  My W7 was off at the same time, and the led light from the router was off.

 

I turned both the W7 PC and server on, and both have a solid green led light on the router.  The W7 integrated gigabit ethernet port shows two green led light.  My server showed one yellow (blinking) light and one orange solid led light.  I've tested the transfer speeds, and they are sporadic still.  They range from 20 to 44 MB/s now.

 

I'm leaning towards what my friend said, and may be the integrated ethernet port for my MOBO is dying.  I also notice on the system log that the ethernet port FW was r8169, which I've read some where that there are network issues with the Realtek r8169 with UnRaid version 4.7, which is what I am running.

 

So, I am wondering if I can change the FW for my mobo's integrated ethernet card, but I am not sure how I will be able to do that.  I've included the last parity check from this morning.  Thanks for all the help.

 

If anyone is willing to suggest a new MOBO with at least 6 sata ports, and 3 or 4 tb support let me know.

syslog-2012-04-15.txt

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Are you sure that the Widows client is not causing the problem? Try turning off remote differential compression. See here: http://www.trishtech.com/win7/turn_off_differential_compression_in_windows_7.php

 

Remote differential is now off.  I am ripping another movie right now.  I'll transfer it later and see what are the results.  Thanks.  I am conducting another parity check since I disconnected the wrong plug, and ended up disconnecting the server's power plug.... :-[

 

Is it save transferring files to the server while conducting parity?

 

Also, yesterday I ran a parity check, and I noticed one of my movies files was missing, but the folder was still there.  Today, I finished ripping that movie, and I was getting ready to transfer it, but when I went to check the folder, the movie file was there...what the heck lol.  Weird.

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The syslog shows the link was down for almost 2 minutes. What does "ethtool eth0" show now?

 

 

NIC info (from ethtool)

Settings for eth0:

Supported ports: [ TP MII ]

Supported link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full

                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full

                        1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full

Supports auto-negotiation: Yes

Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full

                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full

                        1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full

Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes

Speed: 1000Mb/s

Duplex: Full

Port: MII

PHYAD: 0

Transceiver: internal

Auto-negotiation: on

Supports Wake-on: pumbg

Wake-on: g

Current message level: 0x00000033 (51)

Link detected: yes

 

NIC driver info (from ethtool -i)

driver: r8169

version: 2.3LK-NAPI

firmware-version:

bus-info: 0000:02:00.0

 

Ethernet config info (from ifconfig)

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:e0:4d:c6:d2:e0 

          inet addr:172.16.0.3  Bcast:172.16.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:10139389 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:3395899 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:1688225897 (1.5 GiB)  TX bytes:871255808 (830.8 MiB)

          Interrupt:26 Base address:0x4000

 

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Im trying to understamd why get a new router or switch.  My router is a wndr3700 and the switch is a 8 po.rt trendnet giga switch.  Ive got two other gigabit switches i can try but i am afraid my friend is right and it might be my mobo.

 

Ive connected the server to my W7 pc via ethernet, but I couldnt connect / access the server at all.

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Another thing I noticed was that when my server is off and I turn it back on the ethernet port activity lights are green like they should, but as soon as the server boot into unraid the activity light change to one solid orange and the other blinking yellow.  I dont know if this is worth mentioning.  May be Ive changed something some where to cause this?

 

Im getting pretty frustrated with this, and pretty much ready to replace the mobo to see if it fixes the issues.

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Returned home from work, and I can't access the server via W7 PC.  I don't have a keyboard and monitor hooked up to the server since my wife took it to her mom's house to use a different computer.

 

I've reset the WNDR3700 to factory settings, I've connected the W7 directly to the server, I've connected the W7 and server to gigabit switch and I cannot access the server.  I'm pretty much giving up on this.

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Google the documentation for the switch to determine the meaning of the lights.

 

The switch and router are solid green, which is gigabit, yellow is 100 mg/s, and orange is 10 mb/s.  Same for the motherboard, which has a solid orange and blinking yellow activity light on the mobo ethernet port not on the router or switch.

 

I was able to get the monitor and keyboard back.  I took the usb flash off, and went to the config/network file, and for some reason or another is had the IP address of 127.0.0.1, which I wasn't able to access via telnet or browser.

 

I had to reset the router and set the DHCP on the config/network file to YES.  I restarted the server, and I can access it again.  Still the light of the ethernet port of the mobo is solid orange/yellow.  I've tried changing ethernet cables, with router direct, with switch only, with two different switches, and connecting it to my W7 and labtop directly with no success.

 

I believe it is time for a new mobo...thinking of getting the ECS| A885GM-A2 (V1.1)

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NIC info (from ethtool)

Settings for eth0:

Supported ports: [ TP MII ]

Supported link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full

                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full

                        1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full

Supports auto-negotiation: Yes

Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full

                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full

                        1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full

Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes

Speed: 1000Mb/s

Duplex: Full

Port: MII

PHYAD: 0

Transceiver: internal

Auto-negotiation: on

Supports Wake-on: pumbg

Wake-on: g

Current message level: 0x00000033 (51)

Link detected: yes

 

NIC driver info (from ethtool -i)

driver: r8169

version: 2.3LK-NAPI

firmware-version:

bus-info: 0000:02:00.0

 

Ethernet config info (from ifconfig)

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:e0:4d:c6:d2:e0 

          inet addr:192.168.1.6  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:6648 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:7194 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:1378916 (1.3 MiB)  TX bytes:1656386 (1.5 MiB)

          Interrupt:26 Base address:0x4000

syslog-2012-04-16.txt

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Apr 16 12:14:24 Tower logger: /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1:  /sbin/route del default (Network)

Apr 16 12:14:24 Tower logger: /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1:  /sbin/dhcpcd -k -d eth0 (Network)

Apr 16 12:14:24 Tower dhcpcd[1355]: sending DHCP_RELEASE for 192.168.1.6 to 192.168.1.1  (Network)

Apr 16 12:14:25 Tower dhcpcd[1355]: terminating on signal 1  (Network)

Apr 16 12:14:25 Tower logger: /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1:  /sbin/ifconfig lo down (Network)

Apr 16 12:14:26 Tower kernel: r8169: eth0: link up (Network)

Apr 16 12:14:27 Tower emhttp: shcmd (35): /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 start (Network)

Apr 16 12:14:27 Tower logger: /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1:  /sbin/ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1 (Network)

Apr 16 12:14:27 Tower logger: /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1:  /sbin/route add -net 127.0.0.0 netmask 255.0.0.0 lo (Network)

Apr 16 12:14:28 Tower logger: /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1:  /sbin/dhcpcd -d -t 30 -h Tower eth0 (Network)

Apr 16 12:14:28 Tower kernel: r8169: eth0: link up (Network)

Apr 16 12:14:28 Tower dhcpcd[2157]: broadcasting DHCP_DISCOVER  (Network)

Apr 16 12:14:28 Tower dhcpcd[2157]: broadcastAddr option is missing in DHCP server response. Assuming 192.168.1.255  (Network)

 

Can someone explain to me why does the IP address 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.0 and netmask 255.0.0.0 come from?  All my IP adresses start from 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.255

syslog-2012-04-18.txt

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NIC info (from ethtool)

Settings for eth0:

Supported ports: [ TP ]

Supported link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full

                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full

                        1000baseT/Full

Supports auto-negotiation: Yes

Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full

                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full

                        1000baseT/Full

Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes

Speed: 1000Mb/s

Duplex: Full

Port: Twisted Pair

PHYAD: 0

Transceiver: internal

Auto-negotiation: on

Supports Wake-on: umbg

Wake-on: g

Current message level: 0x00000007 (7)

Link detected: yes

 

NIC driver info (from ethtool -i)

driver: e1000

version: 7.3.21-k5-NAPI

firmware-version: N/A

bus-info: 0000:02:06.0

 

Ethernet config info (from ifconfig)

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 90:e2:ba:11:a3:ac 

          inet addr:192.168.1.5  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:76 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:145 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:8717 (8.5 KiB)  TX bytes:122915 (120.0 KiB)

 

syslog-2012-04-18_1.txt

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Installed the new Intel GT/Pro, and now everything works ;).

 

NIC info (from ethtool)

Settings for eth0:

Supported ports: [ TP ]

Supported link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full

                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full

                        1000baseT/Full

Supports auto-negotiation: Yes

Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full

                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full

                        1000baseT/Full

Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes

Speed: 1000Mb/s

Duplex: Full

Port: Twisted Pair

PHYAD: 0

Transceiver: internal

Auto-negotiation: on

Supports Wake-on: umbg

Wake-on: g

Current message level: 0x00000007 (7)

Link detected: yes

 

NIC driver info (from ethtool -i)

driver: e1000

version: 7.3.21-k5-NAPI

firmware-version: N/A

bus-info: 0000:02:06.0

 

Ethernet config info (from ifconfig)

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 90:e2:ba:11:a3:ac 

          inet addr:192.168.1.5  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:76 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:145 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:8717 (8.5 KiB)  TX bytes:122915 (120.0 KiB)

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