Dropped RX packets - what to do about them?

Notice that I am getting increasing number of Dropped RX packets.

Not sure but could be related to occassional "pauses/hangs" when viewing recordings on my TV that reside on unRaid.

What causes Dropped RX packets?

How do I minimize/resolve them?

What troubleshooting steps should I take?

Uptime for unRaid has been 4 days.

root@Tower:/root -> ifconfig

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0c:29:06:a5:31

          inet addr:192.168.1.150  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:311715154 errors:0 dropped:101 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:362068722 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:3125378851 (2.9 GiB)  TX bytes:3430105903 (3.1 GiB)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:175403 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:175403 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

          RX bytes:26358599 (25.1 MiB)  TX bytes:26358599 (25.1 MiB)

Try a new cable.

What is the output of "ethtool eth0" ?

You might be able to set different port settings, but start - as already suggested - with a new cable.

I'll go about ordering some new cables. Guess another trip thru the crawlspace.

Here are the current outputs from "ethtool eth0", "ifconfig" and "uptime" if they help some.

root@Tower:/root -> ethtool eth0
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 pause frame use: No
        Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
        Speed: 1000Mb/s
        Duplex: Full
        Port: Twisted Pair
        PHYAD: 0
        Transceiver: internal
        Auto-negotiation: on
        MDI-X: Unknown
        Supports Wake-on: d
        Wake-on: d
        Current message level: 0x00000007 (7)
        Link detected: yes
root@Tower:/root -> ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0c:29:06:a5:31
          inet addr:192.168.1.150  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:380986911 errors:0 dropped:131 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:422652809 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:3142758160 (2.9 GiB)  TX bytes:2959872492 (2.7 GiB)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:239180 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:239180 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:35968497 (34.3 MiB)  TX bytes:35968497 (34.3 MiB)

root@Tower:/root -> uptime
07:47:01 up 4 days, 23:04,  2 users,  load average: 5.31, 5.22, 4.23

With a speed of 1000Mbps, definitely make sure you use a good quality cable (cat.5e or cat.6).

I get dropped pocket a lot lately.  Some times I'll transfer a couple of large files adding to 80 to 100 GB, and my transfer speed would be steady at 35 MB/s.  Then I'd check my eththool eth0 / ifconfig, and I will have no errors no dropped packets.

The next day I will do the same with smaller files being transfer, and I get either dropped packet 18 or error 9 or frames: 9.  I've changed the cable 3 times already all Cat5e.  One terminated by me the other two already came terminated.  I even bought a new PCI Intel Pro for my server, which helped a lot, but I still get these issues.  I've tried connecting my W7 PC and Server directly to the router, and then directly to the giga swtich with same results.  I've got another giga switch I will try and see if thise fixes the issues.

However, the only cable I haven't changed is the one connected from my pc to the switch.  I terminated that one myself, and checked it with a cable check tool, and it was fine.  I'll probably order a couple of Cat6 cables from monoprice and see if the helps at all.

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 pause frame use: No

Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes

Speed: 1000Mb/s

Duplex: Full

Port: Twisted Pair

PHYAD: 0

Transceiver: internal

Auto-negotiation: on

MDI-X: Unknown

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-k8-NAPI

firmware-version:

bus-info: 0000:02:06.0

Ethernet config info (from ifconfig)

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

          inet addr:192.168.1.2  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:19220 errors:2 dropped:6 overruns:0 frame:1

          TX packets:1186 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:1439364 (1.3 MiB)  TX bytes:408953 (399.3 KiB)

I'm trying to diagnose a very similar problem atm. A very small number of dropped packets, just enough to annoy me.

I swear I can feel the pauses as well though that could be unrelated. I'll get <10 dropped packets for ~5gb of data copied (on average) so it certainly isn't a lot. The server and two boxes I copy from all have brand new cat6e cables, not self terminated. I do have two TP-Link 8prt Gigabit switches and I wonder if it is time to upgrade to something managed to make diagnosing easier.

I've just ordered a new Intel Pro/1000 PCI network card to replace the onboard Realtek as I've had just about enough of that NIC. Running unRAID "5.0rc6-8168-test" at present, the issues existed with 4.7 so I am suspecting it is hardware related.

I'm trying to diagnose a very similar problem atm. A very small number of dropped packets, just enough to annoy me.

 

I swear I can feel the pauses as well though that could be unrelated. I'll get <10 dropped packets for ~5gb of data copied (on average) so it certainly isn't a lot. The server and two boxes I copy from all have brand new cat6e cables, not self terminated. I do have two TP-Link 8prt Gigabit switches and I wonder if it is time to upgrade to something managed to make diagnosing easier.

 

I've just ordered a new Intel Pro/1000 PCI network card to replace the onboard Realtek as I've had just about enough of that NIC. Running unRAID "5.0rc6-8168-test" at present, the issues existed with 4.7 so I am suspecting it is hardware related.

Mine was cabling, router and device related.  I've changed almost all of my cabling from Cat5e to Cat6, with the exception of 1.  I've almost eliminated all of my dropped packets, but I still have some, which I know is related to my PCH-A210 and possible the Cat5e cable since is almost 100 feet in length.

I had to replace my WNDR3700 router, which was causing 99.99% of my dropped packets.  I have everything connected to a 8 port Netgear gigabit switch.  I don't get any dropped packets when transferring data from my W7 to my unRaid server.  The only time I see dropped packets is when my PCH-A210 is streaming movies from my server.  So, if the movies is about 2 hours long, I usually get about 3 dropped packets, but the movie never gets disturbed.

Before, I used to get hundreds of dropped packets.  All you can do is test every cable and device.  It took a lot of work and days to get my dropped packets almost completely gone.

It's funny, when I was running 4.7 I had a lot of dropped TX packets, no RX. After replacing a bad cable most went away but a few remained. I updated to RC6-test-8168 and now I only get dropped RX packets. I hadn't considered disconnecting my unRAID box from the router, this actually makes sense considering how few packets I'm seeing. The amount of data being copied no longer seems to significantly affect the [dropped] packet count but the number slowly rises. Will test and post results.

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