Stalled downloads

danospv · 10-12-2008, 06:27 PM

Debian Linux system is unable to download large files - anything over a few kilobytes. Webpages load great, but any downloads through the browser, NNTP, or even apt-get usually stall and timeout.

The server was connected to the switch at half duplex, but that has been fixed - but it did not fix the problem. Strangest thing is that it happened suddenly, everything was fine some time ago...

Any idea where I should look?

irishbitte · 10-12-2008, 06:34 PM

Is there a proxy server on your network? Something throttling http downloads? All the programs you mention use port 80.

Dutch Master · 10-12-2008, 06:47 PM

Try the wget command on the cli:

Code:

wget http://www.debian.org

Replace debian.org with the appropiate link

If it still stalls you need to search the cause outside of your machine (reconnect the network, make sure it's properly wired, etc)

Is there another machine d/l something, eating up all bandwidth? Use wireshark (formerly ethereal) to sniff the network.

danospv · 10-12-2008, 07:55 PM

There is no proxy server on the network.

Example wget:

Code:

wget *nntp server*
--20:50:31--  http://*nntp server*
           => `nntp'
Resolving *nntp server*... *.*.*.*
Connecting to *nntp server*|*.*.*.*|:119... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 No headers, assuming HTTP/0.9
Length: unspecified

    [                   <=>               ] 143           --.--K/s

And then it just hangs...

We've verified that everything is hooked up properly. Internal servers can be reached just fine. There are several servers on the network (Windows 2000 machines), but none are eating up bandwidth - so this server should be fine.

danospv · 10-12-2008, 08:09 PM

Here is another example:

Code:

www3:~# --21:08:08--  http://download.mozilla.org/?product=thunderbird-2.0.0.17
           => `index.html?product=thunderbird-2.0.0.17'
Resolving download.mozilla.org... 63.245.209.58
Connecting to download.mozilla.org|63.245.209.58|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
Location: http://mozilla-mirror.naist.jp//thunderbird/releases/2.0.0.17/win32/en-US/Thunderbird%20Setup%202.0.0.17.exe [following]
--21:08:09--  http://mozilla-mirror.naist.jp//thunderbird/releases/2.0.0.17/win32/en-US/Thunderbird%20Setup%202.0.0.17.exe
           => `Thunderbird Setup 2.0.0.17.exe.2'
Resolving mozilla-mirror.naist.jp... 163.221.11.21
Connecting to mozilla-mirror.naist.jp|163.221.11.21|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 6,760,680 (6.4M) [application/octet-stream]

 0% [                                     ] 1,044         --.--K/s ETA 20:32:57

irishbitte · 10-12-2008, 11:51 PM

Can you run a live CD distro on a machine on your network, and see if you can do the above exercises again? Preferably do this on a different physical machine, since you may have a hardware issue.

My two cents: I work as a sysadmin, on a school network. We are using all Ubuntu based systems, and the school network runs through the Irish Schools Broadband system, which is hooked directly into HEANet, the education Net backbone. They weren't happy that we were updating every machine using the remote servers, and asked me to cache the packages locally.

This we did easily, but my point is that if your ISP is not happy, they may be throttling your downloads? It's worth looking into as a last resort.

danospv · 10-13-2008, 07:09 AM

I will try running the live CD to see if it is also a problem.

The server is at a special facility, and I've been in contact with their network administrators - they are not limiting any traffic. All other servers on the same network are fine.