Internet Bandwidth Utilization Question

walla299 · 08-07-2007, 05:59 AM

I've got a 3 Ghz Pentium D, 1Gb RAM, and dual boot Suse 10.2 and XP. Also an older Celeron 633 with Suse 10.2 and a Dell laptop from work that dual boots Suse and XP. Have the same issue on all 3 machines.

The problem is that 2 programs will not share the internet connection when I'm running Suse. If I start an ftp session, then open Firefox, Firefox will time out or be very slow to get a web page while the ftp session is downloading. If I'm downloading a file in Firefox and start the ftp up, the ftp will almost always time out and stop. I tried this with an ftp program and Firefox on 3 systems with Suse on them and its very consistent. The behavior is the same on wired ethernet, or the dial-up connection.

If I do the same thing in XP, everything works just fine. Firefox and Filezilla will share the available bandwidth with no problem. I've used Linux for several years, but I'm not a networking guru. How do I fix this situation so that I can surf while something is downloading in the background?

I've checked out ifconfig: (Laptop with eth0 disconnected, using modem.)

Code:

linux-u9bp:/bin # ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:19:21:E4:C2:E5
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:177

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:76 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:76 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:5448 (5.3 Kb)  TX bytes:5448 (5.3 Kb)

modem0    Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol
          inet addr:67.150.15.217  P-t-P:63.93.65.83  Mask:255.255.255.255
          UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:3149 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2588 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:3
          RX bytes:3787239 (3.6 Mb)  TX bytes:236799 (231.2 Kb)

And the system log, but there are no obvious errors on the dial up link:
(IPv6 is turned off -- ISP didn't work with it.)

Code:

08/06/07 20:49:13    linux-u9bp    pppd[6080]    Serial connection established.
08/06/07 20:49:13    linux-u9bp    pppd[6080]    Using interface modem0
08/06/07 20:49:13    linux-u9bp    rename_netiface    oldname ppp0 does not exist
08/06/07 20:49:13    linux-u9bp    wvdial[6084]        Entering PPP Session.
08/06/07 20:49:13    linux-u9bp    wvdial[6084]        IP address is 67.150.15.217
08/06/07 20:49:13    linux-u9bp    wvdial[6084]        MTU is 1500.
08/06/07 20:49:13    linux-u9bp    wvdial[6084]    Looks like a welcome message.
08/06/07 20:49:14    linux-u9bp    kernel    PPP BSD Compression module registered
08/06/07 20:49:14    linux-u9bp    kernel    PPP Deflate Compression module registered
08/06/07 20:49:14    linux-u9bp    pppd[6080]    local  IP address 67.150.15.217
08/06/07 20:49:14    linux-u9bp    pppd[6080]    remote IP address 63.93.65.83
08/06/07 20:49:15    linux-u9bp    SuSEfirewall2    Firewall rules successfully set
08/06/07 20:49:15    linux-u9bp    SuSEfirewall2    Setting up rules from /etc/sysconfig/SuSEfirewall2 ...
08/06/07 20:49:15    linux-u9bp    SuSEfirewall2    Warning: ip6tables does not support state matching. Extended IPv6 support disabled.
08/06/07 20:49:15    linux-u9bp    SuSEfirewall2    batch committing...
08/06/07 20:49:15    linux-u9bp    ip-up    SuSEfirewall2: Warning: ip6tables does not support state matching. Extended IPv6 support disabled.
08/06/07 20:49:15    linux-u9bp    pppd[6080]    Script /etc/ppp/ip-up finished (pid 6114), status = 0x0
08/06/07 20:49:20    linux-u9bp    ip-up    postqueue: warning: inet_protocols: IPv6 support is disabled: Address family not supported by protocol
08/06/07 20:49:20    linux-u9bp    ip-up    postqueue: warning: inet_protocols: configuring for IPv4 support only

Can't seem to find anything obviously wrong. Anyone have any other ideas where to look for a solution?

Thanks in advance!

SCerovec · 08-07-2007, 09:32 AM

how about htb+sfq ?

walla299 · 08-08-2007, 01:55 AM

Thanks for the suggestion.

Now I have to ask what are htb+sfq? commands?

Checked, but didn't find any man pages for these.

I'm not on my Linux box as I'm at work suffering with Window$.

SCerovec · 08-08-2007, 03:32 AM

Try to google for HTB-tools, chances are You find Your distro's native packages

I would also recommend esfq instead of sfq, but test them both YMMV.

walla299 · 08-09-2007, 12:41 AM

Thanks! Got 'em now.

SCerovec · 08-09-2007, 03:03 AM

Please do report the outcome after trial?
Best regards.

walla299 · 08-09-2007, 11:05 PM

Checked out some of the rules that were set during my install of Suse 10.2. They seem to be set up more for a wired ethernet connection than for a dial up modem. Don't have much time for trouble shooting this at the moment, since I am a truck driver and have to get started early in the morning.

The problem is the same on all my machines, so fixing the laptop should provide a solution for the machines at home also.

Reset some of the link speed values to something more reasonable for a dial-up line and it seemed to help. The issue isn't a severe as it was, but there seems to be some more "adjustments" to make.

SCerovec · 08-10-2007, 05:23 AM

Post the final outcome for reference