[SOLVED] NIC is 10 times slower than it should be!

Archy1 · 06-28-2014, 09:58 PM

I recently purchased an Intel EXPI9301CTBLK Network Adapter 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express 1 x RJ45 card for my motherboard and then proceeded to do a minimal installed of Debian 7.5 amd64.

I then decided to install a desktop environment from the network with the command "tasksel install lxde-desktop" and the download speed was horrendously slow. I figured the mirror was overloaded or something so I changed mirrors, the same thing happened. I figured there was too much traffic occurring within my LAN so I made sure my computer was the only one connected on the LAN. I then replaced the CAT5e cable with a known good cable to make sure that wasn't the problem. Network speeds where still slow and I canceled the DE install. I decided to reboot and try again but before I could type "tasksel install lxde-desktop" this popped up in my terminal:

Code:

[     47.127088] e1000e: eth0 NIC Link is up 100 Mbs Full Duplex, Flow Control: Rx/Tx
[     47.137253] e1000e 0000:06:00.0: eth0: Link Speed was downgraded by SmartSpeed
[     47.137303] e1000e 0000:06:00.0: eth0: 10/100 speed: disabling TSO
[     47.140749] ADDRCONF (NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready

Did some Internet searching but I couldn't find anything helpful. Any ideas?

NOTES:
When installing Debian from the network, the Installer uses the full 1000Mbps.
After the desktop environment is installed (takes forever if not done from the installer), Debian uses the full 1000Mbps.

notsure · 06-28-2014, 10:32 PM

Use mii-tool eth0 to see what the speed is actually set at. 10 or 100?

frieza · 06-28-2014, 10:45 PM

first of all, is it internet speed you are concerned about? or computer to computer LAN speed?
if it's internet speed, what kind of internet service do you have? cable? ADSL? satellite? wireless broadband? what is your internet speed SUPPOSED to be?
you can test what it actually is by going to www.speedtest.net, though i doubt your internet connection would be much more than 20-50M Down for a high end cable line.
second, a 10/100/1000 Meg card will only function at 1000 Megs if it is connected to a 1000 Meg switch, and then only when communicating to another computer on the same switch with a 1000 Meg card.

the bottleneck in your case sounds like your internet connection, i would check speedtest.net and talk to your ISP to make sure you are getting what you are paying for.

GaWdLy · 06-28-2014, 11:20 PM

Frieza++

Well put. 10/100 is expected, and 1000 only occurs in an end-to-end 1000mbit environment. Even if your local network is all 1000, your ISP probably doesn't support 1000mbit interconnects from your mpoe.

notsure · 06-28-2014, 11:31 PM

I think the concern here is the that his 1Gbps ethernet card may be connecting at 100Mbps or 10Mbps.

frieza · 06-28-2014, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by notsure

I think the concern here is the that his 1Gbps ethernet card may be connecting at 100Mbps or 10Mbps.

well as i stated, 100mb is expected if it's connected to a 10/100 switch, if it's attached to a 10m switch it won't get anything higher than 10m

i guess the real question here is what is the card connected to? the network can only go as fast as the slowest piece of equipment in the chain, so unless there is a 1000M switch attached to the card it won't function at 1000M, but as i said, an internet connection is nowhere nere close to that, but most cable/dsl modems have 10/100 switches built, so even then the card won't operate ant 1000M across the switch.

GaWdLy · 06-28-2014, 11:39 PM

Again-the infrastructure needs to support that, end to end. A gigabit card will connect at 100 if plugged into a conventional 10/100 switch. A gigabit card plugged into a gigabit switch will only pull data at 100 if plugged into a non-gigabit router one layer out.

So if he's transferring data from computer to computer on a gigabit network, and only getting 100 mbit connectivity and performance then there's an issue. But downloading from an Internet mirror in a normal mixed infrastructure, 100 mbit is just about the best you can do for local traffic, with Internet download speeds being obviously much less.

Archy1 · 06-28-2014, 11:41 PM

Oddly, I can't reproduce the error despite the fact it plagued me for over two weeks. Maybe the Debain developers fixed it? I'll come back when and if it pops up again.

Code:

# mii-tool eth0
SIOCGMIIREG on eth0 failed: Input/output error
SIOCGMIIREG on eth0 failed: Input/output error
eth0: negotiated 100baseTx-FD flow-control, link ok

Quote:

Originally Posted by frieza

the bottleneck in your case sounds like your internet connection, i would check speedtest.net and talk to your ISP to make sure you are getting what you are paying for.

I've install lxde-desktop from the Internet hundreds of times, it rarely takes over 10 minutes or even 5 minutes. The fact that it was taking over an hour shows that ISP speed is not the issue. When the NIC is working right, my download speeds are around 3.6 to 4 Mbps, but it was around 300 Kbps!

Anyways, it's working right now, for now...

GaWdLy · 06-28-2014, 11:44 PM

I don't think it's as obvious as you think...

Archy1 · 06-28-2014, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaWdLy

I don't think it's as obvious as you think...

Please elaborate. It is not obvious to me why the NIC is now working at Gigabit speeds if that is what you are asking.

notsure · 06-29-2014, 12:01 AM

mii-tool reports 100Mbps connection plus an odd error I'm unfamiliar with. Maybe I should have asked you to run ethtool eth0 instead...

So are you physically connected to a 1000Mbps switch/gateway?

frieza · 06-29-2014, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Archy1

Oddly, I can't reproduce the error despite the fact it plagued me for over two weeks. Maybe the Debain developers fixed it? I'll come back when and if it pops up again.

Code:

# mii-tool eth0
SIOCGMIIREG on eth0 failed: Input/output error
SIOCGMIIREG on eth0 failed: Input/output error
eth0: negotiated 100baseTx-FD flow-control, link ok

I've install lxde-desktop from the Internet hundreds of times, it rarely takes over 10 minutes or even 5 minutes. The fact that it was taking over an hour shows that ISP speed is not the issue. When the NIC is working right, my download speeds are around 3.6 to 4 Mbps, but it was around 300 Kbps!

Anyways, it's working right now, for now...

which by the way is nowhere NEAR full gigabit speed, which would be 125MB/second, the slowdown could be anything from a faulty card, bad wiring, bad modem, noise on the internet line. there could be a multitude of reasons why it isn't/wasn't working properly, but trust me, that isn't gigabit speed

4Megabytes/second would be 32 megabits per second, which seems standard for a cable connection

and yes that sounds like it could very well have been the internet connection, unless the nic was explicitly broken.

as for the error

Code:

SIOCGMIIREG on eth0 failed: Input/output error

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/System-...9#.U6-RK6bQhKA

Quote:

The "mii-tool" command is becoming obsolete. It was designed for 100 Mbit NICs only. Some newer NIC driver modules no longer offer the old API used by the mii-tool command.
Use the newer "ethtool" command instead.
For example, "ethtool eth2" will display link status information, and "ethtool -i eth2" will display the PCI bus location of the NIC and the name and version of the driver.

Archy1 · 06-29-2014, 12:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by notsure

mii-tool reports 100Mbps So are you physically connected to a 1000Mbps switch/gateway?

Yes (unless my router is lying to me), however my Internet speed is now acting normal regardless if I'm in the install environment or the minimal install. Why I don't know, I was having consistent trouble in the minimal install environment for weeks.

So now the question is LAN speeds. For a 1000Mbps NIC, mii-tool eth0 should output 1000baseT instead of 100baseTx -- right?

Code:

# ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
	Supported ports: [ TP ]
	Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
	                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
				1000baseT/Full 
	Supported pause frame use: No
	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: 100Mb/s
	Duplex: Full
	Port: Twisted Pair
	PHYAD: 1
	Transceiver: internal
	Auto-negotiation: on
	MDI-X: on
	Supports Wake-on: pumbg
	Wake-on: g
	Current message level: 0x00000007 (7)
			       drv probe link
	Link detected: yes

P.S. 100 Mbps LAN speeds are fine with me, so I'm in no hurry. I'd just like to know my equipment is configured and working correctly.

frieza · 06-29-2014, 12:39 AM

100Mb/sec looks correct, as i stated, most modems/routers only have 10/100 switches built into them, so your card will drop to 100M/sec when plugged into a 100M/sec switch, the only way to get that to show as 1000M/sec would be to buy a 1000M/sec switch, which unless you had other computers on the lan with 1000M/second cards that would be overkill

here is my output

Code:

[hopper@cafemewmew devices]$ ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
	Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
	Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
	                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
	                        1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full 
	Supported pause frame use: No
	Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
	Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
	                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
	                        1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full 
	Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
	Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
	Link partner advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
	                                     100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
	Link partner advertised pause frame use: Symmetric
	Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
	Speed: 100Mb/s
	Duplex: Full
	Port: MII
	PHYAD: 0
	Transceiver: internal
	Auto-negotiation: on
Cannot get wake-on-lan settings: Operation not permitted
	Current message level: 0x00000033 (51)
			       drv probe ifdown ifup
	Link detected: yes
[hopper@cafemewmew devices]$

theoperative word being this

Code:

	Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
	                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
	                        1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full

and this

Code:

	Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
	                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
	                        1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full

and this

Code:

	Link partner advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
	                                     100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full

which shows that the card although CAPABLE of 1000M/second is only running at 100M/second because that is as fast as the switch it's plugged into can talk.

that's normal.

notsure · 06-29-2014, 12:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Archy1

Yes (unless my router is lying to me), however my Internet speed is now acting normal regardless if I'm in the install environment or the minimal install. Why I don't know, I was having consistent trouble in the minimal install environment for weeks.

So now the question is LAN speeds. For a 1000Mbps NIC, mii-tool eth0 should output 1000baseT instead of 100baseTx -- right?

Code:

# ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
	Supported ports: [ TP ]
	Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
	                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
				1000baseT/Full 
	Supported pause frame use: No
	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: 100Mb/s
	Duplex: Full
	Port: Twisted Pair
	PHYAD: 1
	Transceiver: internal
	Auto-negotiation: on
	MDI-X: on
	Supports Wake-on: pumbg
	Wake-on: g
	Current message level: 0x00000007 (7)
			       drv probe link
	Link detected: yes

P.S. 100 Mbps LAN speeds are fine with me, so I'm in no hurry. I'd just like to know my equipment is configured and working correctly.

If you're connected directly to the modem/gateway, then it only supports 100Mbps. Most new gateways support 1Gbps. Although my experience is limited to local ISPs here, Comcast, WOW, ATT.