I have set up a RH7.2 machine as a file server on a network where all the client hosts are either Win98 or XPpro. I have gotten samba working to the point that all the shares are available. The prolbem is that the network is much more sluggish than it used to be. When if ifconfig it shows 135613 collisions. I have never seen this many before. What could be wrong? Is this an obnormal amount for a network of 10 machines connected with an active hub? If this isn't abnormal what else could be causing poor performance

Thanks
Tom

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0C:76:18:77E
inet addr:192.168.0.29 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:793695 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:1
TX packets:893519 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:139041 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:95402990 (90.9 Mb) TX bytes:679907443 (648.4 Mb)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xcc00

Is it a 10BaseT hub, or 100BaseT hub? That will make a difference. If you force set the media type on any cards, remember they should be half-duplex when connecting to a hub.

I would suggest running Ethereal or tcpdump and check for multicast and broadcast traffic. Too much of either will cause a ton of collisions.

Chort,

Thanks for the help. All my cable is cat5. One hub is 100T and one is 10T. Some of the nics are 10/100 and some are 10. I did not see many broadcast packets when I looked at tcpdmp; unless I do not know what I am looking for? I do not think I am doing anything to cause full duplex; am I?

Thanks
Tom

AcerWarehouse.mshome.net.1025: . 170499:171959(1460) ack 11141 win 5840NBT Packet (DF)
15:18:00.158423 192.168.0.29.netbios-ssn > AcerWarehouse.mshome.net.1025: P 171959:172551(592) ack 11141 win 5840NBT Packet (DF)
15:18:00.168423 AcerWarehouse.mshome.net.1025 > 192.168.0.29.netbios-ssn: . ack 172551 win 5840 (DF)
15:18:00.218423 AcerWarehouse.mshome.net.1025 > 192.168.0.29.netbios-ssn: P 11141:11196(55) ack 172551 win 5840NBT Packet (DF)
15:18:00.218423 192.168.0.29.netbios-ssn > AcerWarehouse.mshome.net.1025: . 172551:174011(1460) ack 11196 win 5840NBT Packet (DF)
15:18:00.218423 192.168.0.29.netbios-ssn > AcerWarehouse.mshome.net.1025: P 174011:174603(592) ack 11196 win 5840NBT Packet (DF)
15:18:00.218423 AcerWarehouse.mshome.net.1025 > 192.168.0.29.netbios-ssn: . ack 174603 win 5840 (DF)
15:18:00.218423 AcerWarehouse.mshome.net.1025 > 192.168.0.29.netbios-ssn: P 11196:11290(94) ack 174603 win 5840NBT Packet (DF)
15:18:00.218423 192.168.0.29.netbios-ssn > AcerWarehouse.mshome.net.1025: P 174603:174654(51) ack 11290 win 5840NBT Packet (DF)
15:18:00.218423 AcerWarehouse.mshome.net.1025 > 192.168.0.29.netbios-ssn: P 11290:11345(55) ack 174654 win 5789NBT Packet (DF)
15:18:00.218423 192.168.0.29.netbios-ssn > AcerWarehouse.mshome.net.1025: . 174654:176114(1460) ack 11345 win 5840NBT Packet (DF)
15:18:00.218423 192.168.0.29.netbios-ssn > AcerWarehouse.mshome.net.1025: P 176114:176706(592) ack 11345 win 5840NBT Packet (DF)
15:18:00.218423 msi-office.mshome.net.1053 > SERVER.mshome.net.2869: . ack 29475 win 16341 (DF)
15:18:00.228423 AcerWarehouse.mshome.net.1025 > 192.168.0.29.netbios-ssn: . ack 176706 win 5840 (DF)

Do the sensible thing and update your network to 100 MB/s only, and it is always better to use switches rather than hubs.

The price of these things are not prohibitive unlike a few years ago.

The collisions arise from the traffic on your network exceeding the capacity (bandwidth) of your network.