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Joe of Loath 07-29-2010 05:37 AM

Slow wifi - Debian Lenny
 
Hi there

I'm currently running a small debian server at home. It's pretty low spec, with an Intel Celeron 433 and 256mb of RAM. However, my speeds (both HTTP/FTP download and SCP transfer over the network) are pitiful. 44kb/s is typical, while my laptop, on the desk next to the server, can download at 800kb/s on a good day.

I'm thinking the problem is the wifi. It's an old Ralink RT2500 PCI card, and I'm thinking the processor isn't fast enough. However, when I'm downloading something through HTTP (Just an example, I'm downloading mysql at the moment), processor usage will only be 10%.

Does anyone have any idea what's wrong with it? The wifi driver? The chipset? (Intel 440BX). I know it's old hardware, and I should probably update, but the 22w idle power consumption is pretty hard to match when you're building PC's out of spares.

Here's the output to LSPCI:
Quote:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6105/VT6106S [Rhine-III] (rev 86)
00:0b.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2500 802.11g Cardbus/mini-PCI (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro AGP 1X/2X (rev 5c)
And iwconfig:
Quote:

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:"BUFFALO"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.427 GHz Access Point: XXXXXXXXX (EDITED)
Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (EDITED) [3]
Link Quality=87/100 Signal level=-69 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

Thanks in advance
Joe

yooy 07-29-2010 09:32 AM

If your wifi works slow you can try turining off encription, it may help.

pcangelo 07-29-2010 01:08 PM

What kernel/driver you use?
Do you have random speed and abnormal packet loss on a ping to the gateway?
Did you tried a wget/ftp session to anything? it stalls? do you loose speed?

I have the same problem with recent kernels/drivers on the same network card in a desktop machine and I try to identify the potential cause.

Joe of Loath 07-29-2010 01:24 PM

Turning off encryption is not an option. I'd run a cable if I could, but the server is the other side of the house from the router.

It's 2.6.26 from memory, and the driver is wext. I used wget to download wordpress, and that gave me about the same speed. SCP transfers across the network stall regularly, and end up giving an average speed of about 38kb/s.

Ok, here's the output of pinging the gateway:
Quote:

PING 192.168.11.1 (192.168.11.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=5.48 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=6.30 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=12.7 ms (DUP!)
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=5.85 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=5.50 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=255 time=3.34 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=255 time=5.02 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=255 time=6.59 ms (DUP!)
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=255 time=4.39 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=8 ttl=255 time=3.89 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=8 ttl=255 time=5.82 ms (DUP!)
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=9 ttl=255 time=4.34 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=9 ttl=255 time=8.89 ms (DUP!)
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=10 ttl=255 time=4.07 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=10 ttl=255 time=12.2 ms (DUP!)
^C
--- 192.168.11.1 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 received, +5 duplicates, 0% packet loss, time 9036ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 3.346/6.302/12.723/2.756 ms
The duplicates might have something to do with it, although I've had the same happen on another Debian box, and that downloaded faster. For comparison, here's the output from my laptop:
Quote:

PING 192.168.11.1 (192.168.11.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=3.72 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=3.68 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=1.62 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=3.94 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=255 time=4.16 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=255 time=1.85 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=255 time=4.28 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=8 ttl=255 time=3.72 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=9 ttl=255 time=3.72 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=10 ttl=255 time=3.67 ms
^C
--- 192.168.11.1 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 received, 0% packet loss, time 9011ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.620/3.439/4.285/0.876 ms

Joe of Loath 07-30-2010 07:33 AM

Anyone got any ideas?

yooy 08-01-2010 07:18 AM

does it work better with random laptop/pc on same distance?

repo 08-01-2010 10:38 AM

Seems to me the card is the problem.
Any way to replace the card?
Also make sure every host has a different IP

Joe of Loath 08-01-2010 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yooy (Post 4051621)
does it work better with random laptop/pc on same distance?

Yup, I can use my laptop in bed (just above the server :p) just fine.

I'll stick a USB2.0 PCI card in there (USB 1 motherboard) and see what speeds I can get using a USB adaptor.


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