Strange networking..
 

Hello everybody, i must first declare that i am a linux newbie:)
Lets me tell you about my problem;
I am running a linux(debian woody,2.4.18) box (pent2 400, 64mb ram..) with two nic's the first one is a 3com 3c509 ISA card and the second one is an intel eeproo100. Iam using the box as a gateway/router. I've set up the dhcp server and the ipmasq. Everything seems to work fine, and im able to connect my laptop to the internet through the box. BUT there is this ONE problem; after about 1hour connected to the internet or so, the communication to the internet begins to act quite weird. The speed is reduced from 90kbit/s to 15 kbit/s when iam trying to download programs via apt-get. And it was almost impossible to open a web site, it take quite long time, and sometimes it doesnt connect to the site at all. But if disconnect all the net and start it again things seem to be working again.

I hope you guys could give some tips regarding my problems, thanks!

Looks like you have a nic problem.

If you were running win2k I could help, but Im a Linux newbie myself. In windows I would look at the configuration of the NICS driver. Make sure that both your nic cards are set to "auto sense" (this meaning the LAN speed) I presume the ISA card only runs at 10mbt.

There could be of course some sought of a bottle neck when writting to the hard drive. Lets see what others have to say...

Food for thought

Speed...auto

Become root. Excute the following command : "/sbin/mii-tool -v".
Can you report what this command does?

cropcircle:
I am having an very similar issue with my RedHat 9 install. I performed the comand as you requested nibbana do and I got the following:

eth0: no autonegotiation, 10baseT-HD, link ok
product info: vendor 00:08:95, model 1 rev 0
basic mode: autonegotiation enabled
basic status: autonegotiation complete, link ok
capabilities: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
advertising: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
link partner: 10baseT-HD

I know that this was not my original post, but any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Jonnieo, can you tell a bit more of your network setup?

And what kind of ethernet device have you got?

Do you experience it also with using a ftp client and downloading a large iso file?

Do you hear a lot harddrive activity when this slowdown happens?

cropcircle:
I am using a Hawkings Technologies PN672TX CardBus 10/100 Fast Ethernet PC Card, my RedHat 9 install picked it up as a D-Link card. I did some searching on the Hawkings site and located the following for the PN670 series in regards to linux support-

PN670TX - FE2000

N670 CardBus 10M/100M Fast Ethernet
Linux installation Guide(Rev:0.01)
7/14/99

CONTENTS
1. Introductions
2. Installing PCMCIA Card Services
3. Updating LAN driver
4. Configuration for LAN cards


1. Introductions
This document briefly describes how to use the CardBus LAN cards
in a Linux operating system. To make use of the CardBus LAN cards,
you need to install the Card Services which responds to card
insertion and removal events, loading and unloading drivers on demand.

It also describes the installation of the Card Services, driver update
as well as the configuration of LAN cards.

2. Installing the PCMCIA Card Services
Card Serives for Linux is written by David Hinds
<dhinds@hyper.stanford.edu>. It is now a part of many of the Linux
distributions, like RedHat and Slackware. You need to install it into
your Linux system for use of the PCMCIA or "PC Card". The source version
is available at <hyper.stanford.edu> in the "/pub/pcmcia" dirctory,as
"pcmcia-cs-3.0.9.tar.gz". It is decided by you to replace with newer
version for more appropriate.

To install the PCMCIA Card Services, you need to install a full kernel
source and do the following shell commands:

#tar zxvf pcmcia-cs-3.0.9.tar.gz
#cd pcmcia-cs-3.0.9
#./Configure
#make all
#make install

Generally, you don't need to change any default selections when you run
"./Configure" to configure the compiled environment. But Don't forget
enable the (CardBus) option.

3. Updating LAN driver
To make use of 10M/100M CardBus LAN cards, you need to get a version of
v0.91 or newer to support it at

"ftp://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/linux/drivers/tulip.c".

You also need to compile the source file "tulip.c" by using
the GNU C compilier.

#gcc -DCARDBUS -DMODULE -D__KERNEL__ -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O6
-c tulip.c -o tulip_cb.o -I/usr/src/pcmcia-cs-3.0.9/include/

Then, you need to copy the output file 'tulip_cb.o" to the modules
directory "/lib/modules/<Current_Kernel_Version>/pcmcia".

4. Configuration for LAN cards
For LAN card users, you need to use editor to edit the file
"/etc/pcmcia/network.opts" to assign IP address, netmask, gateway IP,
nameservers,broadcast address, and etc. after the Card Services
installation. A part of the file "network.opts" is as listed which is
mandatory setup for the TCP/IP of your Linux machine:

#File: /etc/pcmcia/network.opts
#
#
#
#Host's IP address, netmask, network address, broadcast address
IPADDR="1.2.3.4"
NETMASK="255.255.255.0"
NETWORK="1.2.3.0"
BROADCAST="1.2.3.255"
#Gateway address for static routing
GATEWAY="1.2.3.254"
#Things to add to /etc/resolv.conf for this interface
DOMAIN="your.domain"
SEARCH=""
DNS_1=""
DNS_2=""
DNS_3=""
#
#

Remember to reboot your Linux machine for the Card Services after
installation.

Now you should have the PCMCIA Card Services installed correctly.
If the Card Service is not installed properly, please see the
"PCMCIA-HOWTO" for the details in the root directory of the Card
Services source code to resolve installation and configuraton
problems.

I have not had a chance to test it yet, but will do so as soon as I finish getting both my linux firewall/router and file server up and running.

No- I tested my download speed using gFTP 2.0.14 and the speed started at 48 KB/s and rose to 78 KB/s which is great.

No- I do not hear a great deal of activity from my HDD.

Jonnieo, you mention that with downloading with gFTP you get some good throughput (this rules out major networking problems).

You also mention you do not hear a great deal of activity from the HDD (this rules out potential slocate / updatedb actions).

Okay, when it (the slowdown) happens again, can you do a :

"tail /var/log/messages"

Can you also report the output of "/sbin/ifconfig |grep -i err" - also mention the output of this command when the slowdown occurs.

When the slowdown occurs try the commands :

"su -"
<root password"
"service network stop"
"service network start"

and try using your network again. Does it go faster now?

If it does, please post the output of "tail /var/log/messages".

Good luck!

cropcircle: Really wierd. My problem is gone, here is what I did.

I checked the size of my Linux partition adn discovered that I only had 20 MB of spce left (stupid me). I had a ton of files I had downloaded and installed but never removed. I booted into WIN XP and used Partition Magic 8 to expand the linux ext3 partion by another 7GB and when I booted back into RH9 the problem was better. I then updated my kernel to and setup Firestarter. My downloads seem to be consistant at between 76Kps and 87Kps. Thanks for your help.

I will get this thing one day at a time!