Slow network

Hi,
Please excuse the long post - I have tried to give as much detail as I
can think of and am also new to linux, so not sure what is relevant:
I have a new Suse 10 installation and am experiencing very slow network
throughput. Machine configuration: IBM T42 laptop. 100MB switched
network. Lan card configured to start on cable connection, and Wireless
card (which I also cannot get connected to my access point) set to start
manually. Both cards' IP addressing set manually (no DHCP). Internal
subnet 192.168.251.0/24 gateway of 192.168.251.1. DNS resolution seems
to be working fine, and a NSLookup
resolves external hosts without any problem. I tried to do a Yast update
- this finds a mirror, retrieves (eventually) a list of available
updates, and then starts to download them - this consistently fails it
just hangs after a random percentage is downloaded.
opening a web page is also extremely slow - the name gets resolved
quickly, but then I wait a long time for the page to open completely, and
sometimes, some of the images do not get opened at all (like half of the
google name). Copying a file from a smb share on the local network also
"stalls", and never completes a copy. I am currently on the same machine
booted with a live CD of Kubuntu, and do not have the same issues with
either web access or local throughput.
I found some articles suggesting that the problem might be related to
ipv6, so I tried to disable IPv6 (Not sure if I was sussessfull??)
I have included the following configurations: portion of modprobe.conf,
ifconfig -a and route;
modprobe.conf:
alias net-pf-1 unix
alias net-pf-2 ipv4
# install net-pf-2 /bin/true
alias net-pf-3 ax25
# install net-pf-3 /bin/true
alias net-pf-4 ipx
# install net-pf-4 /bin/true
alias net-pf-5 appletalk
# install net-pf-5 /bin/true
alias net-pf-6 netrom
# install net-pf-6 /bin/true
alias net-pf-10 off
alias ipv6 off
# install net-pf-10 /bin/true
alias net-pf-11 rose
# install net-pf-11 /bin/true
alias net-pf-15 af_key
alias net-pf-17 af_packet
alias net-pf-31 bluetooth

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:11:25:43:03:56
inet addr:192.168.251.131 Bcast:192.168.251.255
Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:164140 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:97529 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:231400787 (220.6 Mb) TX bytes:7762486 (7.4 Mb)
Base address:0x8000 Memory:c0220000-c0240000

inux:/home/lesliem # route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use
Iface
192.168.251.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0
eth1
link-local * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0
eth1
loopback * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0
lo
default 192.168.251.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0
eth1
linux:/home/lesliem #

Thanking you in advance.
Leslie

lesliem@owdsa.com adjusted his/her tinfoil beanie to post:

> Hi,
> Please excuse the long post - I have tried to give as much detail as I
> can think of and am also new to linux, so not sure what is relevant:
> I have a new Suse 10 installation and am experiencing very slow
> network throughput.

Hi Leslie,

One detail you missed, what version of SuSE are you using ? :-)

Go into Yast>System>/etc/sysconfig Editor and "search" for ipv6 goto the
KDE_USE_IPV6 and set it to "no"

Also if you are using Mozilla for browsing type:

about:config

In the address bar and type ipv6 in the filter bar and set it to false.

HTH

--
Mark
Twixt hill and high water
N. Wales, UK
Novell Support Forums SysOp

> One detail you missed, what version of SuSE are you using ? :-)
>
> Go into Yast>System>/etc/sysconfig Editor and "search" for ipv6 goto the
> KDE_USE_IPV6 and set it to "no"
>
> Also if you are using Mozilla for browsing type:
>
> about:config
>
> In the address bar and type ipv6 in the filter bar and set it to false.

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the reply,
I am using Suse 10.0
Both settings you suggest are already done

I have been reading about the so called slow dns issue, and I believe that
I have disabled ipv6 - although I cannot be sure.
Even copies from a smb share on the local network fail after a time.

Regards,
Leslie

lesliem@wdsa.com adjusted his/her tinfoil beanie to post:


> Hi Mark,
> Thanks for the reply,
> I am using Suse 10.0
> Both settings you suggest are already done
>
> I have been reading about the so called slow dns issue, and I believe
> that I have disabled ipv6 - although I cannot be sure.
> Even copies from a smb share on the local network fail after a time.
>
> Regards,
> Leslie

Is there anything in your log files that might point to other stuff
rather than the ipv6?

looking here in your ifconfig:

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:11:25:43:03:56
inet addr:192.168.251.131 Bcast:192.168.251.255
Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1


There is no reference for ipv6 at all compare with mine:

th0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:E0:18:99:88:77
inet addr:192.168.1.13 Bcast:192.168.1.255
Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2e0:18ff:fe99:8877/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1


So I think we can presume ipv6 /is/ disabled and so the problem could be
elsewhere.

Oh one other thing off the top of my head, what have you set for your
FQDN in the network setup?

there used to be a problem if you used the "local" part and that could
cause weird behaviour, just put a made up one in there, I actually use
my correct domain but anything will do ( leslie.tux.home or some such )

HTH
--
Mark
Twixt hill and high water
N. Wales, UK
Novell Support Forums SysOp

> Oh one other thing off the top of my head, what have you set for your
> FQDN in the network setup?
>
> there used to be a problem if you used the "local" part and that could
> cause weird behaviour, just put a made up one in there, I actually use
> my correct domain but anything will do ( leslie.tux.home or some such )
Hi Mark,
I have set the fqdn to my domain - owdsa.com.
How/where do I check the logs?
Thanks,
Leslie

lesliem@owdsa.com adjusted his/her tinfoil beanie to post:

>
>> Oh one other thing off the top of my head, what have you set for your
>> FQDN in the network setup?
>>
>> there used to be a problem if you used the "local" part and that
>> could cause weird behaviour, just put a made up one in there, I
>> actually use my correct domain but anything will do ( leslie.tux.home
>> or some such )
> Hi Mark,
> I have set the fqdn to my domain - owdsa.com.
> How/where do I check the logs?
> Thanks,
> Leslie

/var/log/messages would be the first place to see if there was anything
specific, I cannot say what to look for it could be anything like the
eth0 losing the module ( should be the e1000 module on that laptop )
showing up as bad interrupts, anything.

HTH


--
Mark
Twixt hill and high water
N. Wales, UK
Novell Support Forums SysOp

> /var/log/messages would be the first place to see if there was anything
> specific, I cannot say what to look for it could be anything like the
> eth0 losing the module ( should be the e1000 module on that laptop )
> showing up as bad interrupts, anything.
>
> HTH
>

ok, I am seeing Link Beat detected and Link Beat Lost entries. Not sure if
this is because I am taking the interface down and bringing it up all the time?
I am trying to do a Yast update. It hangs onthe downloads at random
points. I then take the interface down, bring it up, and select abort on
the yast download, and then select to Continue update. It then re starts
the download, and sometimes completes the current download.

Thanks

lesliem@owdsa.com adjusted his/her tinfoil beanie to post:

>
>> /var/log/messages would be the first place to see if there was
>> anything specific, I cannot say what to look for it could be anything
>> like the eth0 losing the module ( should be the e1000 module on that
>> laptop ) showing up as bad interrupts, anything.
>>
>> HTH
>>
>
> ok, I am seeing Link Beat detected and Link Beat Lost entries. Not
> sure if this is because I am taking the interface down and bringing it
> up all the time?
> I am trying to do a Yast update. It hangs onthe downloads at random
> points. I then take the interface down, bring it up, and select abort
> on
> the yast download, and then select to Continue update. It then re
> starts the download, and sometimes completes the current download.
>
> Thanks

Do the link beats correlate with the cut-offs in any way?


Another thought:

You say you cannot get the wireless to connect to the AP, this is not
still configured and trying is it while the wired is online?

The two are mutually exclusive and this could be causing probs

HTH
--
Mark
Twixt hill and high water
N. Wales, UK
Novell Support Forums SysOp

> Do the link beats correlate with the cut-offs in any way?
>
>
> Another thought:
>
> You say you cannot get the wireless to connect to the AP, this is not
> still configured and trying is it while the wired is online?
>
> The two are mutually exclusive and this could be causing probs
>
> HTH
Hi Mark,
No, I disabled the wireless card to stop this very thing.
Anyway - thanks for all the help mate, but I am going to give up on Suse
for now, and install Kubuntu. I will try Suse on another machine to see.

Regards,
Leslie