PE 400SC Network Throughput Problem

I had throughput problems with a poweredge 650 and Intel 1000Mbit cards, I replaced the card with a regular 100Mb/s and that solved all my issues .... I'm running a server under linux, it seems the Rx and Tx on the card are not configured symetrically ie. I'm getting double Tx than Rx. I gave up because I don't need 1000 Mbit on my LAN ...

I'm having the same issues too.  It takes over 10 minutes just to transfer about 20mb of data between two computers right next to each other.  Is there any other fix available besides just installing a PCI network card?

Well, adding a PCI NIC hasn't fixed the problem for me - every local file transfer tops out at 3Mb/sec.  I've tried a bunch of PCI NIC's from 3Com, Netgear, Linksys.  Nothing seems to work.  I am left to think it's either Win XP or some hardware issue.  I guess I will pop another hard drive inside and install Win 2K or 2K3 just to test my theory.

A fresh install of Win 2K Server didn't change anything either, still stuck at 3Mb/sec network transfers.

My last resort is going to be calling tech support.  If they can't fix it, I think I'm returning the server.

Greetings All,

I ran SisSoft Sandra tests and it came back with 80%+ packet loss consistently.  I did not have problem with other machines in my network.  File transfer just stalled on large files within local network.  However, large downloads from internet(WAN) seems to be okay.  It seems almost that the onboard NIC is too fast for something.  I will pop in a PCI NIC to see the performance like someone has done here.    I will let you know the results. 

Suggestions: 

1. Could someone please run the Sandra Test to verify what I have seen so far?

2. Could someone from Dell step into here?  There seems to be pattern here.

Thanks!

I managed to 'work around' the problem.  I setup an ftp server on the 400sc and 'pushed' files to it, and speeds were normal for a 10/100 LAN (around 11Mb/sec).  Before, the ftp server was on a different machine, and I ran an ftp client on the 400sc, and 'pulled' files to it, and I was only getting 3Mb/sec.

For the life of me, I cannot explain why this happens, and although I am not 100% satisfied that it took this much fiddling around with it to reach an acceptable outcome, the bottom line is that I can transfer over my LAN as quickly as I'm supposed to be able to, and in the end that's really all that matters to me.

I would be *extremely hesitant* to recommend a 400sc to anyone though, given the problem I have had with it, and seeing how others have had similar problems, it looks like Dell is just ignoring this, and that isn't the right thing to do.

I did pop in an IBM 100/10 NIC.  The same issue persists.  I am running Windows 2003 with updated patches.   Let me ask this,  I only have 128MB memory here.  Will this be an issue?  I am very frustrated with this now.  I can't believe that Dell did not spot this. 

I had opened a call with DELL.  We ran the basic tests and all of them passed.  Basically, my problem can be reproduced more clearly below,

if I do "ping -t x.x.x.x", it is okay.  However, if I do "ping -t -l 1200 x.x.x.x", i started to get dropped packets to 20%.  If I do "ping -t -l 6500 x.x.x.x", I might just as well forget about it.  It definitely has to do the size of the packets.  Any idea?  Thanks!

SLeff,

 

When 400SC is pulling(ie ftp client), it can vary the window size of TCP packet.  So the performance is BAD but you can get by.  However, when you set it up the other way around, ie 400SC is the FTP server, for some reason, it cannot vary the window size and it results in dropped packets.  Weird?  That's my explanation so far.

 Maybe it's the OS setup.  I had Windows 2003 server.  If you don't mind, could you tell me your OS? 

Regards,

 

XP Pro

Here is what I found out.  It may have nothing to do with Dell's motherboard.  In my case, Dell PE400SC (Machine A) and my laptop(Machine B) constitute the file transfer pair.  Machine B has a Belkin Wireless card, which cannot negotiate a transfer rate with other NIC card on Machine A.    Also, this is specific to the way you transfer the files.  In my case, I think drag and drop or copy from a cmd line is, what I suspect, a "synchronous" action whereas ftp is kind of "asynchronous", which may be more lenient.  Luckily for me, I also have NIC connection on Machine B.  My work-around is disable the Wireless Card and use the fixed LAN connection for large file transfer.  Nothing elegant.  Please let me know if you find a better tweak for this issue.  Thanks.

i think i'm seeing something similar. running a 400sc under RH Linux 9. connected to a netgear FS108 10/100 switch. Server acts as a samba file/print server to thinkpads with intel pro/100 VE NICs(Set to auto detect).

transfer speeds are 20MB/min so i'm thinking the 400SC embedded intel gigabit NIC is not autonegotiating or is running at half-duplex. the switch shows numerous collisions, along with netstat -s showing retransmission error counter increasing during file transfers. FYI, i'm using cat5e cables, saw the same error using a linksys router/switch and also when running FreeBSD instead of RH9.

ethtool eth0 shows the gigabit nic as full duplex and autoneg on, but this may be incorrect.

 

any ideas?