[plug] gigabit lan

[Adrian Chadd]

The first thing to do is grab iperf and read up about it.
You can then test the network speeds between hosts by running iperf
and seeing if you can get >100mbit.

If you can get >100mbit from iperf but can't get more than 3.6mbytes/sec
(so 36mbit/sec) then you're low on CPU or disk IO. Probably disk IO.

If you can't get >100mbit from iperf then either you have strangely slow
CPUs or something else is messed up.

The trick to debugging these issues is to come up with ways of isolating
particular components - or eliminating others - to test. In this case
you want to isolate the obvious bottleneck in a fileserver - disk IO and
CPU - from just blitting raw bits over a network interface.

Also, those onboard network interfaces sound crappy, cheap and slow. :)
You should get closer to 300mbit out of them though (excluding disk
bottlenecks) !




Adrian

On Tue, Jan 08, 2008, Kev wrote:
> G'day all
> 
> I've just replaced 2 x 10/100 8 port switches (daisy chained) in our 
> home p2p network with 1 x 16 port gigabit switch.  Most (but not all) of 
> our home machines have gb nics on motherboard, including the 2 right 
> here on my desk.  One has a Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
> with the skge driver installed and the other has an Nvidia CK8S Ethernet 
> Controller with the forcedeth driver installed.  These are the default 
> drivers installed by Xandros.
> 
> I use only Samba on the network because there is a mix of Windoze and 
> Linux machines at home and thus far (the last 3(ish) years) Samba has 
> run flawlessly.  Even now Samba seems to be running OK.
> 
> The problem:  There appears to be no improvement in network speeds - no 
> change at all.  Copying files between these 2 machines I have in front 
> of me happens at about 3.6Mbytes/sec according to gkrellm.  I'm using 
> good condition bought, moulded cat5E cables, each 2m long.  Only the 
> switch between them.
> 
> A complicating factor is that I'm really NOT very technically adept, 
> particularly with Linux and particularly with networking issues.
> 
> Perhaps someone out there might be able to ask me the right questions to 
> elicit the information required to help me speed things along a little.
> 
> 
> Tia
> Kev
> 
> -- 
> =======================================================================
> Kev Downes
> kdownes at tpg.com.au  ph 0404 7 0808 2
> We used to use and recommend Xandros but they went to the dark side
> So we'll soon be using and recommending Debian Etch
> =======================================================================
> There are 10 types of people ...
>   ... those who understand binary, and those who don't!
> =======================================================================
> They say a marble sized object collided with some gasses, and had
> a massive explosion and the universe was born.
>   - to believe this takes more faith than I have.
> =======================================================================
> 
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