Vista+Gigabit=Problems

GUIClaw

GUIClaw

GUIClaw

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Joined
23 May 2007
Posts
26
Hey guys,

I've been having some pretty serious network issues recently - mainly slow/erratic network transfers and "network path no longer available" issues.

Just a bit of background - I've got a 24 port gigabit (unmanaged) switch, and Cat5e cabling throughout my house. Connected are about 6 computers + many network printers and other network devices. I've been doing my main testing on 3 particular computers - however all of the symptoms are felt on all computers.

Every computer runs Windows Vista x64 Home Premium, apart from two - One's the fileserver and has Vista Business x86, and the other is my MacBook running 10.5.2 Leopard.

Here's a quick hardware spec of the particular computers:
My PC - Q6600/4GB Ram/2x300GB SATA-2 RAID0/NF680i using onboard gigabit (no teaming)/Vista x64 Home premium

File server - E2140/2GB Ram/4.0TB (8x500GB+300GB system)/Abit AB9-Pro using onboard gigabit (no teaming)/Vista Business x86

Macbook - C2D 2.2Ghz/4GB Ram/Onboard Gigabit/10.5.2 Leopard

Now here come the very strange problems:

These transfers were initiated from My PC:
My PC -> File Server = 60MB/s-20MB/s-65MB/s-0MB/s-11MB/s-60MB/s (and repeats in a very clear pattern
File Server -> My PC = 6MB/s-0MB/s-6MB/s (and continues like that, max at 6MB/s)

These were initiated from the File Server:
My PC -> File Server = 30MB/s-7MB/s-25MB/s-10MB/s-11MB/s (and repeats)
File Server -> My PC = 70MB/s for a long time, then 0MB/s for a few seconds, then back to 70MB/s

Now here's where the really strange part comes in, Copying in any direction, initiated from either a Vista PC or my Macbook, to the other, is ALWAYS super fast - i.e. 60MB/s+ and stays like that with no drops what-so-ever.

Now i've tried everything that I could find on the internet, about disabling autotuninglevel and rss and the remote differential compression, and i've also played about with the offloading features on the individual computers network drivers to no avail. Also i've tried using the pre-release of Vista SP1 on different vista PC's and also get the same effect. As well as that, i've also tried the hack to disable the multimedia class scheduler, as i've heard that screws up vista transfers too.

On a spare pc I ran freeNAS, and when the copy was iniated from a vista pc it would have a very erractic transfer again, but to my mac again it was solid fast.

I'm very sure that all of the computers can easily handle the high network bandwidth, due to the fact it goes very fast to my MacBook (and that's to a laptop harddisk!).

I'm completely at a loss as to what the hell is causing this random network glitches, and i'm convinced that its one of vistas stupid new features, but I just can't find any solution (or even anyone that's describing the same symtoms as me) on the net anywhere.

A few thoughts I had were to do with network buffers, CPU usage, and other hidden settings I don't really know about. The CPU usage during Mac transfer is very low <5%, so i'm sure it's not that either.

I'm really hoping that its somthing that can be fixed rather easily - or i've missed somthing blaringly obvious out from my testing!

Cheers!

Edit: I forgot to mention that I had tried connecting two Vista PC's together directly, and through their own seperate gigabit switch (Netgear GS108 I think) and it has no difference, so I don't think its to do with other devices sending out broadcast packets or congestion on the switch side.
 
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So, you are saying the problem only arises when transferring between one of the other network computers and your file server, correct?

Transfers between other network computers are fine, correct?

If so, look at the differences between your file server and the network computers. One thing I noticed is that it's running Vista 64, so is this a driver problem for the network card on the Vista 64 machine?
 
Hmm you might be on to something - I've just tested pushing and pulling another 2GB file from My PC to my Dads (x64 home premium too) and that works fast with no erratic speed changes at all.

Maybe the problem lies in how the Vista x64 machines interact with the x86 file server? I suppose that I could install x64 on the server using one of my disks to test (but not activate) to see if it works and if it does I could buy a business license for it.

Is it a known problem when different architectures transfer data over a network to each-other?

In the server I have tried many different NIC's, (the onboard gigabit - both, enabled and disabled each, D-Link gigabit adapter, PCI realtek gigabit adapter, and an Intel Pro100/s all give the erratic behavior).

EDIT: Ok, i'm just installing 64bit vista on the server now to see if it makes a difference - lets hope that it does :)
 
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What I was suggesting was that you have a network card driver issue on your file server. That is what I would investigate first.

I have not heard of a network transfer issue between 32-bit Vista and 64-bit Vista but it will be an interesting experiment nevertheless.

I think a lot of these issues come down to the new IPv6 capabilities of Vista. Look into IPv6 and Vista and you might come up with something.
 
Ahh, well I have tried 3 different versions of the realtek drivers for the onboard controllers and I get no change with that. The fact that it transfers perfectly to my MacBook makes me think that its got somthing definately to do with Vista. The install's nearly complete now so I shall see how that affects things.

What are your thoughts on using IPv6 on the LAN for file transfers? Is that even possible, whilst still using IPv4 to go out through my gateway?
 
Right, x64 is installed and I just gave it another test, still maxing out at 6MB/s to any other Vista PC. I've already tried the SP1 release in various combinations before and it has pretty much no impact on the transfer speeds :(
 
GUIClaw said:
Ahh, well I have tried 3 different versions of the realtek drivers for the onboard controllers and I get no change with that. The fact that it transfers perfectly to my MacBook makes me think that its got somthing definately to do with Vista. The install's nearly complete now so I shall see how that affects things.
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Just guessing here, but maybe the problem is with your 24 point switch. When you go from 32-bit Vista to Mac, then IPv4 is probably negotiated, and the switch can cope fine, when you go Vista to Vista, IPv6 is negotiated, and the switch starts playing up. Just a total guess but maybe worth some Googling.
 
Hmm, i've tried disabling IPv6 on all machines and that didn't make a difference, and I've tried just connecting two machines together directly, totally bypassing the switch and get the same results - so I guess it can't be the switch :s
 
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