Hi guys,
I am driving crazy.



I am running a small home network.
Configuration:
My DSL WLAN router Zyxel Prestige 660HW-67 acts also as a 4-Port switch with 100 Mbits/s.
Attached to this router are
1. Vista Business x86 SP1 with RTL8139/810x-Family onboard
2. Dell T105 server running Windows Home Server SP2 (Windows 2003)
3. Windows XP SP3 using WLAN

Problem:
The Vista PC will transfer data to WHS or XP with very low bandwidth (150 kbits/s)
The other way round will work with more than 10 Mbits/s from the WHS.

Transfering data betwee WHS and XP will work fine in bot directions.

So it looks like Vista is blocking outbound traffic.

The Vista PC also runs F-Secure Internet Security 2009.
But te firewall allows all traffic in my home domain (mask 255.25.255.0).

I uninstalled the network adapter, installed the newest driver from Realtek but no change in the low outbound traffic.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
Enrico

Excellent problem description!

Technically, it's not "blocking outbound traffic" since the transfer still works, albeit very slowly. Your matrix testing does seem to point the finger of blame at the Vista machine, and it also reveals an assymmetric behaviour - in is fast, out is slow.

I'd be fairly surprised if the cause didn't come down to a filter driver installed on the Vista machine.

If you boot Vista to [safe mode + net] are all transfers then as fast as expected - in both directions?

Thanks for that very quick response.

I just did the test.

Unfortunately: no, there is no change.

Quick responses 'R' us, when it's interesting anyway

Can you temporarily disable or even uninstall the F-Secure stuff - and any other security "inspection" software - from the Vista machine?

What's the problem history? Did this ever work properly in the past?

Hi H2SO4 (funny name),

yes I did the throughput test without any software firewalls on the Vista machine.
Same as above: no change.

The history is:
yes it worked fine.
But I can not figure out when the change happened.
I was weeks ago and in the meantime a lt of "security Update" have been installed.
On Vista and WHS


-Enrico

Thank you Enrico. The name is a reference to an Asterix character (I'm a big fan).

OK, that's the simple things out of the way and unfortunately they haven't helped. Some other thoughts:

- What are you using to initiate the (outbound) file copy on the Vista machine? Does it make a difference whether you do it from Windows Explorer (copy, paste) or the CMD prompt (map a drive to the remote machine, then x/copy to the remote box via the new drive letter)?

- What about outbound HTTP and FTP PUTs from the Vista box? Are they also much slower than expected? For example, if you were to set up a HTTP or FTP server anywhere else in the house, is uploading from the Vista machine also slow? (You could use an internet server for this test, but the limiting factor might be your link speed.) I'm trying to gauge whether the outbound speed problem is limited to one protocol (SMB), or whether it affects everything.

- Do you know how to generate a packet sniffer trace? It's not hard. Go to www.wireshark.org, download, install, start a capture on Vista's LAN interface, repro the problem by copying a file, stop the wireshark capture. If the points above don't lead anywhere, I'd be curious to see a packet trace.

Hi H2SO4 ( also known as HCL in the German issue ),

I will check out the first two suggestions you made.

Regarding to suggestion 3: I already ran wireshark and realized a lot of re-transmissions.

Butnow I will leave and get some sleep.

It is 4 a.m. in Germany.


Thanks
Enrico

PS: have you already got the latest issue of Asterix?
It was released on Thirsday.

Haha, I didn't know the spy was called "HCL" in the German translations. I wonder why they chose a different chemical compound? Does hydrochloric acid lend itself to a pun in German? I find the Asterix translations almost as fascinating as the books themselves. I didn't know Uderzo had released another one, but I'll have to check it out. Thanks

Re your little network problem, I'd be interested to see what happens when the file copy is initiated via a different process (CMD.exe instead of explorer.exe for example), and what happens with other protocols.

If the rate of retransmissions is so large that the effective throughput has been reduced to a mere 150kb/sec, it would seem likely that there's a hardware issue. Concurrent traces on both machines would reveal more.

Good morning H2SO4,

after doing some hardware check I think we may close this discussion until I checked everything.

My impression: there may be some failures either with the cable or with the router.

Why?

I connected both machines with a cross-link cable and got almost 90 - 99 % utilization.


After reconnection to the router with the "old" patch cables I fall back to theabove mentioned results.

But I promise : I will come back and present the results of my investigation.


BTW: H2SO4 is named H2O2 in Finland. I don't know why there are different names. I couldn't figure out any pun. Neither in German nor in Finnish.

Have fun.

Enrico

Good luck with it Enrico. Getting vastly different results with a crossover cable does suggest a hardware fault almost beyond doubt. Probably not the best news, but at least you don't have to troubleshoot some obscure driver issue now.