OK, so I set up a fileserver this weekend for my home on a box running SuSE 10 64-bit. Some minor hiccups getting everything working, but nothing terrible. Got SAMBA up and running and can connect to it from my WinXP box just fine. Mapped it to a drive letter, and everything’s smooth. Copied a lot of files over. Everything’s great…and then I try to access the files.
I can WRITE to the fileserver no problem. It’s READING from it that’s a pain. We’re talking an hour to grab a file of around 100 MB. It’s not unlike trying to access your files from a remote website.
Home network consists of the following:
WinXP box
Linksys wireless router + an additional switch in the closet.
SuSE box
Two laptops that I haven’t messed with on the network yet.
Wireless printer
WinXP box and Linux box are connected via a wired connection to the switch. Neither box has a wireless card. WinXP box is connecting via a Gigabit ethernet port built into motherboard; Linux box connecting via an old 10/100 Ethernet card (the on-board port gave it fits).
smb.conf consists of the following:
[global]
workgroup = WORKGROUP
netbios name = TOMSERVO
server string = Samba 3.0.20b-3.3-SUSE
map to guest = Bad User
ldap ssl = no
[shared]
comment = All shared directories on fileserver
path = /shared
read only = No
guest ok = Yes
(I know, no security, but I wanted to be sure the network was working well before tightening it down.)
Try running an FTP server on the Linux box, and see if you have the same problem with GETs. Maybe run an ethereal capture against both methods, or boot to a Knoppix CD and do a mount -t smbfs to see if the problem’s with XP.
Say that again in English, please. Setting up this server is my first run with Linux.
I have the FTP server running but apparently I’m too dumb to figure out how to configure it properly, since when I use my Windows FTP client to connect, it connects fine but doesn’t let me browse.
OTOH, I can connect just fine via remote admin, and it’s zippy quick. I can open large files via remote admin (e.g., large PDFs and the like) with nary a slowdown.
OK, figured out my error with the FTP server, and it’s running.
When I attempt to download a file from the Linux box using FTP, it is still slow – around 73 kb/s on a 378 MB file. That’s great for a web connection but not so swell for a LAN.
In particular, look at the numbers listed on the “TX packets” line for errors, dropped, overruns, & carrier. And also take a look at the next line, for collisions. If you see a significant number of errors here, your ethernet card is having difficulty transmitting on your network for some reason. If so, determining what that reason might be is the next step.
I can’t seem to get ethtool to work on eth1 (I had problems with the onboard network connection, so I put in an old 10/100 Fast Ethernet card). It reads:
ethtool eth1
Settings for eth1:
No data available
I can, however, get a readout using mii-diag. It indicates it’s set up for full duplex, which is correct and also what the Windows box is set at. It doesn’t indicate packet loss, however.
I’m pretty sure the ethernet connection is working – I can remote admin the box fine, and I can FTP and Samba-transfer files, albeit very slowly, and eth1 is the only port on the Linux box connected to the network. I’m not sure why ethtool refuses to see it.
I’ve also pulled both computers off the ordinary wires, hooked them up with a crossover cable (both have fixed IPs), and tried to FTP a file…same results, slow as molasses. So it’s definitely a NIC, I assume.
The NIC in the Windows box was set to “Force to 100” (or something like that). I set it to “Full Autonegotiation” and the problem cleared right up (it took the NIC a minute or two to reconnect after I changed the setting, but it’s been fine ever since).
I have no idea why this cleared the problem up, so if anyone has any ideas I’d love to hear them. Seems to me that the NIC was being forced into 100FD mode, which is basically the same speed it’s connecting at with autonegotiation, so why the vast speed difference?