My iBook is being weird again. Well, some combination of the iBook and the rest of the network, anyway.
If I fetch a file from the Internet, I can get 300+ KB/s down to the Linux server. I can get 300+ KB/s down to the iBook. But if I transfer a file between the iBook and the Linux server, on the same switch, I get 4 KB/s.
It *used* to work just fine, so I’m not quite sure where the problem lies. While the transfer is in progress, the ‘frame error’ count on the network interface on the Linux side increases, which generally indicates a hardware problem, but swapping around cables and ports doesn’t change anything. A second Linux box can talk to the first one just fine at full speed but is also slow with the iBook, which would seem to put the blame on the iBook side of things, but the iBook is fine when talking to the Internet at large. It happens under both OS X and Gentoo on the iBook, so it’s not something in the OS. It affects Samba shares too, so it’s not FTP-specific either. Duplex settings are consistent.
I’m running out of ideas here… About the only other thing I’ve changed recently is the firmware on the router (a Linksys BEFW11S4), but this is supposed to be a stable version and the trouble didn’t start back then.
I have a few confusing problems myself that I’ve given up trying to figure out. Nothing I do seems to help, either. Bit Torrent would be the best example for me — if I do it on the ol’ Linux box, I can get speeds up to 350 KBps. Same transfer, when done on the PowerBook, never gets speeds above 10 KBps. That’s only one specific case…
Most of my internal-only traffic is steady at about 500 KBps (give or take) when the ‘Book is using wireless, and when I switch to ethernet, it goes up from there. However, anything outside the firewall tends to always be faster to and from the Linux box. My mother’s iMac, also having a wireless connection, exhibits the same strange behavior.
None of this (except the Bit Torrent example) is consistent.
Suffice it to say I blame Shaw. ;-) They’re at fault for so many network issues out here in the middle of nowhere anyhow…
OHYA! I forgot…
I had the same internal bandwidth problem quite a while ago. I dunno if this applies to you, but the source of the problem for me was two things; a bad NIC (it had a faulty EEPROM on it; autonegotiation didn’t work, and it would always go into full duplex even when half was required), and a misconfigured hub (you remember the monster; the 24-port 3Com LinkBuilder FMS II… I never did get management working properly in it).
After I sorted those out, everything was peachy. I also find that disconnecting the WAN from these self-contained, sub-$1000 home router-firewalls causes internal slowdowns, but I’m noticing that’s a limitation somehow. My old Linux firewall never exhibited such behavior, and neither do the high-end routers, such as the drool-worthy equipment put out by these guys.
I initially suspected the router, since numerous people have reported problems with it, but I just did a test with the iBook directly connected to the Linux server via crossover cable, and it was still slow.
It gets weirder, too. After a bit more testing, going Linux->Linux is fine, XP->Linux is fine, iBook->XP is fine, but iBook->Linux is slow. So now I don’t know if it’s something on the iBook, or if the NIC on the Linux box is failing but in a way that doesn’t affect other Linux or XP systems (yet) but trips up OS X, or what…
Okay, it must be the NIC on the Linux box. I switched over to an ancient SMC card (the one that originally came with my cable modem, actually) and transfers to and from the iBook jumped up to 800 KB/s.
It’s only a 10 Mbps card, but it’ll do till I can replace the other.
So, it was the card, then? Weird, tho, if only certain transfers were affected by it.
I swear, the longer I work with computers, the less I know…