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I've got a nagging problem that I just cannot seem to solve. I have
three machines all attached to a Dell 2216 switch. I get fantastic
speeds over FTP between the XP and Debian machine - 95 Mb/s up and 99
Mb/s down. This leads me to believe all the cables, nics and hardware
are good.

The problem is between the XP and OBSD 3.5 machine. If I try to transfer
data using the SCP protocol I cannot get better than 7 Mb/s. I do not
want to run FTPD on the OBSD machine since it acts as my DSL firewall.
The OBSD machine is a P3, 500Mhz Celeron, 256MB RAM, 15GB ATA/66 drive
and a dual port Intel server nic running OBSD 3.5 and OpenSSH 3.9. I've
tried setting the nic to auto-select, and 100 Full-duplex. Either way it
makes no difference.

I suspect it is something in software configuration, but I've run out of
ideas on what to check. Anyone here have some suggestions?

Steve

On 2004-09-27, No More Spam <uce@ftc.gov> wrote:
> I've got a nagging problem that I just cannot seem to solve. I have
> three machines all attached to a Dell 2216 switch. I get fantastic
> speeds over FTP between the XP and Debian machine - 95 Mb/s up and 99
> Mb/s down. This leads me to believe all the cables, nics and hardware
> are good.

Better check them anyway. Could very well be a split pair between your
OBSD box and the switch. Are these stock or homemade cables?


> The problem is between the XP and OBSD 3.5 machine. If I try to transfer
> data using the SCP protocol I cannot get better than 7 Mb/s. I do not
> want to run FTPD on the OBSD machine since it acts as my DSL firewall.

Note that scp adds a crypto layer. This is computationally intensive.
So you're comparing apples with oranges here. Better temporarily enable
ftp (or use ftp from the obsd box to the debian box) for testing.


> The OBSD machine is a P3, 500Mhz Celeron, 256MB RAM, 15GB ATA/66 drive
> and a dual port Intel server nic running OBSD 3.5 and OpenSSH 3.9. I've
> tried setting the nic to auto-select, and 100 Full-duplex. Either way it
> makes no difference.

A 500MHz celeron is probably not enough to sustain 100Mb/sec of crypto.
If you run top(1) I'd expect you see the machine running at high cpu usage.
What of the other boxes' hardware? Might be the case for the XP box, too.


--
j p d (at) d s b (dot) t u d e l f t (dot) n l .

On Sun, 26 Sep 2004 23:05:09 -0700, No More Spam <uce@ftc.gov> wrote:


>I suspect it is something in software configuration, but I've run out of
>ideas on what to check. Anyone here have some suggestions?

Yes, use something other than putty based ssh,scp for file transfer. It's
performance is rather lacking.
--
Felicitations, malefactors! I am endeavoring to misappropriate
the formulary for the preparation of affordable comestibles.
Who will join me?!

> I've got a nagging problem that I just cannot seem to solve. I have
> three machines all attached to a Dell 2216 switch. I get fantastic
> speeds over FTP between the XP and Debian machine - 95 Mb/s up and 99
> Mb/s down. This leads me to believe all the cables, nics and hardware
> are good.
>
> The problem is between the XP and OBSD 3.5 machine. If I try to transfer
> data using the SCP protocol I cannot get better than 7 Mb/s.

Try adding a -v in your scp command and see what it has to deal with
I whould suggest a (secure) port foward so you can still use the old but
reckless ftp but over secure tunnel.


$ su -
# ssh -l login -L 21:remotehost.TLD:21 ftp.remotehost.TLD

> I do not
> want to run FTPD on the OBSD machine since it acts as my DSL firewall.

So ? You can install any descent ftpd from the ports and let the daemon
listen only at the internal Lan-Nic ?

> The OBSD machine is a P3, 500Mhz Celeron, 256MB RAM, 15GB ATA/66 drive
> and a dual port Intel server nic running OBSD 3.5 and OpenSSH 3.9. I've
> tried setting the nic to auto-select, and 100 Full-duplex. Either way it
> makes no difference.

Can you manage your switch ?
If so, disable the auto-select on the nics, and force the switch-ports on
100mbit Full Duplex. Autosense = bad karma

> I suspect it is something in software configuration, but I've run out of
> ideas on what to check. Anyone here have some suggestions?

Upgrade the firm on your nics.

/me

No More Spam wrote:
> I've got a nagging problem that I just cannot seem to solve. I have
> three machines all attached to a Dell 2216 switch. I get fantastic
> speeds over FTP between the XP and Debian machine - 95 Mb/s up and 99
> Mb/s down. This leads me to believe all the cables, nics and hardware
> are good.
>
> The problem is between the XP and OBSD 3.5 machine. If I try to transfer
> data using the SCP protocol I cannot get better than 7 Mb/s. I do not
> want to run FTPD on the OBSD machine since it acts as my DSL firewall.
> The OBSD machine is a P3, 500Mhz Celeron, 256MB RAM, 15GB ATA/66 drive
> and a dual port Intel server nic running OBSD 3.5 and OpenSSH 3.9. I've
> tried setting the nic to auto-select, and 100 Full-duplex. Either way it
> makes no difference.
>
> I suspect it is something in software configuration, but I've run out of
> ideas on what to check. Anyone here have some suggestions?
>
> Steve

Are you using 'winscp' ?

I had exactly the same issues using winscp.

HTH.

In article <1096272981.548212@entelocal.ipberlin.com>,
read_the_sig@do.not.spam.it says...
> On 2004-09-27, No More Spam <uce@ftc.gov> wrote:
> > I've got a nagging problem that I just cannot seem to solve. I have
> > three machines all attached to a Dell 2216 switch. I get fantastic
> > speeds over FTP between the XP and Debian machine - 95 Mb/s up and 99
> > Mb/s down. This leads me to believe all the cables, nics and hardware
> > are good.
>
> Better check them anyway. Could very well be a split pair between your
> OBSD box and the switch. Are these stock or homemade cables?

These are Belkin, factory cables. I've tried 4 different ones and I get
the same result.

>
>
> > The problem is between the XP and OBSD 3.5 machine. If I try to transfer
> > data using the SCP protocol I cannot get better than 7 Mb/s. I do not
> > want to run FTPD on the OBSD machine since it acts as my DSL firewall.
>
> Note that scp adds a crypto layer. This is computationally intensive.
> So you're comparing apples with oranges here. Better temporarily enable
> ftp (or use ftp from the obsd box to the debian box) for testing.

I dropped vsftpd onto the box and I can get ~60Mb/s which would be the
maximum for the IDE subsystem - ATA/66.

>
>
> > The OBSD machine is a P3, 500Mhz Celeron, 256MB RAM, 15GB ATA/66 drive
> > and a dual port Intel server nic running OBSD 3.5 and OpenSSH 3.9. I've
> > tried setting the nic to auto-select, and 100 Full-duplex. Either way it
> > makes no difference.
>
> A 500MHz celeron is probably not enough to sustain 100Mb/sec of crypto.
> If you run top(1) I'd expect you see the machine running at high cpu usage.
> What of the other boxes' hardware? Might be the case for the XP box, too.
>

I tested it and the user part of CPU usage shoots up to ~80%.

In article <irgfl0hnplg68dgacvf7oj8relmmippuj1@4ax.com>, me@privacy.net
says...
> On Sun, 26 Sep 2004 23:05:09 -0700, No More Spam <uce@ftc.gov> wrote:
>
>
> >I suspect it is something in software configuration, but I've run out of
> >ideas on what to check. Anyone here have some suggestions?
>
> Yes, use something other than putty based ssh,scp for file transfer. It's
> performance is rather lacking.
>

I switched to the ssh/scp client from SSH.com. It's better. I can get
3KB/s as opposed to Putty's 1KB/s.

In article <4157f1f6$0$129$e4fe514c@dreader6.news.xs4all.nl >,
viper@dmrt.net says...
>
> > I've got a nagging problem that I just cannot seem to solve. I have
> > three machines all attached to a Dell 2216 switch. I get fantastic
> > speeds over FTP between the XP and Debian machine - 95 Mb/s up and 99
> > Mb/s down. This leads me to believe all the cables, nics and hardware
> > are good.
> >
> > The problem is between the XP and OBSD 3.5 machine. If I try to transfer
> > data using the SCP protocol I cannot get better than 7 Mb/s.
>
> Try adding a -v in your scp command and see what it has to deal with
> I whould suggest a (secure) port foward so you can still use the old but
> reckless ftp but over secure tunnel.

I tried the -v and di dnot find anything noticeable.

>
>
> $ su -
> # ssh -l login -L 21:remotehost.TLD:21 ftp.remotehost.TLD
>
> > I do not
> > want to run FTPD on the OBSD machine since it acts as my DSL firewall.
>
> So ? You can install any descent ftpd from the ports and let the daemon
> listen only at the internal Lan-Nic ?

For now I've decied that's the best idea. I've installed vsftpd and
configured it to listen only to the nic on the internal lan.

>
> > The OBSD machine is a P3, 500Mhz Celeron, 256MB RAM, 15GB ATA/66 drive
> > and a dual port Intel server nic running OBSD 3.5 and OpenSSH 3.9. I've
> > tried setting the nic to auto-select, and 100 Full-duplex. Either way it
> > makes no difference.
>
> Can you manage your switch ?
> If so, disable the auto-select on the nics, and force the switch-ports on
> 100mbit Full Duplex. Autosense = bad karma

No, its unmanaged - Dell PowerConnect 2216. I was offered a Cisco 1538M
which is managed, but discontinued. Not sure if I should take it.

>
> > I suspect it is something in software configuration, but I've run out of
> > ideas on what to check. Anyone here have some suggestions?
>
> Upgrade the firm on your nics.

All the nics have the lates Intel firmware.

In article <4f16d.1397$aA.51118@news.optus.net.au>, bards1888
@yahoo.com.au.au says...
> No More Spam wrote:
> > I've got a nagging problem that I just cannot seem to solve. I have
> > three machines all attached to a Dell 2216 switch. I get fantastic
> > speeds over FTP between the XP and Debian machine - 95 Mb/s up and 99
> > Mb/s down. This leads me to believe all the cables, nics and hardware
> > are good.
> >
> > The problem is between the XP and OBSD 3.5 machine. If I try to transfer
> > data using the SCP protocol I cannot get better than 7 Mb/s. I do not
> > want to run FTPD on the OBSD machine since it acts as my DSL firewall.
> > The OBSD machine is a P3, 500Mhz Celeron, 256MB RAM, 15GB ATA/66 drive
> > and a dual port Intel server nic running OBSD 3.5 and OpenSSH 3.9. I've
> > tried setting the nic to auto-select, and 100 Full-duplex. Either way it
> > makes no difference.
> >
> > I suspect it is something in software configuration, but I've run out of
> > ideas on what to check. Anyone here have some suggestions?
> >
> > Steve
>
> Are you using 'winscp' ?
>
> I had exactly the same issues using winscp.
>
> HTH.
>

I was, along with FileZilla and Putty's scp client. I took Greg's advice
and got a better client. Seems to have helped some.