NO: Connected PC suddently "goes slow" for no apparent reason - solved

[Bastiaan Olij]

Hey Joe,

This (or something similar) is so far the only complaint I've had using
my new Windows 7 box. Admittedly I still use my Mac 90% of the time but
I've been happely working on Windows 7 when testing things for our
windows users which is a breath of fresh air compared to Vista.

That said, it does seem the network system in Windows 7 has a bit of an
issue when it comes to working at the right speed. It seems to get very
confused indeed when you mismatch network cards and switches. The new PC
came with a 1000Mbit network card but was connected to a 100Mbit switch
and it would not work well, it was asif every network request caused it
to re-evaluate the speed at which it needed to communicate with the network.

There are some stories out on the net about disabling flow control and
whatnot, and I heard from our IT guys that they have been having issues
with this aswell.

Anyway, something to look out for with Windows 7 and 2008 server which
seems to suffer from this as well.

Cheers,

Bas

Joe Maus wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Just posting this in case someone else runs across something like it and,
> like me, is unable to immediately put my finger on the cause.  Might be
> especially useful to native DF users...
>
> I have a customer where new PCs would sometimes start running "slow" on the
> network (so I was told).  Things were apparently just fine and as expected
> and then they just went "slow."  What the customer didn't mention was they
> went slow after they brought them out of "sleep."  Apparently, at least on
> some HP products, the NIC will drop to 10BaseT when it enters sleep mode to
> which the cheap little GB switch (unmanaged) in the closet was very happy to
> demote the port to.  On wake up, the switch didn't pick up on the request to
> change back to 1000BaseT (apparently) and thus it stayed at 10BaseT.
> Leading to a "slow" machine.  The customer had been rebooting the machines
> when this happened and then things were "fast" again.  
>
> Installed new, proper switch (HP ProCurve) and now the issue has gone
> away...  Imagine that...
>
> Just one of those issues that I've never seen before that was not in any way
> obvious what the issue was until I happened to be there when it happened and
> I noted the machine had just be brought out of sleep by the user.  Checked
> network connection and it showed 10BaseT.  "Repaired" the connection and it
> went back to 1000BaseT.  
>
> Funny things that switches can do to you : )  Oh, and the machines are
> running Windows 7.  
>
> Regards,
>
> Joe Maus
>
>
> _____________________________________________________________
> Manage your list subscriptions at http://lists.omnis-dev.com
>
>   


-- 
Kindest Regards,

Bastiaan Olij
e-mail/MSN: bastiaan at basenlily.nl
web: http://www.basenlily.nl
Skype: Mux213
http://www.linkedin.com/in/bastiaanolij