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Ryand833

Hello All,

On one of my windows XP machines, I'm getting slow network connections to other systems in the network (not talking about internet connections, just local area connections).

When I say "slow connections" I mean the actual time of establishing the connection is the slow part. Once the connection is established, the throughput is what I would expect (>100Mb).

First off, I'll explain my network setup and what I've tried so far.

My network consists of three identical 8-port Gigabit switches (D-Link DGS-2208) that I'll refer to as Switch A, Switch B, and Switch C. The switches are all connected via Cat-5e cable, each no longer than ~50 feet. They are connected as follows: {Switch A}---{Switch B}---{Switch C}

Connected to Switch A is a Windows XP machine that functions as a media server, and it has a web (HTTP) interface running on port 8080. This machine has an IP address of 10.0.0.70 and is connected via an onboard Marvell 88E1111 network adapter. This machine is functioning OK.

Connected to switch C is a machine running Gentoo Linux. Mainly just used as a development machine and also as an SSH tunnel. This machine is connected by a gigabit network adapter (I don't remember what kind, it might be a realtek 8169, but not 100% positive). This has an IP address of 10.0.0.52.

Connected to Switch C is another Windows XP machine. This is my all-around desktop PC that I use for everything (work, gaming, video encoding, etc.). It is currently connected to Switch C via a generic Realtek RTL8169 gigabit PCI card, and has an IP address of 10.0.0.63. This is the computer I seem to be having a problem with.

When I try to make a network connection from this PC (10.0.0.63) to any other PC (anywhere), the connection time is slow (it varies between 0.5 seconds and sometimes up to 8 or 9 seconds). As an example, I was using the media server on switch A as a test, as it always seemed to be consistently slow. Since the connection is going across 3 switches, at first I figured that it had to be something wrong with one of the following:

1) Switch A
2) Switch B
3) Switch C
4) Any network cable connecting them.
5) Network adapter in my PC (10.0.0.63)

I got out my laptop, connected it to the same switch that my PC was hooked into, and did the same test to the media server on switch A. The connection times were instant (I kept trying for at least 5 minutes to make sure it wasn't just a fluke). Seeing that result, I was able to rule out all of the above options with the exception of number 5 (my network adapter) and the cable connecting the PC to the switch. (Just to be sure, I did swap the network cables and switch C, but saw the same results.

I replaced the network adapter in the PC with a different card, and still had the same results. I've rebooted the machine multiple times, same results. I run ESET NOD32 Antivirus and have the most up-to-date virus definitions at the time of this posting (9/15/2008 6:26:04 AM). I have a scheduled full virus scan every morning at 3:00:00 AM. The results of the last scan are: (Scanned: 601370, Infected: 0). I use Firefox 3.0 for all my browsing, and have run an Ad-Aware scan, and an online virus scan from Trend Micro's HouseCall. None of these detected any threats/virii.

As for programs that I've installed recently, the only ones have been Opera 9.5 (I use it to test some webpage templates), Providex (for work), and HijackThis. I've uninstalled all of them, no changes.

For the record, I've found that the slow connections aren't just to that media server, it's to anything and everything, even to the linux system on the same switch.

At this point, I've just about got myself convinced that it's some software program running on my PC, but I can't figure out what it is. What I'm going to do this evening when I get home (I'm currently at work, so I have limited access to the PC) is boot into Safe Mode with Networking, and see if the problem still exists there.

If anyone could point me in ANY direction, or if you have any more questions about my setup, I'm all ears.

Thank you for reading!

Ryand833

Just to post some more info, here's the program I wrote and used to test the connection speed. It's C++:

Code:

#include <winsock2.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>

#pragma comment(lib, "wsock32.lib")

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
  WSADATA sock_data;
  WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(1, 1), &sock_data);

  
  sockaddr_in s;
  s.sin_family = AF_INET;
  s.sin_port = htons(8080);
  s.sin_addr.S_un.S_addr = inet_addr("10.0.0.70");

  clock_t b_time, e_time;

  for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
  {
   SOCKET ms = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
    printf("-------- Attempt #%d\n", i);
    b_time = clock();
    printf("Connecting %d..\n", i);
    connect(ms, (sockaddr*)&s, sizeof(sockaddr));
    e_time = clock();
    printf("Connection %d established, time = %d\n", i, e_time - b_time);

    closesocket(ms);
  }
}

When I compile and run that on my problem PC, here are the results:

-------- Attempt #0
Connecting 0..
Connection 0 established, time = 359
-------- Attempt #1
Connecting 1..
Connection 1 established, time = 5625
-------- Attempt #2
Connecting 2..
Connection 2 established, time = 1562
-------- Attempt #3
Connecting 3..
Connection 3 established, time = 1454
-------- Attempt #4
Connecting 4..
Connection 4 established, time = 2578

Fastest connection time is 0.359 seconds on attempt 0, slowest is 5.625 seconds on attempt 1.

When I run the same test (with the changes made for the socket handling, of course) on my linux machine (which is connected to the same switch that the problem PC is), I get this:

-------- Attempt #0
Connecting 0..
Connection 0 established, time = 0
-------- Attempt #1
Connecting 1..
Connection 1 established, time = 0
-------- Attempt #2
Connecting 2..
Connection 2 established, time = 0
-------- Attempt #3
Connecting 3..
Connection 3 established, time = 0
-------- Attempt #4
Connecting 4..
Connection 4 established, time = 0

All instant connections.

Jelly Bean

Hello and welcome to PCHelpForum.

Thankyou so much for this information,we have a great Tech Team who should be along shortly to help on your issues.

Thankyou.

JB.

Ryand833

Well, this is completely embarrassing and I have to apologize for wasting anybody's time who read my post.

I can't BELIEVE that I wouldn't have checked this by shutting down all of my running programs, but I guess it slipped through my troubleshooting steps.

I had a BitTorrent client running with open connections that seems to have been causing this problem.

I still find it odd that even with the small amount of connections open, my internal communication suffers, but that definitely appears to be what's happening here.

Jelly Bean

That is fine honestly,at least you now know the issue and how to resolve it.

Thankyou for posting back it is much appreciated.

Good Luck.

JB.