January 27, 200818 yr Alright, I've copied a bunch of DVD files up to my unRAID, and although I don't know what tool is best to measure throughput, I did make some rough estimates based on size and time to copy. Through a 100MB ethernet link (NetGear switch), the copy was about 8-10MB/s. First off, does that sound about right? Frankly, on an empty network, I was hoping for a little better, but if that is normal, I can live with it. But my primary purpose for building this server was to stream DVDs to my HTPC, and I am having a serious problem with that. I have tried several different movies, all SD DVD, uncompressed in VIDEO_TS folders, and I get more than occasional stuttering--it's simply unwatchable. My unRAID server is brand new (Intel Celeron 430 1.8GHz, ECS 945GCT-M/1333, 2GB RAM, Seagate Barracuda 500GB, unRAID 4.2.1) and my HTPC is also new, and nothing else was happening on my network. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
January 27, 200818 yr Your measurement gives you 80-100% network utilization (you meant 100Mb, not 100MB, since I am pretty sure your mobo doesn't have GigE) so assuming your throughput was actual in MBytes, then yes, that sounds about right. Most issues with Unraid network performance are related to the particular chip you are using. In this case, you have the Realtek RTL8101E 10/100 (thus my statement about no GigE). Hopefully folks can step in and give a sense of whether or not that should be an issue. Also, please post your syslog - diagnostics without data is difficult. Bill
January 27, 200818 yr Author Bill, you are correct. Of course I meant 100Mb ethernet. I can't believe I goofed that--I usually point out that mistake when *others* make it... Yes, I think that is what I was looking for--someone to tell me if this chipset was the problem. Realtek seems a pretty common mobo chipset choice, so I thought I was safe, but maybe not. I would happily post a syslog, but I don't know how to get one...
January 28, 200818 yr Go to the start menu, goto run, type telnet tower, at login type root, then type one of the commands below. The first will display the syslog, and the second will print errors as they occur. To stop, Hit CTRL C. cat /var/log/syslog cat -f /var/log/syslog Seems like alot of people have problems with the NIC. I disabled my onboard and added an old pci linksys 10/100 to test and my problems went away, so I bought a GigE card and it's all good. Gary T
January 28, 200818 yr Author Gary, thanks. I got the syslog.txt I was hoping to avoid putting in an add-in NIC to maximize power savings, but I suppose I'll do what I gotta do...
January 28, 200818 yr Author Yep, it's the onboard NIC. I had an old Intel 10/100 NIC lying in the bottom of a bin, popped it in there and voila! no more stuttering. I'm surprised the NIC still worked. Best of all, it doesn't seem to have affected my idle power consumption by more than a watt (I disabled the onboard stuff too). I'm still at 44W, and it just peeks at 45W once in a while now. Can't say I'm happy to have to do it, but as long as it works, I'll drive on. Thanks you guys for all the help.
January 28, 200818 yr From what I've read on this forum, at least one of the previous releases of unRaid did not have the same issue with the Realtek lan controllers. Since this issue has affected a number of people, odds are high Tom will include an updated driver in a subsequent release (once a working driver is available) or revert back to the old one. Joe L.
January 28, 200818 yr Author I have one of those kill-a-watt things. It's been pretty useful. Haven't saved any rainforests yet, but now that I can measure power consumption, it does help raise my awareness level at least. Joe, that's good to hear. I don't know why I was so bothered by using an add-in NIC--it's inevitable if I wanna go GigE, which I will eventually.
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