Network Connection Issues

[jorec]

hey fellas,

Lately I am experiencing some drops in network connection and I cannot seem to figure out why is this happening. I changed the switch and the cables but it still happens. Weird enough the server is still up and running, I can still log on and do stuff but I lose connection to my shares and also the web interface stops running (obviously). At some point I thought might be some buffer overflow issues, because I was moving some files from and on various windows machines, but I cannot be sure. i am uploading my diagnostics data maybe someone can figure it out and give me a hand with this because it is out of my level of expertise.

thanks in advance

box-diagnostics-20181019-1348.zip

[Hoopster]

1 hour ago, jorec said:

 

Lately I am experiencing some drops in network connection and I cannot seem to figure out why is this happening

The problem is the Realtek NIC on your motherboard.  The r8169 Realtek NIC driver included in the Linux kernel in all 6.6.x versions of unRAID has a bug which is causing network dropouts.

 

Your syslog has a couple of linkdown and timeout issues associated with the Realtek NIC

 

Oct 15 15:43:18 box kernel: r8169 0000:03:00.0 eth0: link down

 

Limetech has indicated that an r8169 driver with some patches is slated to be included in the Linux kernel in the yet-to-be-released unRAID 6.6.3

 

Realtek NICs have been problematic with unRAID in the past as Linux gets very little attention from Realtek due to their emphasis on Windows.  Most on these forums will recommend that, if you have a choice, always go with a board with an Intel NIC or use an Intel NIC PCIe card to avoid the issues that crop up from time to time with Realtek and unRAID.

[Hoopster]

Until kernel patches are implemented in 6.6.x, the only "permanent" solution for these NIC issues is to roll back to unRAID 6.5.3 in which the r8169 driver works.

[jorec]

Thanks for your detailed response.  I think my issues started after upgrading to 6.6 I think or 6.5. or might be just pure chance and has nothing to do with the upgrade. Anyway, the mobo is quite old but served me well until now. I guess my only options would be: 1) wait for update, 2) buy a nic 3) downgrade

Thank you very much for the info

[jorec]

lol you said exactly what I was thinking of. is there an option to find out if and when the realtek updates will make it into the new upgrade?

[Hoopster]

4 minutes ago, jorec said:

lis there an option to find out if and when the realtek updates will make it into the new upgrade? 

Below is the bug report thread on the issue:

 

 

The release notes of 6.6.3 will indicate if any r8169 fixes have been included, but, Limetech states in the linked thread that that is the plan.

 

Your options are just as you stated them, with options 2 and 3 being the only way to address the problem right now.  No one running unRAID 6.5.x reported this issue.  All reports began with upgrades to 6.6.x

[jorec]

ok thank you very much!