Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network

From	David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com>
Newsgroups	linux.debian.user
Subject	Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network
Date	2017-05-21 06:10 +0200
Message-ID	<tJqlP-2wx-3@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
References	<tJ5r4-5g9-1@gated-at.bofh.it>
Organization	linux.* mail to news gateway

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On 05/19/2017 10:41 PM, Mark Fletcher wrote:
> Hello!

Hi!  :-)

> I have some doubts about the throughput of my home network and I'm
> hoping for some advice on tools that might help me diagnose it.
>
> My home network consists of 2 Debian machines, one Jessie and one
> Stretch, an LFS mini-ITX machine acting as my firewall, another LFS
> laptop that is connected only occasionally, a Windows 8.1 laptop, 3
> iPhones of varying ages, 2 iPads, 1 Android tablet device, a couple of
> other proprietary tablets and a Buffalo Linkstation that provides most
> of the connectivity.
>
> The internet access is via Cable. I run an ethernet cable from the cable
> modem to the firewall machine, then from the firewall machine to the
> Linkstation's WAN port. The firewall machine's WiFi interface is
> disabled (I didn't include its driver when I built the kernel for that
> machine). The Jessie box, a phone-to-ethernet device and a NAS are
> plugged into the Linkstation wired LAN ports. Everything else connects
> to the Linkstation WiFi.

Which model Buffalo LinkStation do you have?  I can't find one with more 
than one LAN port:

http://www.buffalo-technology.com/en/products/storage-devices/consumer-nas/linkstationtm/

The terms 'wifi' and 'wan' do not appear on the Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_network-attached_storage_series

> The LinkStation offers 2.4GHz and 5GHz
> connections, the 2.4GHz is b/g and the 5GHz is ac I believe. Those
> devices that can use the 5GHz connection, are, the rest are using the
> 2.4GHz.
>
> I have my doubts about cross-LAN throughput. For example, as I write I
> am using WinSCP on the Windows 8.1 laptop to copy a movie file from my
> Jessie box to the laptop. (The movie concerned is not copyright before
> anyone asks). The Jessie box is connected to the LinkStation by wired
> ethernet, and the Windows 8.1 laptop by WiFi. I am getting a transfer
> rate consistently across the life of the connection of 880KB/s. I'd
> expect it to be a lot faster than that. I checked the WinSCP software is
> capable of limiting the connection speed, but is set not to.
>
> The laptop is situated here on my desktop, less than 2 feet from the
> LinkStation (albet with a computer monitor between them).

Radio devices placed too close can create problems.  I put my WiFi 
access points/ routers high on a wall near the center of my house.  All 
my WiFi devices are 3+ meters away.

> Neither laptop
> nor Jessie box were doing anything else at the time -- the load on the
> Jessie box was essentially zero before the transfer started, rose to 1
> while the transfer was going on, then fell back to basically zero when
> it finished (monitored using xload).
>
> I'd like to be able to diagnose what's going on here, why the transfer
> was so slow. Any recommendations for tools I should research? I am very
> willing to read man pages etc, but am a bit lost where to start. Google
> gave me a lot of Windows-based stuff which I could look into but I would
> prefer to use Linux-based tools if possible.
>
> Pointers to tools I should research -- and even better, links to good
> tutorials on those tools if you know any -- would be much appreciated.

I'd start with ifconfig (Debian), ipconfig (Windows), whatever network 
interface management graphical user intefaces (GUI) they provide, and 
whatever web user interface (WUI) your wired/WiFi router provides.  Try 
to find out the speed, duplex, etc., of the links between the router and 
Jesse and the router and Windows.  Look for indicators of link layer 
errors.  On Jesse, look at the files in /var/log for clues.  On Windows, 
figure out where error messages go and take a look (Event Viewer?).

A bad Ethernet cable could degrade the connection to 10 Mbps and/or 
half-duplex.

As you're looking at the GUI/WUI's, copy all of the settings into plain 
text files, one per interface (yes, this will take a fair amount of typing).

Your router WUI should have a mechanism for backing up and restoring all 
of the settings to/from a file.  Back up the settings.

Pick a benchmark and run it as a baseline.  Copying a big file via 
WinSCP from Jesse to Windows and using a stopwatch is a valid benchmark. 
  Type this information into the text file (cut and paste, if possible). 
  Also consider the reverse direction.  Also consider copying Jesse to 
LinkStation and reverse, and Windows to LinkStation and reverse.

Then, start making changes.  Make one change, document it, power cycle 
the entire network, run all benchmarks, and document them.

Look for settings that can be automatic or manual, but are set to 
manual.  Change them to automatic.

When my laptop is at my SOHO work area, I use it's LAN connection -- 
with the equipment I have, wired is always faster that WiFi.

David

Thread

[A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2017-05-20 07:50 +0200
  Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Nemeth Gyorgy <friczy@freemail.hu> - 2017-05-20 09:30 +0200
    Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2017-05-26 10:10 +0200
  Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network rhkramer@gmail.com - 2017-05-20 12:20 +0200
    Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2017-05-26 10:20 +0200
  Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2017-05-20 15:40 +0200
    Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Catherine Gramze <rhiamom@mac.com> - 2017-05-20 17:10 +0200
      Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2017-05-26 10:20 +0200
    Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network rhkramer@gmail.com - 2017-05-21 19:00 +0200
      Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2017-05-21 21:20 +0200
      Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2017-05-22 14:50 +0200
        Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2017-05-22 17:00 +0200
          Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Kent West <westk@acu.edu> - 2017-05-22 17:20 +0200
        Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network rhkramer@gmail.com - 2017-05-23 17:30 +0200
          Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2017-05-24 00:50 +0200
            Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-05-24 20:50 +0200
    Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2017-05-26 10:20 +0200
      Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2017-05-26 11:00 +0200
      Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2017-05-27 19:10 +0200
        Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2017-06-01 13:00 +0200
          Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2017-06-01 13:30 +0200
            Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network メット <mett@pmars.jp> - 2017-06-01 15:10 +0200
            Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2017-06-02 12:00 +0200
        Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2017-06-01 13:10 +0200
  Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> - 2017-05-21 05:50 +0200
  Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2017-05-21 06:10 +0200
  Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2017-05-21 16:40 +0200
    Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2017-05-24 01:40 +0200
    Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2017-05-26 10:40 +0200
      Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2017-05-26 12:30 +0200
        Re: [A bit OT] Diagnosing home network Mark Fletcher <mark27q1@gmail.com> - 2017-05-27 07:20 +0200

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