Network Latency

Question

LangMurf Author

Level 1

41 points

Network Latency

At my father-in-laws. Just updated his ISP (Road Runner/Time Warner) plan to 20Mbs down / 2 Mbs up.

MBP 2010, wireless, is getting the right speeds with much lower latency.

The PPC is getting >10Mbs down but is close to 2Mbs up. (Just ran the RR speed test on the PPC and got <4Mbs down...)

Latency on the PPC is in the three digits... just got 226ms.

PPC is 800Mhz, PowerMac3,5 with 1GB RAM, 74GB hd with 60GB's free.

Just tried the RR speed test on the PPC again and got 11down/2up with 142ms latency.

I know the throughput is going to vary, but the latency seems way too high.

Here are the network settings in System Preferences:

TCP/IP:

IPv4 is using DHCP and getting address from router

IPv6 is turned off

DNS Servers:

209.18.47.61 (assume these are RR DNS servers)

209.18.47.62

Search Domains: ec.rr.com

WINS:

Just has Netbios name

Appletalk:

Inactive

802.1X:

totally blank

Proxies:

Nothing chosen

Bypass proxy settings for these hosts and domains: *.local, 169.254/16

Use Passive FTP Mode (PASV) is checked

Ethernet:

Configure: Automatically

Speed: 100baseTX

Duplex: full-duplex, flow-control

MTU: Standard (1500)

TIA for any and all suggestions!

Lang

Posted on Jul 8, 2014 12:30 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

238,973 points

Jul 8, 2014 2:34 PM in response to LangMurf

The QS 2002/800 is 802.11b only...

The theoretical peak bandwidth of an 802.11b wireless connection is 11 Mbps.

The typical peak throughput (sustained data rate) of an 802.11b wireless connection under ideal conditions for end user data is roughly 4-5 Mbps. This level of performance assumes a wireless client in very close proximity (within a few meters) of the base station or other communication endpoint. Due to the distance-sensitive nature of Wi-Fi signaling, 802.11b throughput numbers will decrease the client moves further away from the base station.

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wirelessfaqs/f/maxspeed80211b.htm

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Answer 2

LangMurf Author

Level 1

41 points

Jul 8, 2014 4:19 PM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua:

The Power Mac in question is not using wireless... it's wired directly into the router. The wireless computers here are getting the advertised speeds. There's something throwing the latency off on this Power Mac; I think the latency is the root cause for the slow speed, but I am no networking SME, so I've no clue where to start to try and isolate the cause of the latency. I turned off IPv6 and disabled Airport but those are the only two things I've done thus far.

Thanks for the response; much appreciated!

Lang

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

238,973 points

Jul 8, 2014 5:01 PM in response to BDAqua

Can't see your last post until I post something, a not infrequent problem here.

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Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

238,973 points

Jul 8, 2014 5:06 PM in response to LangMurf

Ah, In System Preferences>Network>Ethernet>Ethernet tab, try experimenting eith Manual & Full Duplex, Half Duplex, 10BT, etc.

Also...

Open Network Utility in Applications>Utilities>Info tab, select Ethernet & what is the Link Speed & are there any Errors/Collisions on the right?

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Answer 5

a brody

Level 10

82,841 points

Jul 9, 2014 7:47 AM in response to LangMurf

The only reason to use Netbios is if you are networking with Windows machines. Alternatively you can use FTP temporarily so you don't have the overhead of Netbios.

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Answer 6

LangMurf Author

Level 1

41 points

Jul 9, 2014 11:48 AM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua,

Tried all the different ethernet settings. No setting affected the triple digit latency.

There are no send or recv errors but there are collisions. Sent packets: 159055, Recv packets: 293565, collisions: 2951

Thanks again for your suggestions; much appreciated!

Lang

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Answer 7

LangMurf Author

Level 1

41 points

Jul 9, 2014 11:50 AM in response to a brody

a brody:

The netbios name looks like it's self derived by the OS. It's greyed out; I can't change it. There are no workgroups or WINS servers listed.

Thanks,

Lang

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Answer 8

BDAqua

Level 10

238,973 points

Jul 9, 2014 12:23 PM in response to LangMurf

Not too bad on the collisions actually, generally caused by more than one device using the Modem/Router, more info in last post here...

http://www.mactalk.com.au/11/27451-network-utility-question.html

In Network Utility?Ping tab, what do you get for google.com ?

Ping has started ...

PING google.com (173.194.33.0): 56 data bytes

64 bytes from 173.194.33.0: icmp_seq=0 ttl=56 time=40.124 ms

64 bytes from 173.194.33.0: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=54.994 ms

64 bytes from 173.194.33.0: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=95.056 ms

64 bytes from 173.194.33.0: icmp_seq=3 ttl=56 time=79.983 ms

64 bytes from 173.194.33.0: icmp_seq=4 ttl=56 time=69.590 ms

64 bytes from 173.194.33.0: icmp_seq=5 ttl=56 time=54.573 ms

64 bytes from 173.194.33.0: icmp_seq=6 ttl=56 time=79.509 ms

64 bytes from 173.194.33.0: icmp_seq=7 ttl=56 time=74.804 ms

64 bytes from 173.194.33.0: icmp_seq=8 ttl=56 time=59.272 ms

64 bytes from 173.194.33.0: icmp_seq=9 ttl=56 time=59.082 ms

--- google.com ping statistics ---

10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 40.124/66.699/95.056/15.239 ms