Subject: getting better throughput from mc0 ethernet interface
To: None <port-macppc@netbsd.org>
From: Russell McManus <russell_mcmanus@yahoo.com>
List: port-macppc
Date: 09/01/2002 14:54:41 
I've got 1.5.2 installed on a powermac 7300.  Most things are working
beautifully, but I seem to be getting very slow downloads.  I suspect
that the problem is that the mc0 interface is simplex.

/export/russe 2$ ifconfig  mc0
ifconfig  mc0
mc0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,NOTRAILERS,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
        address: 00:05:02:ce:73:66
        media: Ethernet manual
        inet 192.168.1.3 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 fe80::205:2ff:fece:7366%mc0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1

The machine is behind a Linksys firewall/router.  I suspect that the
router is not smart enough to do the right thing when a simplex client
is attached.  Does anyone on the list have any ideas on how to debug
the problem?

Here is some wget output:

/export/russe 19$ wget ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-current/tar_files/pkgsrc.tar.gz
--14:37:03--  ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-current/tar_files/pkgsrc.tar.gz
           => `pkgsrc.tar.gz'
Connecting to ftp.netbsd.org:21... connected!
Logging in as anonymous ... Logged in!
==> SYST ... done.    ==> PWD ... done.
==> TYPE I ... done.  ==> CWD /pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-current/tar_files ... done.
==> EPRT ...
Invalid EPRT.
==> PORT ... done.    ==> RETR pkgsrc.tar.gz ... done.
Length: 12,369,276 (unauthoritative)

    0K .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  0% @   1.17 KB/s
   50K .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  0% @   1.27 KB/s
  100K .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  1% @   1.33 KB/s
  150K .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  1% @   1.44 KB/s
  200K .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  2% @   1.08 KB/s

As you can see, I'm only getting 1.0-1.5 KB/s.  Behind the same
router, I have a i386 NetBSD 1.5.2 box that retrieved the same file at
131 KB/s, or 100 times faster.  So the cable modem and the router seem
to work OK, at least with duplex peers.

Any ideas?  Maybe my router isn't smart enough to work nicely with a host
that can only do simplex.

-russ