Gigabit direct connection Intel 82566 DC 2 & Vista

Have you tried a known good cable?

Have you had any other network connection problems with this NIC?

How old is the NV+?

What lights are lit on the NIC ports when you first start and are the still lit when the NAS goes off line?

While the NIC on the MB can fail, the cable can cause problems, and the NIC on the NAS can also fail. While typically very reliable, none are perfect.

Dear PapaBear, thank you very much for your attention!
I answer to your questions below!

Have you tried a known good cable?

I'm using the cable that comes with the NAS, is it reliable?
If not, can you suggest me a known good cable?

Have you had any other network connection problems with this NIC?

I've never had problems with the nic of my PC, but I've never used it at 1 GB / s !

How old is the NV+?

The NV+ is pretty new, I've bought it in july, but not used it very much.

What lights are lit on the NIC ports when you first start and are the still lit when the NAS goes off line?

When the NIC is working there is a fixed yellow light and a blinking green light for network activity.
As soon as it blocks again I tell you what it does when it's blocked.

I tell you one more thing that I think is important: these are the network errors of my NIC:


Errori di rete [Ethernet 1]

Negoziazione automatica 7
Pacchetti danneggiati 0
Disconnetti 0
Portante False 7
Errori inattività 255
Errori di collegamento 0
Errori di ricezione 179
Errori di simbolo 15
Tag VLAN 0
Ritrasmissioni TCP 23
Ritrasmissioni TCP non recuperate 15

And I ask you some more questions: what should be the approximate speed of file transfer with a GB direct connection?
Can I use Jumbo frame with direct connection? Would a GB switch give more speed than a direct connection?

Thank you very much in advance!

federico.vitali wrote:
I'm using the cable that comes with the NAS, is it reliable? If not, can you suggest me a known good cable?

The cable Netgear ships should work fine. Though cables can get damaged, so if you have another ethernet cable it is worth a try.

federico.vitali wrote:
Errori di rete [Ethernet 1] Negoziazione automatica 7 Pacchetti danneggiati 0 Disconnetti 0 Portante False 7 Errori inattività 255 Errori di collegamento 0 Errori di ricezione 179 Errori di simbolo 15 Tag VLAN 0 Ritrasmissioni TCP 23 Ritrasmissioni TCP non recuperate 15

The two Ritrasmissioni errors at the bottom are not too unusual, but everything else should be 0. I suggest that you try clearing the errors and do another test, and report the new error counts. Some of these errors might be due to disconnecting/reconnecting the ethernet or restarting the PC.

federico.vitali wrote:
what should be the approximate speed of file transfer with a GB direct connection?

You should be seeing transfer speeds between 25-40 megabytes per second for large file transfers. (http://home.bott.ca/webserver/?p=363)

federico.vitali wrote:
Can I use Jumbo frame with direct connection?

Yes, but you should first get the basic connection running before you try that.

federico.vitali wrote:
Would a GB switch give more speed than a direct connection?

No. Nothing can be faster than the direct connection. However, a good switch will not slow it down either. Most people would use a switch, and generally would only use a direct connection for troubleshooting. The switch allows multiple devices (PCs, media players, the NV+, etc) to connect with each other. It also allows them all to connect to the internet.

Thank you again!

I've tried another cable I have (I don't know if it's certified for Gb connections).
After having reset the error statistics and after a quite long RSYNC session (12 GB transferred)
with no blocking of the device (hope will not block again!) these are the statistics:

Negoziazione automatica 0
Pacchetti danneggiati 0
Disconnetti 0
Portante False 0
Errori inattività 0
Errori di collegamento 0
Errori di ricezione 9
Errori di simbolo 9
Tag VLAN 0
Ritrasmissioni TCP 0
Ritrasmissioni TCP non recuperate 0

I'll buy a certified cable to see if the remaining errors will disappear.

To test transfer speed I've made a long file transfer over a windows network share and the average transfer
speed was between 12 and 13 MB/s, far below 25 / 40 MB/s declared.

Is the Intel 82566DC-2 such a bad device ? Can you tell me a good and tested chipset
to buy a new NIC for my PC ?

Thank you again, I've really appreciated your help, and (I hope, perhaps it's a bit
early to say definitively!) you solved me a really annoying problem !

Federico

The cables that were shipped with all of my NAS units (3) were Cat5. This was not a real problem with my NV+ (first unit) but they would not support full speed with the higher speeds of my NVX units. Unfortunately, the cables that come with the NAS units are usually folded and creased, and that is not good for the cable either.

The file transfer speeds I have generally seen on my NV+ with gigabit switch and gigabit NICs in my PCs, is around 25-30MB/s. When I first set it up, I was getting 10 to 12, but I was going through a 100Mb/s switch and the ports on my router are also 100Mb/s not 1000Mb/s (gigabit) so my transfer speed was 10-12MB/s.

Using a good Cat5 cable may affect speed, but I would not think it would cause the errors you are seeing. When I upgraded to an ReadyNAS NVX (discontinued in favor of the Ultra line) I chose to upgrade the switch and cables as well and went with Cat6 cables. For full Gigabit speed you will need Cat5e or Cat6 cables. It should be printed on the cover over the wires.

Are you sure the NIC in your PC is gigabit? I know some entry level PCs with AMD processors were still being sold with 100Mb/s NICs as late as two years ago. You may want to check the specs of your PC. Of course if you are getting above 12MB/s file transfer speed, you have a gigabit connection all the way since that is the theoretical max on 100Mb/s connection. But again, that would not cause your errors.

The name of my NIC is Intel® 82566DC Gigabit Ethernet PHY, this is one link
with technical specifications:

http://ark.intel.com/products/34460/Intel-82566DC-Gigabit-Ethernet-PHY

My PC didn't come with a NIC, so I bought one, a simple and cheap (about 10 euros)
PCI card. Perhaps the "PHY" at the end of the chipset name indicates that
is compatible with gigabit connetcion, but the processing speed remains
at 100Mb ?

I read this from the datasheet of my NIC:

10/100 downshift
—Automatic link speed adjustment with
poor quality cable

I think this can be the problem... I think I'm going
to buy a CAT6 cable and see if it can work better!

Thank you again !

The link you posted is to the chip specs by Intel. Do you have the make and model of the actual card itself?

I have to check the make and model... As soon as I get home I'll tell you!

In the meantime the NIC of the NAS blocked again: both yellow and green led on,
the green one blinking very fast. I've tried all the cables I own. I've seen that
they are all CAT5E, they should work fine at GB. The only way to avoid blocking
is to force 100Mb full duplex on both the PC and the NAS (~10MB/s file transfer :().

When it's blocked there's nothing to do.. With wireshark I can't se no reponse to ARP,
no response to ping, RSYNC, windows share . The only way is to reboot the NAS...

I think I'll try another NIC for my PC, hoping that the NIC is the problem.
Can you suggest me one well known, surely working GB NIC to try ?

If the new NIC will fail I think that the problem is the NIC of the NAS...

I don't know what market you are in. All of my NICs on the PCs are on the MB so that won't help.

If you leave it at 100Mb/s, do you get blockage or any errors?