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Intermittent transfers through Virgin Superhub [SOLVED]

tony359
Apprentice

Intermittent transfers through Virgin Superhub [SOLVED]

Hi all,

I have a little problem with my Virgin SuperHub (should be I, not II).

What happens is I lose communication with the ReadyNAS every few minutes. I am playing a movie right now, it stops every now and then. I have a PING running on another terminal window. When the movie stops, the ping stops. While the ping to the RN stops, I can still ping the router and google.com.

As far as I can see connecting the RN to the PC directly is fine.

I have changed the MTU to 1492 - but haven't rebooted yet to be honest - no luck.

I have tried connecting my laptop to ETH2: the laptop can ping the RN when the main computer can't, that should confirm the RN is not freezing.
As a quick test, I am playing the same movie on both computers, synchronized. At some point the computer connected through the Virgin SuperHub lost communication for 2 seconds, the other kept playing.

Are there reports of issues with the SuperHub? Oh, BTW, I am not connected by wireless to the SuperHub. I'm Hardwired.

The ETH0 of the RN shows 3 RX "dropped".

Thank you!

Update: When the issue happens I can ping the SuperHub from the computer and the SuperHub from the ReadyNas. But I cannot ping the RN from the computer and vice-versa. It seems the issue is in the SuperHub then.
Message 1 of 6
tony359
Apprentice

Re: Intermittent transfers through Virgin Superhub

Ok, I believe it's sorted.

Apparently my Virgin SuperHub (it's a Netgear router inside) did not have an MTU set. I set 1500 manually and all looks good.



I'm assuming those little drops are normal, after all the average speed is 99.3MB/s.

What is funny is when I set the router to an MTU of 1492. It worked, but at a reduced speed. Then, without doing anything, it stepped up to max speed!



Ping is now 100% ok, no communication errors.

If nobody has nothing to add, I'll consider the case as solved?

Thanks for thinking of replying! 😉
Message 2 of 6
StephenB
Guru

Re: Intermittent transfers through Virgin Superhub

Did you set the MTU on the NAS? or the router?

Did you use ping to find the actual MTU of the network?
Message 3 of 6
tony359
Apprentice

Re: Intermittent transfers through Virgin Superhub [SOLVED]

Hi, thanks for your reply

The Router did not have an MTU set, the field was blank, have no idea what the value being used was.

No, I did not check with ping, but I was looking into it. There is something I don't understand though: when running the tests, what am I actually testing? Am I testing my ISP network? Am I setting the proper MTU so my network has the best possible MTU suitable for my ISP network?

I have just checked, on my PC the "best" MTU is 1500 and happens to be set to 1500. How come on my laptop the best MTU should be 1300?

UPDATE: uff, just ignore me! I was VPN'ed somewhere else and I had forgotten it! Everybody happens to be happy with 1500 then! 🙂
Message 4 of 6
StephenB
Guru

Re: Intermittent transfers through Virgin Superhub [SOLVED]

tony359 wrote:
...There is something I don't understand though: when running the tests, what am I actually testing? Am I testing my ISP network? Am I setting the proper MTU so my network has the best possible MTU suitable for my ISP network?...
Though I think you've sorted it, I'll answer anyway.

When you probe the MTU with ping, you are finding the MTU (maximum transmission unit) for that specific network path. That is why the VPN gave you a different value. (VPNs are usually lower because the packets are encapsulated as part of the tunneling, so the packets sent on the VPN link are larger than the original source).

So if you test the MTU by pinging the NAS from a home PC, you are testing the local network path between those devices. Results might be different for WiFi than they are for wired ethernet. If you test the MTU by pinging google, you are testing your ISP (and your local network, and any other ISPs on the route between you and google).

As far as setting the MTU goes, generally you don't want to set it below 1500 unless the physical network requires that to avoid IP packet fragmentation. If your ISP says you need 1492, then it is reasonable to match that on your local LAN.
Message 5 of 6
tony359
Apprentice

Re: Intermittent transfers through Virgin Superhub [SOLVED]

Thanks Stephen.

That makes sense to me. If my LAN required a different MTU setting than my ISP, I could not make both happy then, I would need two NICs with two different settings.

So far so good, I have been transferring terabytes of data without glitches.
Message 6 of 6
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