Internet running slow...

[sablefox]

So I just installed ubuntu on my pc. I love it, with one exception. The internet is unbearably slow. I had windows on there before, and never ran into an issue, so I assumed, when it auto connected to my ethernet, that everything was a-okay. Apparently not so much. Download speeds and browsing speeds are both affected (I get around 9 kb/s dl speed, and the browsing was to the point that I had to jump on another computer to post this).

When I took a look at my IP settings, I got the following printout.

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:50:8d:7d:8d:1a  
          inet addr:192.168.1.7  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::250:8dff:fe7d:8d1a/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:4332 errors:1412 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:1448
          TX packets:4527 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:880 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:2264776 (2.2 MB)  TX bytes:443700 (443.7 KB)
          Interrupt:17

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:74 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:74 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:9490 (9.4 KB)  TX bytes:9490 (9.4 KB)

Now, I'm certainly no expert, but I'd hazard a guess that it has something to do with the 1412 errors in RX packets. Which is cool, and all, but being new to this whole thing, I have no clue what RX packets are, and less clue how to fix them. Any advice?

[Rubberman]

The RX packets are received data. This indicates that you are getting a lot of packet errors, which have to be resent. Hence the performance hit you are getting. The interesting thing is that the TX (transmit) stream is clean. Is your computer attached to a switch/router or directly to a broadband modem?

[sablefox]

To a router first. Would it be an issue with the router drivers? It's a pretty standard d-link router, I believe.

[Rubberman]

To a router first. Would it be an issue with the router drivers? It's a pretty standard d-link router, I believe.

No, it shouldn't matter. Normally I would suspect a hardware problem (wiring perhaps), but since it works OK for transmit packets I'm not so sure. Have you tried another cable? What is the speed of your NIC to the router/switch? 100mbps, 1gbps? I have a number of Linux systems that all work just fine (including Ubuntu from 7.04 to 10.10) with 100mbps or 1gbps links.

[sablefox]

I think the port on the motherboard is 10/100. The issue that I have with it being hardware related is that it worked perfectly fine in windows. Thus, it MUST be some setting in ubuntu. I'd really prefer not to go back, but it seems pretty unusable except for word processing as is.

A thought though. It's not the only computer on the network. I had just assumed that it would choose the next available IP, but maybe it took one already in use? Would it do that? Could I manually change my IP?

It sounds unlikely, but I'm grasping at straws here.

[Rubberman]

It's possible that you have a duplicate IP address on your local network. Was Windows set up to get a dhcp address, or did it use a static address? If static, you can reconfigure your Ubuntu to use the same static address. What is the output of the route command?

[sablefox]

So, this is the response to the route command:

Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
192.168.1.0     *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth0
link-local      *               255.255.0.0     U     1000   0        0 eth0
default         Wireless_Broadb 0.0.0.0         UG    100    0        0 eth0

I tried changing the IP address to something that wouldn't possibly be assigned in the network. This is the ifconfig afterwards:

Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:50:8d:7d:8d:1a  
          inet addr:192.168.1.15  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::250:8dff:fe7d:8d1a/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:93892 errors:19673 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:21285
          TX packets:89809 errors:21 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:26088 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:29116107 (29.1 MB)  TX bytes:10898203 (10.8 MB)
          Interrupt:17

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:124 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:124 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:18220 (18.2 KB)  TX bytes:18220 (18.2 KB)

So...now I have TX errors too. Basically, I think I made the problem worse, not better.

[Rubberman]

So, this is the response to the route command:

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
link-local * 255.255.0.0 U 1000 0 0 eth0
default Wireless_Broadb 0.0.0.0 UG 100 0 0 eth0

I tried changing the IP address to something that wouldn't possibly be assigned in the network. This is the ifconfig afterwards:

Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:8d:7d:8d:1a
inet addr:192.168.1.15 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::250:8dff:fe7d:8d1a/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:93892 errors:19673 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:21285
TX packets:89809 errors:21 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:26088 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:29116107 (29.1 MB) TX bytes:10898203 (10.8 MB)
Interrupt:17

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:124 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:124 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:18220 (18.2 KB) TX bytes:18220 (18.2 KB)

So...now I have TX errors too. Basically, I think I made the problem worse, not better.

So, you are running wireless? The output of your route command for the default gateway seems a bit bogus to me. What is the make/model/ip address (internal network IP, not external for the internet) of your router?

[sablefox]

It's not on wireless at all, though it does use an ethernet bridge. (Connects it to an electrical plug, then uses the same device from another plug to go to the router.) That never came with any drivers though, so I assume it just sees it the same way as a direct connection to the router.

The router is an Actiontec MI424WR.

[Rubberman]

So, what is the local IP address of the router gateway? Often when your address is 192.168.1.X it would be 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.254. I have 2 routers at home, one uses 192.168.1.1 (Linksys) and the other uses 192.168.1.254 (Netopia). Once we know what it is, then we can reconfigure your network routing tables and see if that helps.