Subject: Re: Slow file transfer

From: Dr Donald Carroll <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 19:11:14 +0100

> I have just installed anonftp 2.8 and wu-ftpd 2.4.2b18-2 onto a Red
> Hat 5.2 Linux box.

    To test the FTP server on the Linux box I have used CuteFTP running
on a Windows 95
    P/C which is connected to the same local ethernet (co-ax) network as
the Linux box.
    Everything works fine, except that I have noticed that it is not
possible to transfer files
    that are larger than about 100KBytes ... on the Win 98 P/C what I
notice is that when
    attempting to transfer "large" files the transfer rate starts off at
a high rate and then just
    quickly slows down to nothing!

     I would welcome suggestions on what might be the cause of this
frustrating problem.

     BTW I have tried a different FTP client on the Win 98 P/C and
exactly the same
     phenomenon is observed which is why I believe the problem lies with
the FTP
     server and not the FTP client.

---

From: Gregory A Lundberg <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 14:39:47 -0400 (EDT)

yOn Fri, 30 Apr 1999, Dr Donald Carroll wrote:

> To test the FTP server on the Linux box I have used CuteFTP running on
> a Windows 95 P/C which is connected to the same local ethernet (co-ax)
> network as the Linux box. Everything works fine, except that I have
> noticed that it is not possible to transfer files that are larger than
> about 100KBytes ... on the Win 98 P/C what I notice is that when
> attempting to transfer "large" files the transfer rate starts off at a
> high rate and then just quickly slows down to nothing!
> 
> BTW I have tried a different FTP client on the Win 98 P/C and exactly
> the same phenomenon is observed which is why I believe the problem
> lies with the FTP server and not the FTP client.

I'd be very surprised if it's the server software.

First, your should upgrade to something more current that Beta-18.

The location of the latest versions of wu-ftpd can be found in the 
directory
 
      ftp://ftp.vr.net/pub/wu-ftpd/
 
wu-ftpd Resource Center:  http://www.landfield.com/wu-ftpd/
wu-ftpd FAQ:              http://www.cetis.hvu.nl/~koos/wu-ftpd-faq.html
wu-ftpd list archive:     http://www.landfield.com/wu-ftpd/mail-archive/

Upgrading probably won't help your speed, but it will make your machine
more secure.

Considering you're using MS software on the client side, I'd vote for that
being the problem.  If it's Windows 95, you might want to see if you have
the kernel patches installed.  There's old problems with '95 which cause
it to leak memory and slow down on IP packets until the machine finally
rolls over dead.

I'd suggest using a real system, like another Linux box, to test from.  If
it's fast from there, then you pretty well know it's the MS junk.  If it's
still slow (which would surpise me), I'd look for a bacd Ethernet card,
hub or cable.

-- 

Gregory A Lundberg              Senior Partner, VRnet Company
1441 Elmdale Drive              [email-masked]
Kettering, OH 45409-1615 USA    1-800-809-2195