Network freezes /crashes when it's heavly used on Windows Vista

[Kenneth]

Hi

I have problems with several computers in my company that runs Windows Vista
Enterprise both with and without SP1.
The problem is that when a computer is genereting a lot of trafic on the
network card, it suddenly stops function.
The only way to restore network connection is to restarte the computer.

When the problem occure you will only manage to ping localhost and your own
IP addresse.
If you ping another server or computer you get "destination host
unreachable" and "reguest timed out" in random order.

Computers are mainly Dell D630 and D830, and the problem occur both on
wireless and wired networkcards.

The way I have managed to provoke the error is by copying three 3Gb files
from another computer/server and have installed Citrix Secure Access Client
for Vista.
Therefor i thought i might be the Citrix client that is the source of the
problem, but the problem still exist without the Citrix client, but it
dosen't happend that often.

I tried to disable the multicore option in BIOS, so the laptop only uses one
core. This seemed to help, but this could be because it dosn't push the
networkcard hard enough.

When copying this three files the resource Overview in Vista says it
transfers with 95-96 Mbps with multicore enabled
When copying this three files the resource Overview in Vista says it
transfers with 65-70 Mbps with multicore disabled

Following steps have also been tried without luck:

Antivirus has been uninstalled
Windows firewall has been deaktivated
Disabled autotuninglevel
Unchecked IPV6 on networkcards
Installed newest networkdrivers from Dell.
Clean install of Vista Enterprise with SP1

 

[Robert L. \(MS-MVP\)]

You may try to disable auto tuning. This post may help. Please post back
with the result.

Vista: The copy process may stop ...Also you may try to disable Vista TCP/IP
"Receive Window Auto-Tuning " that may slow the speed. To disable it, open a
command prompt and type: ...
www.chicagotech.net/netforums/viewtopic.php?=&p=583


--
Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com

 

[Kenneth]

I have tried to disable auto tuning level and the rss as described.
Also downloaded the KB931770 file that's refered to in the article from
difrent sites, but it just says that i does not apply to my system.
This is maybe made prior to SP1?

So still got the same problem

 

[Jian-Ping Zhu [MSFT]]

Hello,

Thanks for your post as well as to Robert for the information sharing.

According to your description, my understanding is that: When you copy
large files at a high speed from other computers to Vista machines (within
the same network), the copy process might stop responding and ping from
Vista machines to other computers might return timeout. You have already
tried several methods to fix this issue but with no luck.
If there is any misunderstanding, please let me know.

Analysis:
=============

After some research, I find there are two main reason which might cause the
similar issue. What Robert said was right on the target.

1. There is a known issue on a Windows Vista-based computer, when you try
to copy files from a server on a network, the copy process may stop
responding (hang). There is a hotfix available for this kind of issue.

2. Another reason which might cause similar issue is Vista Auto-Tuning
feature. Auto-Tuning feature is a new introduced feature in Windows Vista.
What it does is to adjust the receive windows size continually based upon
the changing network conditions. However, sometimes auto-tuning feature
might cause network time-out problems with some applications and routers.

Suggestions:
=============

1. Install the hotfix provided in KB 931770

The copy process may stop responding when you try to copy files from a
server on a network to a Windows Vista-based computer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931770/en-us

2. Turn off Auto-Tuning feature on Vista and have another test.
To turn off Auto-Tuning feature, please do as follows:
2.1 Click on Start button.
2.2 In the Search box, type in Command Prompt. Command Prompt will show up
in the search results.
2.3 Right click on Command Prompt icon and select Run as administrator.
2.4 Enter the admin credential and you are ready to go.
2.5 Enter the following command to disable auto-tuning
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

Please note, as this issue is a performance issue, it usually needs
advanced troubleshooting steps to isolate the problem, including enabling
trace log, checked build, remote debug, dump file analysis, even with these
steps, the in-a-basket solution may not be figured out in a timely manner.

Saying that, newsgroup is not the right media to work on such performance
issue. If the above methods do NOT help, I recommend that you contact
Microsoft Customer Service and Support (CSS) directly for further
investigation. For more information on available CSS services, please click
here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;OfferProPhone#faq607

Thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely,
Neo Zhu,
Microsoft Online Support
Microsoft Global Technical Support Center

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
=====================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
=====================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Kenneth]

I requested the hotfix, but I was told that this was included in SP1 so it's
already installed.
Disable the auto-TUNING feature didn't help either so it seems like a call
to Microsoft support is the next in line.

Thanks for the help

 

[Kenneth]

I requested the hotfix, but I was told that this was included in SP1 so it's
already installed.
Disable the auto-TUNING feature didn't help either so it seems like a call
to Microsoft support is the next in line.

Thanks for the help

 

[Jian-Ping Zhu [MSFT]]

Hello,

Thank you for your feedback.

Please contact to CSS for further investigation and I hope CSS could find a
solution soon.

Thanks again for using newsgroup and have a nice day.

Sincerely,
Neo Zhu,
Microsoft Online Support
Microsoft Global Technical Support Center

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
=====================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
=====================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Malke]

Hi Guys

We are also having this issue.
Has anybody resolved it yet?

What issue? Because you posted into someone else's (probably) closed thread
and didn't even quote any of it, no one knows what you are talking about.
This is because you are using a web interface which, contrary to what you
probably think, isn't a forum. It's a website that scrapes Usenet posts.
The rest of us are using real newsreaders and do not see the "Usenet
Gateway" interface you do. It is very easy to set up a real newsreader. If
you don't want to do this, then at least read the information under the
"How To Post" links below so you can make a new post with all pertinent
information. Then people will be able to help you. And that's what you
want, right? ;-)

=====
Since you are using a web interface, you may not realize that this is really
a newsgroup. You will get far more out of this resource if you learn to use
a newsreader. There are many good newsreaders for Windows, but you can use
Outlook Express (XP) or Windows Mail (Vista) since you already have it.
Here are some links to information about newsgroups:

About Usenet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/ - Usenet FAQs from the Internet FAQ Archives
http://www.usenetmonster.com/infocenter/
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Usenet - a brief explanation
of newsgroups

Outlook Express/Windows Mail as Newsreader:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm
http://rickrogers.org/setupoe.htm
http://vistasupport.mvps.org/accessing_newsgrousp_with-windows_mail.htm

How to Post:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Usenet
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375 - How to Ask a Question
http://users.tpg.com.au/bzyhjr/liszt.htm - How Not to Get Technical Help on
Usenet


http://aumha.org/nntp.htm - list of MS newsgroups
microsoft.public.test.here - MS group to test if your newsreader is working
properly
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/munad.htm - how to munge email address
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossposting - crossposting
http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm - multiposting

Other Newsreaders for Windows:
http://www.forteinc.com/main/homepage.php - Forte
http://www.mozilla.org - Thunderbird
http://gravity.tbates.org/
http://www.40tude.com/dialog/
http://xnews.newsguy.com/
=====
Malke

 

[Malke]

I am very sorry.
As you write, I thought this was a forum, where everybody could see the
thread I was replying to.

This is the issue, that I'm talking about:
****************************************************
*Network freezes /crashes when it's heavly used on Windows Vista*
Hi

I have problems with several computers in my company that runs Windows
Vista
Enterprise both with and without SP1.
The problem is that when a computer is genereting a lot of trafic on
the
network card, it suddenly stops function.
The only way to restore network connection is to restarte the computer.

When the problem occure you will only manage to ping localhost and your
own
IP addresse.
If you ping another server or computer you get "destination host
unreachable" and "reguest timed out" in random order.

Computers are mainly Dell D630 and D830, and the problem occur both on
wireless and wired networkcards.

The way I have managed to provoke the error is by copying three 3Gb
files
from another computer/server and have installed Citrix Secure Access
Client
for Vista.
Therefor i thought i might be the Citrix client that is the source of
the
problem, but the problem still exist without the Citrix client, but it
dosen't happend that often.

I tried to disable the multicore option in BIOS, so the laptop only
uses one
core. This seemed to help, but this could be because it dosn't push the
networkcard hard enough.

When copying this three files the resource Overview in Vista says it
transfers with 95-96 Mbps with multicore enabled
When copying this three files the resource Overview in Vista says it
transfers with 65-70 Mbps with multicore disabled

Following steps have also been tried without luck:

Antivirus has been uninstalled
Windows firewall has been deaktivated
Disabled autotuninglevel
Unchecked IPV6 on networkcards
Installed newest networkdrivers from Dell.
Clean install of Vista Enterprise with SP1

Thank you for the very good explanation of your issue. From your
description, I believe your network hardware and/or possibly bandwidth is
the issue rather than anything on your local computers. Since this is a
business, you should get a competent networking professional on-site to see
what's going on. This isn't something you're going to be able to fix by
posting in a newsgroup or on a forum. Someone who knows what s/he is doing
and who can test the network throughput on-site is necessary.

Good luck.

Malke

 

[Malke]

Thanks for your prompt reply.
We are experiencing this issue on 8 Vista laptops in the company and we
have had the same error on more than four different networks, so I don't
think the network setup has anything to do with this issue. The same
networks works just fine when using XP or any other operating system.

Possibly the IPv6 thing? Turn it off. I've also heard that turning off auto
tuning can help with network problems.

From an elevated cmd prompt:
netsh interface tcp show global [enter]

If the line Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level does not say ?disabled,? enter
this command:
netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=restricted [enter]

If this doesn?t help, do the whole process again, but this time substitute
this command:
netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disabled [enter]

If it doesn?t work for you, and you feel the need to put things back the way
they were, you can type this command:
netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=normal [enter]

Other than that, I'm afraid I can't guess. Since you've determined that this
is an issue with the Vista operating system, if you don't get any answers
from the enterprise networking gurus (of whom I am not one), then since you
have a business you undoubtedly have a support contract with Microsoft. I
would use it. The enterprise-level support at Microsoft is excellent. Even
if you don't have a support contract, this cost of doing business would be
worth expending. Additionally, it might be useful to contact a local
enterprise-level networking firm to see if they have experienced similar
issues with Vista machines and if they have a solution. Of course those
paths won't be free, but this isn't a home user situation.

Good luck and I'm sorry I was unable to help you.

Malke

 

[Malke]

Addendum - This just posted:

"To All,
The problem resides with the Citrix Access Gateway client and
uninstalling it does not fix it. I have fixed this issue on my Dell D630
laptop.
You will need to load the latest Citrix Access Gateway client version
8.1.56.7.
http://www.citrix.com/English/SS/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1535878&productId=15005

This is the only thing that fixed the issue. I have not had a problem
since I loaded the new CAG client.
Thanks,
RayZ"

So since you say you have an identical setup to that of the OP, I suggest
you try his solution. Note that he says uninstalling the Citrix client
doesn't help.

For further details, you should contact Citrix. I'm sure you have a support
contract with them.

Malke