Consistent Packet Loss on DL NIC
 

Hi,

Well I took the plunge as decided to try out DL - I got the Targus USB3 unit (ACP70USZ) - running on Windows 8 64 bit since Fedora ain't supported. Something just didn't seem right when connected over the NIC (weird occasional hiccups - totally random) so I decided to look further. I installed the cygwin ping utility and ran as administrator so that I could run an ICMP flood (stress test my connection) - sure enough, there is packet loss on the DL NIC - consistent anywhere from 1-5%. Using the same cable I connected to another USB (2.0) NIC on my new laptop and reran the test - 0% packet loss. I tried this twice with the same result.

Something is amiss with the DL NIC - don't think I should be seeing that sort of loss on my local home all ethernet setup - is this normal? Did I get a lemon? Is this some problem with my system when communicating over USB 3?

Its kind of random - sometimes I see 5% loss and other times .5% loss.

Please help - I can't live with this sort of quirkiness since I do all my work over the Internet.

Attached are some log files and a screenshot of the issue. Again, this only happens when using the DL NIC - other USB NICs I tired work fine. Any help? Also, after you grab my logs - please delete them from the forum - nothing personal in them, just don't like my computer's info floating around on the internet.

Thanks for the logs. Obviously you should not be losing packets. We're updating the Ethernet driver to be more performant. During the development of this a few bugs have been discovered and fixed that could cause issues. It could cause packet drop when interacting with some particular network switches.

Hopefully the Ethernet in 7.2, released at the end of the month will eliminate these issues. Testing internally so far is going well.

Wim

Thanks for the update! My return window for the unit is April 2nd - so will be cutting a bit close there - is there some mailing list I can get on that lets me know when the new driver release is available? I really want to keep it - works well for what it is - just need a more reliable network connection (fine for browsing the web etc. - but not for doing what I earn my living doing unfortunately).

This morning the DL NIC just stopped working (showed up as cable unplugged) - power cycling the Targus unit fixed this problem. Does the new driver fix these sorts of issues too? This strikes me as an issue that may require some sort of firmware update as well?

Still getting packet loss after power-cycle mentioned above though.

The SW release will automatically update the FW. Can you tell us which host controller you are using, and if you are experiencing these problems on a USB 2.0 link to the dock?

Attached is info on USB controller. I do not have a USB 2 port. The machine is an ASUS UX31A. I can say that when plugging in a Linksys USB300M (which is USB 2 only) that it worked fine. Things were bad to the point that I ended up switching over to WIFI until I can try out this new driver since I am doing work this week that absolutely requires reliable networking.

Come to think of it - while my wifi has never failed me, going to switch to the linksys - wired is usually better. Hope you guys can fix this NIC issue - I find it to be bad enough that I am skeptical this is a driver issue - I think I may have gotten a lemon.

Ended up returning unit to Amazon - please let me know when the new drivers are out so I can order up a replacement unit.

The Ethernet driver and firmware has been completely replaced in 7.2 and we know there are changes that should have addressed this. It would be interesting to retest now with 7.2 if you still had the unit.

Wim

My replacement unit arrived today - now I have another 30 days to get this thing working :-) Will test it out later and let you know.