network first fast, then *really* slow

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esmail9
Posts: 10
Joined: 20. Dec 2008, 23:51

network first fast, then *really* slow

Post by esmail9 »

Host: XP Professional SP 2
VirtualBox v 2.1.0
Installed Ubuntu 8.1 in VB

Network in Ubuntu inside VB first very fast, but then slows to crawl, not sure what to do. Disabled IPV6 and Viruschecker to no real avail.

--- more details ---

Ok this is just killing the system, I'm hoping there's a simple fix for this as it can't be that unusual. If there was something in the FAQ I must have missed it.

Very simple setup:

XP Professional SP2 is the host operating system. I installed Ubuntu 8.10 with the latest version of the VirtualBox (2.1.0).

When I'm downloading packages/upgrades for Ubuntu in the VB, the network connection is quite speedy first, but then slows down dramatically, until I only get a about 60 kB/s .. my download speeds under XP are much faster, as they are when I boot into a native Ubuntu partition.

When I disabled IPV6 and Macaffee virus checking, it seems things were fixed, but they only last for a short period before things slow down like molasses and I end up rebooting the system.

Other than the two changes above I have not configured or changed any of the default settings (I have enough RAM and diskspace available).

Not sure what to do - I'd really like this to work.

Any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks,
Esmail
sandervl
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Post by sandervl »

You have selected NAT in the network options of your VM?

Please create a defect in our bug tracker. Include all relevant info & your VBox.log.
Beno@
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Post by Beno@ »

I think I have the same problem, every time i try to download a file it freezes after a few secounds... :?

and the guest system doesn't respond anymore and i'm obliged to kill the process of vbox from windows...

i'm running vbox 2.1 under windows XP SP3, it's up to date
the problem appeared after the update to vbox 2.1
i have the same issue on many linux guest system (i didn't try another ones), even withj a mandriva installation that used to work fine under vbox 2.0.6
:(
Sarvatt
Posts: 1
Joined: 21. Dec 2008, 15:57

Post by Sarvatt »

I had this problem as well and here's what happened and how I fixed it -

VirtualBox 2.0.6 Vista SP1 business host, Ubuntu guest 8.10 using Network attached to host interface receiving a static DHCP IP from my router

Upgraded to 2.1.0

Noticed network device disappeared from windows, switched to NAT networking type in the guest, checked virtualbox host interface networking adapter in the NIC properties not realizing things changed

---here's where I noticed the problems you're describing---

I looked at my router's device list and noticed the guest OS was requesting a different IP than static DHCP was set to provide even though the mac was the same.

I then changed network type to host and everything worked as it should have and the freezing was gone. While it was using NAT with the host driver enabled on my NIC in vista I was getting 100% cpu load from network accesses causing my RDP connection to drop. Ubuntu said it was using a private IP in the 10.x.x.x range with the bad setup, but my router's device list showed it using a DHCP grabbed IP in the 192.x.x.x range instead.
Beno@
Posts: 34
Joined: 4. Jun 2008, 18:54
Primary OS: MS Windows XP
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Post by Beno@ »

Sarvatt wrote:I had this problem as well and here's what happened and how I fixed it -

VirtualBox 2.0.6 Vista SP1 business host, Ubuntu guest 8.10 using Network attached to host interface receiving a static DHCP IP from my router

Upgraded to 2.1.0

Noticed network device disappeared from windows, switched to NAT networking type in the guest, checked virtualbox host interface networking adapter in the NIC properties not realizing things changed

---here's where I noticed the problems you're describing---

I looked at my router's device list and noticed the guest OS was requesting a different IP than static DHCP was set to provide even though the mac was the same.

I then changed network type to host and everything worked as it should have and the freezing was gone. While it was using NAT with the host driver enabled on my NIC in vista I was getting 100% cpu load from network accesses causing my RDP connection to drop. Ubuntu said it was using a private IP in the 10.x.x.x range with the bad setup, but my router's device list showed it using a DHCP grabbed IP in the 192.x.x.x range instead.
there is post explaining how to avoid the problem, but it doesn't solve:
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=50283
Hachiman
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Post by Hachiman »

Folks,
Who is also experienced similar problem with NAT, could you please attach log and config files to ticket http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/2845.

Thank you in advance.
--
Kind regards
Sr. Software Engineer
Oracle Corporation
Vasily Levchenko

PS. Happy VBoxing.
esmail9
Posts: 10
Joined: 20. Dec 2008, 23:51

Post by esmail9 »

sandervl wrote:You have selected NAT in the network options of your VM?

Please create a defect in our bug tracker. Include all relevant info & your VBox.log.
hi,

everything eventually installed (though it took forever and made the system pretty much unusable for the night - it's ok, it's a spare system).

can I still submit relevant information? I don't think I'll be installing anything else in the near future, and having changed to host setup from nat seems to have fixed my problems, so I'm hoping not to have any more problems.

If I can still help with a report I'm happy to do so, but I'll need some guidance, for instance where can I find the log file etc.

Thanks,
Esmail
esmail9
Posts: 10
Joined: 20. Dec 2008, 23:51

Post by esmail9 »

Beno@ wrote:I think I have the same problem, every time i try to download a file it freezes after a few secounds... :?

and the guest system doesn't respond anymore and i'm obliged to kill the process of vbox from windows...

i'm running vbox 2.1 under windows XP SP3, it's up to date
the problem appeared after the update to vbox 2.1
i have the same issue on many linux guest system (i didn't try another ones), even withj a mandriva installation that used to work fine under vbox 2.0.6
:(
changing from NAT to HOST as suggested in the thread seems to have fixed my problem.

I am not quite sure about the advantages/disadvantages of NAT vs HOST though :-)

If you haven't tried this approach, it's worth it I think. Good luck.
esmail9
Posts: 10
Joined: 20. Dec 2008, 23:51

Post by esmail9 »

Sarvatt wrote:I had this problem as well and here's what happened and how I fixed it -

VirtualBox 2.0.6 Vista SP1 business host, Ubuntu guest 8.10 using Network attached to host interface receiving a static DHCP IP from my router

Upgraded to 2.1.0

Noticed network device disappeared from windows, switched to NAT networking type in the guest, checked virtualbox host interface networking adapter in the NIC properties not realizing things changed

---here's where I noticed the problems you're describing---

I looked at my router's device list and noticed the guest OS was requesting a different IP than static DHCP was set to provide even though the mac was the same.

I then changed network type to host and everything worked as it should have and the freezing was gone. While it was using NAT with the host driver enabled on my NIC in vista I was getting 100% cpu load from network accesses causing my RDP connection to drop. Ubuntu said it was using a private IP in the 10.x.x.x range with the bad setup, but my router's device list showed it using a DHCP grabbed IP in the 192.x.x.x range instead.
Hi - thanks for the message, I was already running 2.1.0 of VB, but when I changed the networking to HOST (from the default NAT) it seems to have fixed things for me. (Or so I hope :-)

I appreciate you (and everyone else) taking the time to help.
esmail9
Posts: 10
Joined: 20. Dec 2008, 23:51

Post by esmail9 »

Beno@ wrote: there is post explaining how to avoid the problem, but it doesn't solve:
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=50283
Hi Beno,

Many thanks for the link, it did seem to fix my problem too!!

(In my case virtual networking was already enabled, but I needed to change to HOST from NAT).

I wish I had known this before spending so much time downloading thinks at a snail's pace, but all seems well now.

Best,
Esmail
The MAZZTer
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Re: network first fast, then *really* slow

Post by The MAZZTer »

esmail9 wrote:When I'm downloading packages/upgrades for Ubuntu in the VB, the network connection is quite speedy first, but then slows down dramatically, until I only get a about 60 kB/s .. my download speeds under XP are much faster, as they are when I boot into a native Ubuntu partition.
NAT has always been slow IIRC. It is possible the "faster" speeds you are seeing are an illusion.

When the "what do you want to do with this file" dialog pops up in some apps, the file is downloading in the background while you decide. Let's say you actually have a constant 60kb/s (it won't go faster) and you sit at the dialog for 5 seconds before dismissing it and causing the actual download meter pops up. If the app does not properly compensate for those 5 seconds, the download meter may erroneously believe 300kb has been instantly downloaded and show a 360kb/s download rate after 1 second, and then 210kb/s next second (since it's averaging 420kb over 2 seconds instead of the correct 7). The real download rate is still a steady 60kb/s. You can usually recognize these apps by the download spike at the very beginning that quickly drops (like you describe) but it will happen again if you start a new download.

I don't know if Ubuntu is guilty of this or not, but you can determine it easily.

Install one package, then exit the package manager, then start it up again and download another package. If you get the same download spike, there's no way IMO the network interface itself can have those weird download spikes since VirtualBox doesn't know or care about high-level protocols or connections (at least, AFAIK) so all packets would be treated the same. If your NAT connection slows down it should not speed back up for a second package download since it doesn't know or care when that happens, it just sees raw data.

I recommend using the Host Interface networking instead of NAT. The only reason I can think of using NAT instead would be for security purposes to keep others on the network from poking at your VMs, but Linux really isn't as much of a target for that sort of thing as Windows, and with a properly configured network (and guest OS) there really should be no issues.
Sasquatch
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Post by Sasquatch »

NAT has always been slow IIRC. It is possible the "faster" speeds you are seeing are an illusion.
NAT isn't that slow. It's only a tiny bit slower, because of the additional translation step, but shouldn't be any slower than when you use a router for your internet connection for the Host, compared to direct connection and NAT on the Guest.
I've been able to get speeds up to 10 MB/s (the connection didn't go much faster :P). Even now I can get an Ubuntu repo update with 2 MB/s (max of my wifi). This is on a Linux Host though, but I haven't noticed anything different on Windows Hosts. Any slower speeds is the result of firewalls and antivirus apps running on the Host.
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The MAZZTer
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Post by The MAZZTer »

OK. I never took the time to measure the speeds myself. Just that in the docs and stuff everyone said it was slower... 2.1.0 update did say NAT was a bit faster though. So it's just the overhead of routing the packets.

Hmm.. that's probably not the problem then.
Hachiman
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Post by Hachiman »

Sasquatch wrote:
NAT has always been slow IIRC. It is possible the "faster" speeds you are seeing are an illusion.
NAT isn't that slow. It's only a tiny bit slower, because of the additional translation step, but shouldn't be any slower than when you use a router for your internet connection for the Host, compared to direct connection and NAT on the Guest.
It could be if NAT engine being the TCP/IP stack communicating with HOST network stack by Ethernet or other type of packets, instead of operating with socket interface (which massively interact host TCP/IP stack)
--
Kind regards
Sr. Software Engineer
Oracle Corporation
Vasily Levchenko

PS. Happy VBoxing.
Sasquatch
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Post by Sasquatch »

Hachiman wrote:
Sasquatch wrote:
NAT has always been slow IIRC. It is possible the "faster" speeds you are seeing are an illusion.
NAT isn't that slow. It's only a tiny bit slower, because of the additional translation step, but shouldn't be any slower than when you use a router for your internet connection for the Host, compared to direct connection and NAT on the Guest.
It could be if NAT engine being the TCP/IP stack communicating with HOST network stack by Ethernet or other type of packets, instead of operating with socket interface (which massively interact host TCP/IP stack)
But a drop from, let's say 500 KB/s, to only 10% of that is not normal. Even if you would go from one network stack to another, you should not have an overhead of 90%. Usually, an overhead of 10% is normal. I don't have much experience with other network stacks, but every computer runs TCP/IP, so that should not be the problem for the TS. And it doesn't explain why it's fast from the start, but slows down later.
Read the Forum Posting Guide before opening a topic.
VirtualBox FAQ: Check this before asking questions.
Online User Manual: A must read if you want to know what we're talking about.
Howto: Install Linux Guest Additions
Howto: Use Shared Folders on Linux Guest
See the Tutorials and FAQ section at the top of the Forum for more guides.
Try searching the forums first with Google and add the site filter for this forum.
E.g. install guest additions site:forums.virtualbox.org

Retired from this Forum since OSSO introduction.
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