Ventrilo Severely Degrading Network Performance
 

Update: Solved. See [URL]http://www.ventrilo.com/forums/showpost.php?p=139277&postcount=17[/URL]

Good evening,

I've discovered that when the Ventrilo client is running and connected to a server, the machine it's running on has it's ethernet receive throughput cut by up to 85%.

I have 2 PC's on my desk here, let's call them PC1 and PC2.

PC1 runs Windows Vista 64bit, has all the latest drivers and updates from Microsoft. PC1 also runs the Ventrilo client (v3.0.5).

PC2 runs Windows XP 32bit. Again all drivers are the latest and it has all updates available.

Using iperf, a command-line network performance utility, I'm able to measure throughput both before and after launching Ventrilo. Showing the issue.

PC1 is acting as the iperf server, PC2 is the client. They are connected via a gigabit switch.

Without Ventrilo running:
With Ventrilo running:
Without Ventrilo running, or running but not connected, the actual throughput fluctuates by a couple of megabits each way. When Ventrilo is running the result is always -exactly- the same.

The issue is system-wide, it's not limited to iperf. When copying a file to PC1 the throughput drops from 65-70MB/sec to barely 12-13MB/sec when Ventrilo is running and connected.

I've also confirmed the issue with a friend of mine, who has spent weeks thinking there was something wrong with his gigabit network. He sees the exact same issue when Ventrilo is running and connected.

I have to wonder what on earth Ventrilo is doing to the networking stack to cause an 85-90% reduction in Rx traffic.

Hopefully someone from flagship will see this and look into the matter.

where did you get iperf?

[url]http://code.google.com/p/xjperf/[/url]

Download the zip, iperf.exe is in the bin directory.

Invoke the server like so:
iperf -s -w 128k

Invoke the client like so:
iperf -c SERVER_IP -w 128k -P 2 -t 30

It'll take 30 seconds then spit out the results. You're interested in [SUM] which is the combined total of both threads.

here's my results and network config:
note - I do adjust some lan card properties. disable QoS and change some of the advanced settings for the card.

pc1 - vista 64bit SP2 all updates installed

pc2 - windows XP SP3 all updates installed

linksys 100Mb switch

first run is without vent running on either system

second run is with vent running on both, ver 305 and connected to an external server.

C:\Xfer>iperf -c 192.168.0.80 -w 128k -P 2 -t 30
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.0.80, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 128 KByte
------------------------------------------------------------
[1812] local 192.168.0.50 port 1455 connected with 192.168.0.80 port 5001
[1800] local 192.168.0.50 port 1456 connected with 192.168.0.80 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[1812] 0.0-30.0 sec 169 MBytes 47.2 Mbits/sec
[1800] 0.0-30.0 sec 169 MBytes 47.2 Mbits/sec
[SUM] 0.0-30.0 sec 338 MBytes 94.4 Mbits/sec


C:\Xfer>iperf -c 192.168.0.80 -w 128k -P 2 -t 30
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.0.80, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 128 KByte
------------------------------------------------------------
[1800] local 192.168.0.50 port 1463 connected with 192.168.0.80 port 5001
[1812] local 192.168.0.50 port 1462 connected with 192.168.0.80 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[1812] 0.0-30.0 sec 169 MBytes 47.3 Mbits/sec
[1800] 0.0-30.0 sec 169 MBytes 47.2 Mbits/sec
[SUM] 0.0-30.0 sec 338 MBytes 94.4 Mbits/sec

I had wondered if QoS was causing the issue, but I just disabled it and it made no difference. I'm also wondering if this issue only occurs on gigabit ethernet, as the reduced speed is still above 100Mbit.

Like I said, I've encountered this here, and also with a friend, we both have gigabit LANs and both have the problem of massively reduced speed (85%+ reduction) when Ventrilo is running and connected.

Closing Ventrilo resolves the problem.

i'll see if i can get hold of a Gb switch and rerun the test.

I have GigE and with the ventrilo client running I get the following using your commandline options.
I have a similar setup, server is running XP32bit, client I used is running Vista 32bit.

Connecting locally on the server, same with and without ventrilo running/connected
Connecting on GigE internal lan
Without Ventrilo running
With Ventrilo running on the server, client connecting from the other computer
seems I need to tweak that laptop!!

I'm the friend NeoLojik mentioned as also having the same problem. I run Ventrilo 3.0.4 (64bit) on Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit. I've performed the same tests as him, using Iperf for Windows v1.70. The destination PC is on the same switch, and is running Windows Vista Business 32bit. This is what happens when I run Iperf with Vent running:

And this is without Vent running:
As you can see, it's a pretty significant performance hit. Bear in mind that this is only a *one-way* performance hit, too; if I rerun the tests in the other direction, it all works fine. This implies to me that Ventrilo is somehow affecting the RX (IE Download) bandwidth of the machine it's running on...

Further information if it's needed.
- The PC running Vent has an Asus P5K Premium Black Pearl edition mobo with an onboard Realtek RTL8110SC PCI Gigabit LAN controller. The drivers are the latest I could find, and are dated 25th May 2009. The problem occured with earlier driver versions.
- The destination PC has an Asus P5Q-EM mobo, running a Realtek 8111C PCI-E Gigabit LAN controller, drivers dated 3rd July 2009. Again, updating drivers update did not affect the problem.
- Both systems are connected to a a Netgear GS605 v2 gigabit-capable switch via known-working moulded-connector Cat5e.
- Both PCs show as connecting to the network at 1.0Gbit, and are perfectly stable at that speed.
- The RX and TX on both systems will allow for ~75-80MB/sec transfers (SATA II bottlenecks permitting) in both directions under normal operations.When the problem occurs, RX is limited to 14MB/sec.

So, does anyone have any ideas what NeoLojik and I could to to narrow down or solve this? Any help would be greatfully received.


Edit: I've updated to Ventrilo 3.0.5 (64bit), with no change to the problem.

Apologies if this is seen as rude on these forums, but consider this a thread bump, in the hope that someone may be able to help.

what is the port number for the ventrilo server you are connecting to when you test this?