See also Bug #27073. If this does not resolve the problem, there is another possibility. Most Linux distributions, including Mandriva, enable a kernel feature called TCP window scaling. This is useful for increasing the speed of transfers over very high bandwidth connections. However, a change was made in the default values for TCP window scaling in kernel 2.6.17, which seems to cause very slow network performance for some users with some internet sites. To see if TCP window scaling is the problem, you can disable it with this command:

sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling=0

If this resolves the problem, you can make the change permanent by adding this line to the file /etc/sysctl.conf :

net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling=0

This will disable TCP window scaling at every boot. If you do use a very high bandwidth network connection - for instance, you regularly transfer large files over a local 100Mbit or 1Gbit network - you may notice that disabling TCP window scaling results in slower performance over this connection. In this case, you could try restoring the pre-2.6.17 default settings rather than disabling TCP window scaling entirely. To do this, add the following line to /etc/sysctl.conf, instead of (not in addition to) the previously suggested one:

net.ipv4.tcp_rmem=4096 87380 174760

This will change the default window scaling settings at every boot.

When I installed Ubuntu on a laptop at home, my Internet performance was horrible.  I had installed Ubuntu before, but never had any issues.  I then installed Etch, same issue, same laptop.  I tried other OS's without any success.  I then tried an older version of Debian and it worked fine.  I searched Google and found a little blurp about window size and routers and the newer kernels.

I don't know if this will help you, but with the machine running, open a terminal window, go to root mode and cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_window_scaling.  If it is set to 1, change it to 0 with echo "0" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_window_scaling.  Close FF and try again.

The difference was night and day for me. 

There are a few work arounds, but if this works and you want a permanent solution, add "net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling=0" to /etc/sysctl.conf.

I know there are other settings, but this worked well for me.

Motheaton28@aol.com wrote:

Kenneth wrote:
  

--- "Robert N. Eaton" <Motheaton28@aol.com> wrote:

    

In Fedora 7 Thunderbird doesn't connect at all: it times out. Firefox 
connects to a very few sites and doesn't seem to finish the connection, 
no matter how long it tries. Seems like a software problem, but _which_ 
software? SELinux? Firewall?
      

When firefox doesn't connect, what does the status bar say it's doing? 
looking up host, waiting for reply?

What's the output of "ifconfig -a" ?

    

[bob@localhost sbin]$ ./ifconmfig -a
eth0    Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:05:5D:34:C3:19
    inet addr:192:168:0:3 Bcast:192:168:0:255 Mask:255:255:255:0            inet6 
addr fe80::255:5dff:fe34:c319/64 Scope:Link
    UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
    RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
    TX packets:57 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
    collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
    RX bytes:2195 (2.1 KB) TX bytes:10602 (10.3 KiB)
    Interrupt:20 Base address:0x4000

eth1    Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:8D:E5:8D:12
    BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
    RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
    TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
    collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
    RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
    Interrupt:16 Base address:0x8000

lo  Link encap:Local loopback
    inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
    inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
    UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
    RX packets:10274 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
    TX packets:10274 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
    collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
    RX bytes:89837264 (85.6 Mib) TX bytes:89837264 (85.6 MiB)

[bob@localhost sbin]$

If there are any errors, it's my typing.  This is worse than sneakernet; 
I couldn't figure a protocol to write the ./ifconfig -a output to a 
floppy and then cut and paste in WinXP Thunderbird. I had to print it 
out and then reboot into WinXP, open  Thunderbird, type it in by hand, 
and I'm a lousy typist.

Bob
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