Steam clots ethernet connection

gzSupertramp · 2015-10-30 07:49:53

Hello,

I have arch linux 64 bit installed on my machine: nvidia gtx 980 and intel i7 4970k.

I have an ethernet connection managed by Network Manager (DHCP) which works fine. When I launch steam and try to download something I have two problems. The first is that the download speed is very unstable: it initially goes up to half of the max speed and then it goes down to zero. Later it keeps with this unstable behaviour. I do not
know if this is a steam server problem or one related to my configuration.

The second problem is that even if steam is not downloading anywhere near the max download speed when I try to use other programs that need the connection they are greatly slowed down or unable to use it: examples are firefox, pacman hangs when trying to refresh etc.

Thank you in advance

Gabriele

x33a · 2015-10-30 08:40:03

What is your internet connection bandwidth? Also, monitor your network usage using something like iftop, when you are running steam and see how much bandwidth is being consumed.

gzSupertramp · 2015-10-30 08:56:51

x33a wrote:

What is your internet connection bandwidth? Also, monitor your network usage using something like iftop, when you are running steam and see how much bandwidth is being consumed.

It is around 150 Mbit/s. I can see from the steam graph too how much bandwidth steam is using (I do not know how accurate that is). Anyway the strange thing is the interference with other programs.

x33a · 2015-10-30 09:07:49

Instead of the steam graphs, use a third party tool as I mentioned to confirm the exact values. As for the interference, if steam is choking up the bandwidth, it's natural that other programs won't be left with much.

gzSupertramp · 2015-10-30 09:20:16

x33a wrote:

What is your internet connection bandwidth? Also, monitor your network usage using something like iftop, when you are running steam and see how much bandwidth is being consumed.

So, i have tried using iftop. What I see is the follwing:

without steam or other programs running I have one line for 255.255.255.255 (sometimes two more popping out)

when running steam and trying to download something from it I have a huge list of localhost (some with a IP.valve.net description and some just with an ip address) most of which are not using the bandwith at all.

Also I noticed that the clotting effect that steam has on other programs that need to connect to the internet persists also once I close steam. It takes a couple of minutes to re-establish normal behaviour.

Thank you
Gabriele

x33a · 2015-10-30 09:38:21

Is your overall system getting sluggish when using steam? How much ram do you have? Check if steam is taking too much ram, or there's swapping.

gzSupertramp · 2015-10-30 09:41:18

x33a wrote:

Is your overall system getting sluggish when using steam? How much ram do you have? Check if steam is taking too much ram, or there's swapping.

The system works fine. I have 16 Gb of ram and 4.5 Gb of swap space. It is only the networking part which seems to break. Also when trying to use pacman to refresh or upgrade. If steam is not used everything works as it should.

x33a · 2015-10-30 09:48:01

I am running out of ideas. Maybe try changing your dns servers?

gzSupertramp · 2015-10-30 09:50:53

x33a wrote:

I am running out of ideas. Maybe try changing your dns servers?

About dns: I found this post http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/di … /?l=german and tried their solution. It involved installing dnsmasq and enabling it. But it does not solve the problem for me.

How do I change the dns servers and which ones do I use? I dont know much about this subject.

Thank you

x33a · 2015-10-30 09:57:14

If installing dnsmasq didn't solve it, then it probably isn't a dns problem (assuming you configured it properly). Basically, the idea is that if you have slow dns servers, or very high number of recurring dns queries, a local caching dns resolver will help a lot.

As for changing the DNS servers themselves, you'll either have to do it in your router (if you have any), or you can do it from NetworkManager itself. There's plenty documentation available for doing it either way.

Last edited by x33a (2015-10-30 09:57:40)

gzSupertramp · 2015-10-30 09:59:40

x33a wrote:

If installing dnsmasq didn't solve it, then it probably isn't a dns problem (assuming you configured it properly). Basically, the idea is that if you have slow dns servers, or very high number of recurring dns queries, a local caching dns resolver will help a lot.
As for changing the DNS servers themselves, you'll either have to do it in your router (if you have any), or you can do it from NetworkManager itself. There's plenty documentation available for doing it either way.

The only thing I did with dnsmasq is installing it and enabling it. Nothing else. Do i also have to configure it?

x33a · 2015-10-30 10:03:36

Take a look at this article on how to configure is properly: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dnsmasq

Also, after configuring it, do this test to see if its working or not: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dnsmasq#Test

gzSupertramp · 2015-10-30 11:02:41

x33a wrote:

Take a look at this article on how to configure is properly: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dnsmasq
Also, after configuring it, do this test to see if its working or not: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dnsmasq#Test

I configured it and tested it: dnsmasq works fine but the problem still exists.

x33a · 2015-10-30 12:46:40

Then the problem isn't with the dns probably. I am all out of ideas now, hopefully someone else will be able to help you.

Last edited by x33a (2015-10-30 13:34:46)

gzSupertramp · 2015-10-30 13:16:40

x33a wrote:

Then the problem isn't with the dns probably. I am out of all ideas now, hopefully someone else will be able to help you.

Thank you for your time anyway

Arch Linux

#1 2015-10-30 07:49:53

Steam clots ethernet connection

#2 2015-10-30 08:40:03

Re: Steam clots ethernet connection

#3 2015-10-30 08:56:51

Re: Steam clots ethernet connection

#4 2015-10-30 09:07:49

Re: Steam clots ethernet connection

#5 2015-10-30 09:20:16

Re: Steam clots ethernet connection

#6 2015-10-30 09:38:21

Re: Steam clots ethernet connection

#7 2015-10-30 09:41:18

Re: Steam clots ethernet connection

#8 2015-10-30 09:48:01

Re: Steam clots ethernet connection

#9 2015-10-30 09:50:53

Re: Steam clots ethernet connection

#10 2015-10-30 09:57:14

Re: Steam clots ethernet connection

#11 2015-10-30 09:59:40

Re: Steam clots ethernet connection

#12 2015-10-30 10:03:36

Re: Steam clots ethernet connection

#13 2015-10-30 11:02:41

Re: Steam clots ethernet connection

#14 2015-10-30 12:46:40

Re: Steam clots ethernet connection

#15 2015-10-30 13:16:40

Re: Steam clots ethernet connection

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