ATV2 "network card" failure under load

Well, this is certainly one of the more unusual issues I've ever seen in my two-decade computer troubleshooting career You win a prize! Or something

I guess it comes back down to basic troubleshooting process of elimination. It's not the hardware of the ATV2 (it was replaced), not your network infrastructure (tried it on different routes w/different cables), so perhaps we need to look back at what's actually being done.

You said you're tarballing the XBMC folder. If you can copy the XBMC folder back and forth without any problems (you can, right?), but a tarball of the XBMC folder does NOT copy back and forth fine, then it might be a problem with the tarball process. Maybe an incorrect or unsupported parameter is being used, or something (I'm not familiar with tarballing per se, although I've heard of it of course).

What if you tarball something else on the ATV2 that reaches the same approximate file size, and try with that?

The only other thing I could suggest would be to find a friend, take the ATV2 to his house, hook it up to his network, and see if you can copy the tarball to his computer. Just to absolutely confirm it's nothing in your house/electrics/setup.

It just seems like this must be a solvable issue--there's no reason you should have to resort to using wireless for this purpose only and then wired for other purposes

It's not just the tarball.

I put a VBox .vdi file on it to see what would happen. Today I also tried an Ubuntu server .iso

Both have the same issue, unless I use the wireless. I suppose I could use the wireless but I'm not a big fan. I prefer the (usual) reliability of wires.

The way I see it it's either a problem with 4.4.4 or with SeasonPass. I've been through everything else.

DiQ23 Wrote:It's not just the tarball.

I put a VBox .vdi file on it to see what would happen. Today I also tried an Ubuntu server .iso

Both have the same issue, unless I use the wireless. I suppose I could use the wireless but I'm not a big fan. I prefer the (usual) reliability of wires.

The way I see it it's either a problem with 4.4.4 or with SeasonPass. I've been through everything else.

Oh right, okay, gotcha.

It's possible, of course, but I just can't see it being 4.4.4 or Seasonpass. If it was either of those, and it was a question of large files failing over Ethernet, I just feel like more people would be reporting the problem.

I still think you should take it to a friend's house, just to 100% absolutely positively confirm it's not something on your end. I know, it seems pointless, but grasping at straws here

DiQ23 Wrote:It's not just the tarball.

I put a VBox .vdi file on it to see what would happen. Today I also tried an Ubuntu server .iso

Both have the same issue, unless I use the wireless. I suppose I could use the wireless but I'm not a big fan. I prefer the (usual) reliability of wires.

The way I see it it's either a problem with 4.4.4 or with SeasonPass. I've been through everything else.

did you already try to plug off the tv - from electricity and hdmi of the atv2 - while copying? No i'm not insane - but believe me that i've seen alot of shit according to net polution generated by b0rked devices...

Where I live has three floors. The TV is at the bottom, office middle and ddwrt router on the top floor where the line comes in. Quite why the line comes in 2 floors up is another thing, I had nothing to do with it.

Both tests today where done on separate floors to the TV and each other. The HDMI wasn't plugged in either time because I couldn't be bothered carrying the TV up all those stairs. The atv's another thing altogether !

I can transfer very large virtual machines and tarballed Linux systems around / in and out of my network without a problem.

If I get time tomorrow I'll pop over to a developer friend of mine and give it a go on their network with their routers / wires / machines.

I have to say I don't feel very hopeful.

Hmmm, interesting.

So .iso , tarball and .vdi file crap out the ATV2 transfer.

So, the only thing in common is that these large files are containers housing multiple files/directories. And it only happens on ethernet.

Your network, jumbo frames on ethernet? What else is specific to ethernet? MTU?

Just throwing ideas here.

Both tests today were done disconnected from the rest of the network

The ddwrt is set to MTU 1492 because I have FTTC with PPPoE. No jumbo frames anywhere, did some tests with that a few years ago and decided against.

As for the vdi, iso and tgz all containing smaller files I've just set the 1Gb file from here to download to the atv in order to try with that. Really don't think it'll work.

Edit:

Nope, didn't work. Seems strange to me that I've never had an issue moving data to the atv but always from it.

DiQ23 Wrote:Both tests today were done disconnected from the rest of the network

The ddwrt is set to MTU 1492 because I have FTTC with PPPoE. No jumbo frames anywhere, did some tests with that a few years ago and decided against.

As for the vdi, iso and tgz all containing smaller files I've just set the 1Gb file from here to download to the atv in order to try with that. Really don't think it'll work.

Okay, well there goes those ideas....

Have you run "top" on the ATV2 whilst a transfer is happening? Check CPU loadings and freemem?

I'm running out of ideas.

The atv keeps running with or without xbmc after the networking fails. I can browse menus etc but not the network ie FrontRow thumbnails don't load and I can't watch trailers and XBMC can't see content on the NAS. I also can't ping the atv from anyone of a number of machines in the house.

Can't see how to upload my top screenshots here but it freezes showing pretty much the same thing each time, ~3300K free and CPU 25-30% idle.

tail -f /var/log/syslog so you can watch it.