Ping times on a router during a file transfer

I am trying to troubleshoot a network issue with one of my clients and I'm finding a very strange occurrence.

The customer is complaining of slow performance and application timeouts using a .NET application my company provides. During one function of the application, there is a lot of data transfer to the local workstation, cached on the local workstation, to fill in WinForms that user uses to change or save information to the remote database.

During the initial data transfer, the customer reports that the application seems to stop responding. The WinForm is on the screen, but the mouse hourglasses and appears to be hung.

When we try to do the same function on the same database from another location, it works, completing in more time than we would like it to complete, but it does finish. My developers are aware of this problem, but that does not stop us from looking at the apparent timeout issue.

I've narrowed the problem to the ISP or the router. When we connect directly to the router, circumventing the enterprise firewall, the application acts the same way.

To test the Internet issue, I remoted into a workstation and initiated an FTP session. I downloaded a 53MB file to the workstation and the ISP remoted into the router to monitor CPU usage, memory usage, and other parameters. The file downloaded in about 4 minutes with no interruptions that I could see. The ISP tech reported no unusual problems.

I began the transfer again and pinged the router. My ping times were 250-400ms. This is not a good amount of time to me, so I stopped the FTP and pinged the router again. This time, my ping times were 40-60ms.

I did this back and forth, and I consistently got bad results during FTP and good results without the FTP.

I had the ISP tech repeat my tests as I started and stopped the FTP. He pinged other locations and got similar results.

The router is a Cisco 2600 series router. It services about 30 users in this customer's office.

What can cause a router to delay a ping request for such a long period of time during a file transfer? I've repeated this experiment on other customers and did not receive these results; ping times remained the same during and outside of the FTP session.

Please email me at (E-Mail Removed) as well as responding to this post. Thank you for your help.

--
Richard Tocci
College Station, TX

All inbound and outbound e-mails are scanned for viruses. I probably did not send you a virus, but if you receive an e-mail with a virus from me, let me know.

Richard Tocci wrote:
> I am trying to troubleshoot a network issue with one of my clients
> and I'm finding a very strange occurrence.
>
> The customer is complaining of slow performance and application
> timeouts using a .NET application my company provides. During one
> function of the application, there is a lot of data transfer to the
> local workstation, cached on the local workstation, to fill in
> WinForms that user uses to change or save information to the remote
> database.
>
> During the initial data transfer, the customer reports that the
> application seems to stop responding. The WinForm is on the
> screen, but the mouse hourglasses and appears to be hung.
>
> When we try to do the same function on the same database from
> another location, it works, completing in more time than we would
> like it to complete, but it does finish. My developers are aware
> of this problem, but that does not stop us from looking at the
> apparent timeout issue.
>
> I've narrowed the problem to the ISP or the router. When we
> connect directly to the router, circumventing the enterprise
> firewall, the application acts the same way.
>
> To test the Internet issue, I remoted into a workstation and
> initiated an FTP session. I downloaded a 53MB file to the
> workstation and the ISP remoted into the router to monitor CPU
> usage, memory usage, and other parameters. The file downloaded in
> about 4 minutes with no interruptions that I could see. The ISP
> tech reported no unusual problems.
>
> I began the transfer again and pinged the router. My ping times
> were 250-400ms. This is not a good amount of time to me, so I
> stopped the FTP and pinged the router again. This time, my ping
> times were 40-60ms.
>
> I did this back and forth, and I consistently got bad results
> during FTP and good results without the FTP.
>
> I had the ISP tech repeat my tests as I started and stopped the
> FTP. He pinged other locations and got similar results.
>
> The router is a Cisco 2600 series router. It services about 30
> users in this customer's office.
>
> What can cause a router to delay a ping request for such a long
> period of time during a file transfer? I've repeated this
> experiment on other customers and did not receive these results;
> ping times remained the same during and outside of the FTP session.
>
> Please email me at (E-Mail Removed) as well as responding to
> this post. Thank you for your help.

Posting HTML in newsgroups is frowned upon.

--

Travis in Shoreline Washington

Sorry about that. Let me repost the question in text format.

--
Richard Tocci
College Station, TX

All inbound and outbound e-mails are scanned for viruses. I probably did
not send you a virus, but if you receive an e-mail with a virus from me, let
me know.
"Travis" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:lDLUd.70223$uc.10604@trnddc04...
> Richard Tocci wrote:
>> I am trying to troubleshoot a network issue with one of my clients
>> and I'm finding a very strange occurrence. The customer is complaining of
>> slow performance and application
>> timeouts using a .NET application my company provides. During one
>> function of the application, there is a lot of data transfer to the
>> local workstation, cached on the local workstation, to fill in
>> WinForms that user uses to change or save information to the remote
>> database. During the initial data transfer, the customer reports that
>> the
>> application seems to stop responding. The WinForm is on the
>> screen, but the mouse hourglasses and appears to be hung. When we try to
>> do the same function on the same database from
>> another location, it works, completing in more time than we would
>> like it to complete, but it does finish. My developers are aware
>> of this problem, but that does not stop us from looking at the
>> apparent timeout issue. I've narrowed the problem to the ISP or the
>> router. When we
>> connect directly to the router, circumventing the enterprise
>> firewall, the application acts the same way. To test the Internet issue,
>> I remoted into a workstation and
>> initiated an FTP session. I downloaded a 53MB file to the
>> workstation and the ISP remoted into the router to monitor CPU
>> usage, memory usage, and other parameters. The file downloaded in
>> about 4 minutes with no interruptions that I could see. The ISP
>> tech reported no unusual problems. I began the transfer again and
>> pinged the router. My ping times
>> were 250-400ms. This is not a good amount of time to me, so I
>> stopped the FTP and pinged the router again. This time, my ping
>> times were 40-60ms. I did this back and forth, and I consistently got
>> bad results
>> during FTP and good results without the FTP. I had the ISP tech repeat my
>> tests as I started and stopped the
>> FTP. He pinged other locations and got similar results. The router is a
>> Cisco 2600 series router. It services about 30
>> users in this customer's office. What can cause a router to delay a ping
>> request for such a long
>> period of time during a file transfer? I've repeated this
>> experiment on other customers and did not receive these results;
>> ping times remained the same during and outside of the FTP session.
>>
>> Please email me at (E-Mail Removed) as well as responding to
>> this post. Thank you for your help.
>
> Posting HTML in newsgroups is frowned upon.
>
> --
>
> Travis in Shoreline Washington