Raspberry Pi slows down internet access for the whole network

Question

Whenever my Raspberry Pi is connected to the network (via ethernet) the entire network is slowed to a crawl. On my main computer, ping times for google.com go from ~10ms to ~200ms and it takes forever to load web pages. Connections are also slow on the Pi, with an apt-get update showing pathetic speeds in the order of 1KB/s. Turning off the Pi completely removes the drag from the network. Interestingly, the local network appears to be fine, with scp copying files at reasonable rates; around 4.5MB/s to the Pi.

I've tried static and dynamic IP addresses for the Pi, but both have the same problems. Switching from Raspbian to Arch also had no effect.

I've checked the connection's duplex with dmesg | grep -i duplex, which shows that the Pi's connection is running at 100Mbps, full-duplex, as expected.

My modem/router is a Billion 7404VNPX (an Australian thing); relatively high-end, albeit a bit buggy at times (it will occasionally delete all its firewall settings). It assigns IPs in the range 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.20 and has 192.168.1.254 as its own IP. When I assign static IPs I tend to use the 192.168.1.200 area. I recently tested the connection with the Pi plugged straight into the modem (rather than via a wall socket) and it managed to crash it entirely!

I am starting to suspect that my modem isn't as reliable as I previously thought, so I'll try and get onto someone else's wired network in the next few days.

Answer 1

You talk about it slowing the entire network and then just reference a ping to Google. There is a big difference between LAN and WAN. Assuming you are just having slowness over your WAN to external sites, have you ruled out that the Pi is downloading anything? It tends to download updates/install packages on a fresh install of many applications.

Answer 2

It's possible that there might be interference from the Pi.

I solved this problem by moving the Pi away from my WiFi router (using a 2 meter patch cable instead of the 0.5m I was using). Both the model A and model B+ caused the slowdown.

Maybe the culprit in my case was the wireless kbd/mouse dongle.

Answer 3

I'm seeing the same problem I think. Internet (WAN) access from desktop PC slows right down to a crawl some time after I boot up my new Raspberry Pi. No sign of much network activity on the Pi or my desktop PC, but it's very slow. Kilobits per second instead of megabits. No sign of any errors in syslogs on either machine, no sign of error messages on BT homehub router event log. Broadband speed check page is so slow to load I almost cannot run the test .. but managed once, to get 0.5Mbit/s (normally 10Mbit/s). SMPT and IMAP server connections time out too. I've unplugged the Pi from the router and internet access is still slow several minutes later. In the end, I restarted my router, and things are back to normal. Not a satisfactory answer though!

Answer 4

Try using a crossover cable and connect it directly to your computer using static IP - If the scp is still slow, it's either a configuration problem or the network adapter on the PI is faulty.