We have 4 WIN 2008 R2 servers on a large enterprise network (30 locations). Two of these servers are DELL 310 units and two others are DELL 710. All with the latest patches and drivers. We recently discovered that only the DELL 710 units have a problem when copying to / from other systems any files from over the WAN (local LAN copies are fine). The exact same copy (same files from same remote systems) over the WAN to / from the DELL 310 units perform about 5 times faster (at speed we would expect). We are currently in contact with DELL about the problem, but I am wondering if anyone has some suggestions out there that could help us. Thanks in advance

Hi Geoff, Thanks for posting here. Have you checked your internet edge router ? and make sure there is no any speed limitation set on it , like QOS. You may also try the methods below: 1. Disable RSS, Chimney, AutoTuning on 2008R2 How to know if TCP offload is working http://blogs.technet.com/b/brad_rutkowski/archive/2007/08/10/how-to-know-if-tcp-offload-is-working.aspx 2. Install Hotfix 982860 A computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 takes four minutes to open a Microsoft Office 2003 document from a network share http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982860 Thanks. Tiger LiPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thanks Tiger, the first link is all items we have already tried, the second does not relate as our tests are with simple file copies. We are going to try disabling the QOS service although we doubt this will have any effect. It's hard to figure out what is happening since it is only happening on these DELL 710 systems and none of our other systems (210, 310, etc). Dell wants to blame a router / switch but we beleive since only the 710s are affected and not other servers that the problem must be in the machines. Any other thoughts? Thanks in advance.

Hi Geoff, Have you tried disabling QOS on your router ? Any further feedback from Dell? If there is any update on this issue, please feel free to let us know. Thanks. Tiger Li Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Make sure that the switch port and network adapter are both set to compatible autosense/autonegotiate settings. If you have the servers plugged into a managed switch, look at the ports stats and ensure there are no FCS errors on those ports.Visit: anITKB.com, an IT Knowledge Base.

Thanks for the feedback, we have also engaged Microsoft Support. Yes, we/they have confirmed that the problem is specific to this server. We even reloaded the OS to a basic configuration and the problem persists. We moved a different server (a Dell 310) into this servers position (i.e. now connected using the same LAN cable to the same port on the switch) and it has no issues. So we know that the problem is with the T710. We also tried an Intel card on the T710 and that did not help either. The Microsoft Technician ran a NetMon trace on the T710 during a copy, and found lots of retries, which are a good indication of the problem, they just cannot find the root cause (not for lack of trying I assure you). Many various settings (including changes to autosense, auto tuning, etc, etc) have been tried on both cards with no luck. We are going to try loading a Windows 2003 OS just to see if it is somehow related to the Windows 2008 R2 OS. However I should note that the Dell 310 is running 2008 R2 and has no WAN copy issues when connected in place of the T710. An interesting problem to be sure.... cheers

Having exactly the same problems dell r710 broadcom quad port netextremeII with enabled tcp offloading we get gig speed file copy but issues opening folders and mapping drives with tcp offload enabled we see 10% of gig speed. have gone through all drivers, nic settings to no avail driving me nuts

I thought I had posted our solution to this, but I guess I forgot. This turned out to be a wierd one. The Dell r710 was purchased with 48GB of ram. This was for future consideration. The OS we loaded was Windows 2008 R2 Standard which is limited to 32GB of ram. The problem is that if you have more memory than the OS is expecting this problem is introduced. Removing memory so that the system only had 32GB fixed the problem. I left the issue with Microsoft to post a knowledge based article on the subject. When I last checked Dell and Microsoft continued to investigate, but our system has been in production for two months now without an issue (after removing the un-usable ram). Ninjamark, by chance are you running WIN 2008 R2 Standard, and your 710 has more than 32GB of ram?