Ask Slashdot: Serious Sony Serial Situation!

Sean Kelly sent me this distress call: "I've recently traded an older computer in for a Sony VAIO MicroTower PCV-E204. I took the old hard disk and did a 'cp -a /' to transfer the filesystem to the new Sony box. The Sony also comes with a crappy LT WinModem so I put my ZOOM FAX/Modem V.34 PLUS (model 2836A) on the serial port. On the new Sony box, I am having serious problems with deadlocking sockets. Transfers start out at a normal speed but quickly decrease speeds down to as low as 60-70bytes/second. It seems to be more of a problem on incoming data, and it seems to be on a per-socket basis which leads me to believe that there is something software related going on." Click below for more...

Sean continues: "I am not completely sure that it is software related though. I've tried Linux Kernel versions 2.0.34, 2.0.35, 2.1.101, 2.1.125, and 2.1.126pre2ac1. I have had the same problems with transfers on all of these. I sometimes get bursts of fast data, but usually it goes quite slow.

I have tried connecting to my ISP from within Windows98 (help me... I had to reinstall it) on both the WinModem and the external Zoom. They both seemed to operate at normal speeds. I've also tried calling other ISPs under Linux, and had the same slow results. I've tried older versions of pppd, but they disconnect immediately when the PPP connection is established. I should put more effort into making that work.

I am using the following software now:
Linux kernel 2.1.125
pppd version 2.3 patch level 5 (debian packaged version)

I've also tried doing what my stupid ISP, Concentric (hello, do you idiots read this? Get new tech support), and tried different modem init strings and baudrates. I've also asked them about POP problems since the same configuration with the same filesystem worked on my old computer the day before I got this Sony. They were unable to give me any information about any POP upgrades or anything, except one guy said "We might have upgraded to be V.90 compliant, but I don't have access to find out.

I am hoping SOMEBODY who has had this problem or knows what this could be to tell me, please? This is hell. Think about it, how would you like to download stuff at 90bytes/sec???"

I don't know about you all, but I've done the slow transfer thing, and don't want to go back. Can anyone lend Sean a hand?