My Sonnet Network device is not working (especially on Windows)!
We do know that some OEM computers can have additional settings that affect connectivity of third-party peripherals.A) Try entering the BIOS/EFI screen of your host computer, then look for settings like 'Thunderbolt Security' 'DMA Kernel Protection' 'DMA Access' 'PCI Security' 'Boot Security' or similar, and set them to 'disable'. Then save and exit, then test the network again.Whereas, other settings like 'PCIe Tunneling' and 'DisplayPort Tunneling' must be set to 'enable'.Seemingly unrelated settings like 'Intel Virtualization', 'Intel VT-d', or the use of a hypervisor can all allocate resources away from the PCIe/Thunderbolt bus, which can cause unusual problems like what you describe.The host computer may also have proprietary software that interferes with the use of third party peripherals such as ours.For example, Dell may have a 'Dell Support Center' application that may need to be disabled, along with the firmware changes mentioned above. Windows (and OEM's like Dell) can also install other applications natively (like Xbox live) which may also automatically enable at startup, but can interfere with Thunderbolt connectivity and other third-party hardware like ours.We also recommend disabling this and similar applications as well.We recommend consulting the host computer manual for additional options. If available, does the same issue occur on other Thunderbolt equipped host-computers, or, with any other operating systems?This can help isolate if the issue is the dock itself, or, a host-computer/operating system setting or similar.B) Although less likely, symptoms like this can sometimes be caused by a faulty Thunderbolt cable, wall-power cable, or network cable.Have you also tried testing new known-good cables with this?Additionally, we have seen similar symptoms occur with debris in the chassis or cable line.We would also recommend removing the cables from the enclosure, cleaning the chassis, cable ports, and cable-plug-ends, with a can of compressed air, re-seating the cables, and testing this again with known-good cables.Also, if available, an application of contact cleaner like this here and using 91% isopropyl alcohol (or higher) and a q-tip on the cable-plug-ends and ports can also help with connectivity issues.C) Settings on the network node (router/switch [firmware/GUI]) may also need to be changed to match the settings in WindowsWe have also seen that a firmware update may occur, which can change or reset settings of these network devices (or both the network device, and Windows) without user-consent, or knowledge.Matching settings helps to ensure the software settings are functioning properly, and helps to isolate problems toward the device.-- Regarding Software on Windows:1. Do Not Allow Windows to Power off the Network AdapterWindows will power down hardware devices in order to save power. Powering down the Ethernet adapter can result in the connection between the Solo and Windows client to lose connection. • Open Device Manager by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Device Manager. • Now expand Network Adapters, right click on the Ethernet device and click Properties. • In the window that appears, click Power Management and un-check the option Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.2. Green Ethernet or Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE)Consumer Ethernet switches that support EEE will automatically adjust their respective power-saving settings so that they match, but some Ethernet switches do not perform this mutual adjustment properly, resulting in poor throughput performance and dropped packets.If your Ethernet switch and Ethernet adapter support EEE, turning it off on both the PC NIC and the Ethernet switch has shown to eliminate data errors and occasional device disconnects in some cases.In Windows, the EEE setting is associated with the network adapter hardware • Open Device Manager. • Double-click Network adapters. • Right-click the network adapter you want, and then click Properties. • On the Advanced tab, Look for energy-saving options and make the appropriate changes you want.For changing this setting on an Ethernet switch, refer to the Ethernet switch specific power saving options and make the appropriate changes you want.3. Ethernet Adapter Performance SettingsThere are a variety of settings which may be available for your PC's network adapter that can improve throughput performance. These settings are associated with the network adapter hardware • Open Device Manager. • Double-click Network adapters. • Right-click the network adapter you want, and then click Properties. • On the Advanced tab, Look for energy-saving options and make the appropriate changes you want.Below is a description of these options and what they do.Maximize all adapter buffers and descriptors - Set these values as high as possible for maximum performance. On PCs with limited physical memory, this may have a negative impact as send buffers consume system memory. On most systems, however, the maximum setting can be applied without significantly reducing available memory.Receive Buffers: The buffer size of system memory that can be used by the adapter for received packets, which can be increased to help improve the performance of outgoing network traffic, but it consumes system memory.Transmit Buffers: The buffer size of system memory that can be used by the adapter for sending packets, which can be increased to help improve the performance of outgoing network traffic, but it consumes system memory.Receive Descriptors: Sets the number of Receive Descriptors that are allocated in the host memory and used to store the received packets. This can be increased if performance of received traffic is lacking.Transmit Descriptors: Sets the number of Transmit Descriptors that enable the adapter to track transmit packets in the system memory. This can be increased if performance of transmission traffic is lacking. -- Regarding PC's Network Firmware options (BIOS/UEFI):Some options may be enabled or disabled by default.Additionally, you may need to enable something that is disabled, or disable something that is enabled for best performance.Try different settings on your devices to increase performance.Turn all "offload" options OFF - Offloading tasks from the CPU to the network adapter can help lower CPU usage on the PC at the expense of adapter throughput performance. This can be responsible for issues sometimes.Disable Interrupt Moderation / Set Interrupt Moderation Rate to OFF - This feature groups packets together and sends them as a batch. It can be responsible for sluggish performance sometimes.Disable Flow Control - It sounds counter-intuitive to disable flow control, but TCP has it's own flow control mechanism and if an occasional UDP packet gets dropped.Sometimes disabling all settings, then enabling one at a time can help. For example:Disable Receive Side ScalingDisable Adaptive Inter-Frame SpacingSet Enable PME to DISABLEDDisable Packet Priority & VLANDisable Jumbo PacketTest, throughput, then enable settings one at a time.While time consuming, it can help to isolate the issue.Let us know more when you can, and if any of this helps or changes results, or if issues persist, and we can proceed from there.Thank you for your patience while we work through this.Regards,Sonnet Team
