Factorio Forums

Not sure the right place to post, have no idea where else to ask for help, can't even ask properly googl to get decent results =/
Must explain all to show whole picture of problem.

I got server which runs headless factorio instance. Same server also runs teamspeak, subsonic and utorrent at the same time.
The server is connected to switch. My PC on what I play factorio is connected to same switch. Said switch further is connected to router, and router to internet. All connections is Gigabit.
Server has USB-Ethernet adapter, as integrated nic was regularly dropping connection and not holding stable speeds at all, no option for pcie nic because only slot is populated with raid card, not gona dich that one

When utorrent downloads file factorio connection lags really bad, got stuttering on my end for tens of seconds, basically game is unplayable. At same time utorrent, subsonic and teamspeak is working just fine.
At the moment of stutter happening I connect to server with remote desktop connection (seems a bit slower too), the cpu usage on server is around 30%, cpu is 4 core, 8g ram, so that's the last I suspect.

Can be any software/hardware issue, but I guess something because of factorio/utorrent udp nature. So my question here is, how am I suposed to track whats causing this, need tips for tracking. If some hardware needs to be changed I prefer knowing what to buy and why, not just blindly changing random stuff until it works.

I would say that the issue is one of two things

1: Your USB-Ethernet is made to be used in a USB 3.0 port, and you have it plugged into a 2.0 Port
2: (To the best of my limited knowledge) Since Factorio and Torrent end up having the same Networking priority(or Factorio ends up with a lesser priority) Torent is eating up all your bandwidth. Teamspeak, and many other Voip/audio systems have a higher priority than downloads/games(hence why they are unaffected). You should be able to throttle Torrent, and force it to leave room for Factorio. if you can't throttle it, you will need to stop torrent when playing Factorio.

Yes it is usb 3 and it is plugged in correct gen3 port.

How can I change networking priority, because stopping torrent manually isn't an option. Running of utorrent it is automated process (did I hear something of automation in a game? ): I download file on my working pc, automatic file mover movs torrent file from download directory to networked directory on server, utorrent on server scans that directory for new files if there is, it just starts to download it, after some time I just check networked drive and my download is there ready for use, no more worry of main pc leaving on for slow torrents.

From what I know, there is no way you can. Priorities are managed by the either the networking drivers/card or the firmware of the switch. Unless you are a coding wizard, I can't see a way to do it. Like I mentioned before though, you should be able to cap the data rate of any torrents.

I am curious, what OS does the server run? is it pure headless, or does it have a GUI + web browser. Even though your USB-Ethernet connections 3.0, the chip in the adapter could be the limiting factor(I've come to never trust USB networking solutions). If you have a web broswer, try running an Ookla Speed test and see what speed you actually get to the tower.

I'm sorry that with my limited knowledge, I can't help you more.

Ps: what is wrong with the onboard NIC? Bad drivers, bad hardware?

OS is standard Win 7, easier for me to work with, pure command line is not for me.
The actual speed (throughput) of usb NIC is like it is supposed to be, tested it with copying files between pcs over network from/to ssd to get max speeds, no problems here. The integrated NIC actually is almost same chip as on usb stick, just for integrated it is PCIe lanes, for stick it is version with usb, if remembering correctly in the model number changes just the last character signifying what interface it is designed for. With usb when copying file over network the speed is just flat line at max speed (like 98% of max theoretical), when using onboard nic it was saw-tooth like, fluctuating from max to like 10% (was wondering why I got regular connection drops). As chip family is the same the driver is almost the same, so it must be some bad hardware design on board itself. I dont like usb solution too, but as explained earlier, if I want to go with like pcie nic card, I must change many things, starting from case and mobo (right now running itx board in Fractals Node 304) easily fits 6 drives , is reasonably quiet and doesn't take up much space.