SOLVED Network Error 0x8007003B, Can copy from FreeNAS to Windows but not the other way round

[burnthelies]

G'day everyone.

I'm a complete noob when it comes to FreeNAS but have a long relationship with computers, tech etc. and am looking for some help.

Background:
I built a NAS from scratch and installed FreeNAS on it. Can't remember all of the specifics off the top of my head but it is running a server motherboard with Intel Xeon E3-1220 v5 @ 3.00GHz, 32gb of ECC RAM and has 4 x 6tb Western Digital hard drives in it (the ones designed for NAS use).

I followed the documentation to get whatever the current version of FreeNAS was at the time installed and configured. After a little bit of fiddling around everything was working perfectly.

Current problem:
For the past 12-ish months everything continued to work fine however recently i started having problems with downloading files straight to the NAS.

While i don't use torrents a lot, i found that a large download (10gb) i was saving straight to the NAS had downloaded ~40gb and still was not complete. After looking at things more closely it was like it was losing data somehow - the download would finish and then instantly drop back to a random percent complete.

Thinking it was linked to torrents i didn't worry about it and just stopped using it when i couldn't work out the cause (i figured it was the torrent program or some network error with my aging laptop).

Fast forward another couple of months and i've bought a new laptop but continue to have the same problems, which forced me to do some troubleshooting.

Problem definition:
- I can copy files of any size from the NAS to any computer or tablet on our network
- I cannot copy files greater than a few megabytes in size to the NAS from any computer or tablet on our network

So photos that are 2 - 6mb in size copy (however they copy extremely slowly i.e. 40 files totaling 100mb will take 5 minutes to copy) but anything that is larger, no matter the filetype, comes up with the "Error 0x8007003B: An unexpected network error occurred." after a period of time.

In the event of some of the medium size files (say a 3D rendered animation i put together that is 40mb in size) the files actually appear on the NAS and look like they are the correct size, but are of course corrupt.

Toubleshooting:
I've done everything i can think of to try and sort the problem out, but not being a FreeNAS expert or a network engineer i've run out of ideas. I've read an awful lot of posts about similar problems that have also had the error message i'm receiving but none have matched the problem exactly.

- Have tried copying from multiple Windows based systems (Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8), problem exists on them all
- Downgraded the recently updated firmware on our Netgear R7000 router
- Tried multiple connection methods including different network cables from the NAS to the router

Considering all of the above, i can only assume that the upgrade i completed to the latest FreeNAS version at some point has contributed to the problem? Although i don't recall it starting to happen straight away.

Happy to provide any data you feel is relevant, just let me know what and how. I managed to work out how to 'Save Debug' based on one of the other posts i read (attached if it is of any help), but again all the files in that archive are beyond my experience/skillset.

Looking forward to your assistance, cheers.

 

[m0nkey_]

Can you try disabling any anti-virus you might have running when copying to your FreeNAS server?

I am also on 9.10.2-U6 and running Windows 10 and have not experienced the issues you are reporting.

 

[burnthelies]

Hey there, that is one thing i left out of my original post sorry, have disabled all antivirus software during my testing be it Windows Defender or others

 

[bulsatar]

have you done any package drop testing? That will give you a better clue if it is the nas or your router. Does it matter if the files are transferred over wire or wireless?

 

[Nick2253]

A simple test is to backup your config, install FreeNAS on a new thumbdrive, and restore your config, to see if the problem might be in some system file that was broke during an upgrade.

You might also have a bad drive. There's a post somewhere on the forums about testing drives. You should run through that and do a thorough check of everything.

 

[burnthelies]

Hi bulsatar, sorry but what is your definition of package drop testing?

Hi Nick2253, they are both good ideas, i'll give them a try

 

[bulsatar]

sorry, packet loss:
https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/GD/am7es3tY-how-to-test-for-packet-lossping-properly

 

[m0nkey_]

My next suggestion is to run a cable between your Windows PC and the FreeNAS server. It will require setting up a static IP on both to test, but it'll help rule out any other network devices.

 

[burnthelies]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your help thus far, still haven't found the cause.

I started by doing Nick's suggestion and installed on a new thumb drive and uploaded my config file. I actually loaded the current release, as well as 9.10.2 on a separate thumbdrive, but the problem still exists with the current release running.

I had a quick look at packet loss going to the NAS and got 0%, even while complicating things and trying to copy files to it separately (wireless to the router, wired to the NAS). It increased the ping to the NAS but didn't result in any packet loss.

I've just setup S.M.A.R.T tests for the hard drives to see if their is a potential faulty one, will wait to see how that goes and will try your other suggestion m0nkey_ regarding straight ethernet cable between the NAS and a computer.

Will let you know how it all goes. Thanks again.

*Edit: Realised i can run the S.M.A.R.T tests from the shell so am doing that now.

 

[burnthelies]

G'day everyone,

I took everyone's advice above - I ran short (a few mins) and long (10-ish hours) hard drive tests via shell and got zero errors detected.

Seems i should have started with your last piece of advice m0nkey_ as when i ran the direct cable with static IP's between the NAS and a computer, transfer speeds return to normal and i don't get any problems.

As a result I've come to the conclusion that our wifi router is screwed. It is clearly 'working' but something internally must be wrong with the actual hardware because a simple firmware upgrade (or as i previously explained, downgrade) has not solved the problems.

I've now copied 235gb to the NAS via the direct cable without error, including about 185gb of raw HD video and photos from DSLR / GoPro of varying sizes/formats.

I will go and buy a new router in the coming 24 hours and once that is setup, hopefully i can mark this thread as 'solved'.

Still find it absolutely bizarre that the problem as it was prevents copying to, but not from, the NAS.. made me think it was something to do with permissions, sharing method or anything else other than a 'faulty yet working' router.

 

[Nick2253]

It could be done weird QoS setting that for all screwed up. Have you tried resetting everything to defaults on the router?

 

[burnthelies]

I don't recall resetting everything to defaults at all, but that said i don't usually fiddle with QoS unless something isn't working how i like and have never had any issues with this router until now.

Problem solved though.. new router purchased and configured, currently copying via wifi at ~60mb/sec, half way through another 50gb of data.

Going to re-purpose the 'faulty' router as an access point after resetting it and see how it goes. If i have any issues i'll just bin the thing.

Thanks for your help everyone, appreciate your words of wisdom.