TCP Chimney, TCPS and Task Offloading

I re3cently ran the SBS 2003 BEst Practices Analyzer and had theses four
Issues Reddexed!

Receive Side Scaling;
Task Offloading;
TCP Chimney and
TCPA.
All are enabled, by default I must assume, and I am told to tur them off.
Can anyone in English explain what they are and why it is better for them to
be off?

I understand it is offloading the TCP protocol from the NIC but why and
where does it offload it to?

Liam

Les
Thu Mar 27 13:50:45 PDT 2008

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/network/taskoffload.mspx

Doesn't mean much to me, but there it is.

I just disable, like the BPA says. Even before the BPA, we've been
struggling with this for over a year. Do it.

--
Les Connor [SBS MVP]
________________________
Get the SBS BPA here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940439/en-us


"Liam" <Liam@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:2D309167-BDA0-49BB-8937-ACD0DF908403@microsoft.com...
>I re3cently ran the SBS 2003 BEst Practices Analyzer and had theses four
> Issues Reddexed!
>
> Receive Side Scaling;
> Task Offloading;
> TCP Chimney and
> TCPA.
> All are enabled, by default I must assume, and I am told to tur them off.
> Can anyone in English explain what they are and why it is better for them
> to
> be off?
>
> I understand it is offloading the TCP protocol from the NIC but why and
> where does it offload it to?
>
> Liam

Paul
Thu Mar 27 19:57:39 PDT 2008

The short answer is those are functions for improving network performance
while reducing CPU load, but only when they work correctly. Which is not so
often. You need current drivers that properly support these functions, and
the machines you communicate with (servers, workstations, switches and
routers) have to properly support the functions that use more advanced
networking features. When it works correctly, you get some improvement. When
any element in the chain doesn't work correctly, you get terrible
performance. Microsoft seems to be giving up for now. One of last month's
updates disables these features automatically. Most people have reported
better performance after turning them off.

"Les Connor [SBS MVP]" <les.connor@DEL.cfive.ca> wrote in message
news:C428CB86-4378-4355-8042-458615536224@microsoft.com...
> http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/network/taskoffload.mspx
>
> Doesn't mean much to me, but there it is.
>
> I just disable, like the BPA says. Even before the BPA, we've been
> struggling with this for over a year. Do it.
>
> --
> Les Connor [SBS MVP]
> ________________________
> Get the SBS BPA here:
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940439/en-us
>
>
> "Liam" <Liam@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:2D309167-BDA0-49BB-8937-ACD0DF908403@microsoft.com...
>>I re3cently ran the SBS 2003 BEst Practices Analyzer and had theses four
>> Issues Reddexed!
>>
>> Receive Side Scaling;
>> Task Offloading;
>> TCP Chimney and
>> TCPA.
>> All are enabled, by default I must assume, and I am told to tur them off.
>> Can anyone in English explain what they are and why it is better for them
>> to
>> be off?
>>
>> I understand it is offloading the TCP protocol from the NIC but why and
>> where does it offload it to?

Al
Fri Mar 28 10:06:06 PDT 2008

There was a recent update (KB 948496) that should take care of these
settings.

--
Allan Williams



"Liam" <Liam@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:2D309167-BDA0-49BB-8937-ACD0DF908403@microsoft.com...
>I re3cently ran the SBS 2003 BEst Practices Analyzer and had theses four
> Issues Reddexed!
>
> Receive Side Scaling;
> Task Offloading;
> TCP Chimney and
> TCPA.
> All are enabled, by default I must assume, and I am told to tur them off.
> Can anyone in English explain what they are and why it is better for them
> to
> be off?
>
> I understand it is offloading the TCP protocol from the NIC but why and
> where does it offload it to?
>
> Liam

Liam
Mon Mar 31 08:38:01 PDT 2008

Over the weekend I applied some Windows Updates that included KB948496, I
have just run the Best Practices Analyzer and the only "short-fall" is that
task offloading is still enable. The TCP chimney et al is gone.

I will change the registry keys and see what occurs.

Thank you for your help.

liam

"Al Williams" wrote:

> There was a recent update (KB 948496) that should take care of these
> settings.
>
> --
> Allan Williams
>
>
>
> "Liam" <Liam@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:2D309167-BDA0-49BB-8937-ACD0DF908403@microsoft.com...
> >I re3cently ran the SBS 2003 BEst Practices Analyzer and had theses four
> > Issues Reddexed!
> >
> > Receive Side Scaling;
> > Task Offloading;
> > TCP Chimney and
> > TCPA.
> > All are enabled, by default I must assume, and I am told to tur them off.
> > Can anyone in English explain what they are and why it is better for them
> > to
> > be off?
> >
> > I understand it is offloading the TCP protocol from the NIC but why and
> > where does it offload it to?
> >
> > Liam
>
>
>