[4126] in linux-net channel archive
Re: Poor network (routing) performance
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Bonn)
Wed Aug 21 15:35:46 1996
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 09:42:51 -0700
From: David Bonn <david@sealabs.com>
To: joseph@voltec.com
Cc: linux-net@vger.rutgers.edu
In-Reply-To: <199608210122.AA21462@voltec.com>
>>>>> "Joseph" == Joseph Possert <joseph@voltec.com> writes:
Joseph> Here's the problem. When I use the Linux Box I have a fast
Joseph> connection. (Well as fast as 28.8 is). But when I try to use
Joseph> Netscape, or mIRC on my Windoze computer I get a really slow
Joseph> connection. It starts off great (>3KB/s transfer), but then it
Joseph> tappers down to 500 Bytes/sec and then to 100 Bytes/sec. This
Joseph> problem is also occuring on an Apple PC on the network. I'm using
Joseph> MS-TCP/IP 32b for my Windoze for Workgroups 3.11.
Joseph> I realize that Linux won't be as fast as a dedicated router, but I
Joseph> feel that the performance should be alot better than this.
Joseph> Does anyone else suffer from this problem?
We certainly don't!
One question: does each TCP session start out fast and slow down or
does the whole PPP session degrade? Another question is whether this
behavior is very consistent with respect to time of day.
Based on Seattle Software Lab's direct experience it doesn't seem like
the behavior you described has anything at all to do with Linux. Most
likely it has to do with congestion at your ISP or further upstream.
Just a couple of reference points:
For a 486/100 with NE2000 network cards, we can sustain about
250kb/second through a linux router with peak data rates of around 500
kb/second. This configuration seems to be limited largely by the
NE2000.
A Pentium 100 with 3c509 cards maintains about 675kb/second on a
sparsely loaded ethernet. Peak rates are almost 900kb/second. This
configuration seemed to be limited by ethernet speeds.
Both of these machines were using IP Masquerading and WatchGuard SMS.
dwb
