[PLUG] RE: Re: 15Mb Access

Brian Martin plug at martinconsulting.com
Mon Sep 12 18:06:46 UTC 2005


OK, so I got went on vacation before getting a chance to reply to everyone
on my 15Mb access problem and solution.  Below is an omnibus reply to a
variety of responses.  I've edited down the replies for easy readability.

> From: Charlie Schluting 
> 
> Nothing.. you're not using Gigabit..
> 
> But how are you testing? Don't use those bandwidth speed sites.. they 
> aren't even well enough connected to test 6Mb/s cable..
> 
> I'm curious how fast you can download from here: 
> http://unix.schluting.com
> 

I'm not sure what you mean by "you're not using Gigabit".  I'm trying to get
15Mb through an adapter that's capable of 100Mb, so I don't see a limitation
there.

But you're right that the bandwidth speed sites aren't adequate for testing.
I downloaded Knoppix from your site.  It took about 6.1 minutes to download
about 700MB.  If I've done my math right I'm getting 15.3Mb/second.

    700MB * 8 = 5600Mb
    6.1 minutes * 60 = 366 seconds
    5600/366 = 15.3 Mb/second

That's rough, because I haven't figured in the TCP/IP overhead and perhaps
other factors.  Still, I think it tells me my firewall is doing fine.  Did I
make any gross mistakes?

> From: Piet van Weel
> Ok, I gotta ask.
> How much is fiber to the house costing you?

$100/mo for the circuit and the ISP services.  That's for business-grade
service, which permits me to (legally) run servers and use it for commercial
purposes.  Non-commercial service is available for less.

> From: "slinkymax0r" <slinkywizard at integraonline.com>
> 2) Test Your Firewall Locally against another system on your lan, using
> NFS preferably, to verify that you can get that amount of throughput
> bi-directionally over ethernet. This little sanity check might save you a
> lot of grief.
>
> I'm assuming that you're running the tests directly from the firewall, and
> not from clients behind the firewall.  If that is not the case, let me
> know.

#2 is an obvious idea, but one I overlooked before posting.  In fact,
Charlie's test proved everything was fine, but I should have checked that
first. 

And yes, I was testing from the firewall.  All is fine there as we learned,
but my individual client workstations are still running poorly.  That issue
is still to be researched.

> From: "Vincent Yau"
> With DSL/Cable modem, they usually don't like you running
> services like sshd, web site etc.. that would allow incoming
> traffic.
> Is Verizon FIOS also take the same stance?  Or they really
> don't care?    Can I run sshd and copy files back home
> from work?  (Assuming I will install a proper firewall) Just curious.

See my comments above about business-grade vs. non-commercial service.  It
depends on what you sign up for and how much you pay.  I can't speak to how
strictly they're enforcing their TOS.

And thanks to Wil and everyone else for the great links.

              -Brian Martin





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