Subject: slow network, serial ports, or firewall?
To: None <port-pc532@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Jon Buller <jonb@metronet.com>
List: port-pc532
Date: 08/01/1996 19:54:33
I've got my pc532 setup as a http gateway for both it and my mac
so I can get both machines on the internet at the same time (and
use Netscrape 8-) However, when I surf into a large image, it takes
forever, it it works at all.  I can get images from the pc532 into
netscape at about 1KB/sec.  (MacPPP, Netscrape 2, and an old MacII
from '87 can't run too quick...) But when using the gateway, I only
get about 30 BYTES/sec!  I can get things off the net at 1.4KB/sec
sometimes 1.5 if my modem is in a good mood and has a compressible
JPEG 8-)

OK, I suspect the gateway code (FWTK 1.3 http-gw) but thought I'd
ask if there is something else that might be going on here.  I ran
tcpdump, and saw that the problem is that the net-server sends big
bunches of data, the pc532 ack's the first in the stream, the server
times out, and resends another window full, etc.  I have rfc1323
off via sysctl, the modem is on tty02, and the mac on tty03.

I also did 'telnet localhost discard < /dev/zero' while httping
the server to see if I was simply swamping some network piece of
the kernel, but that still left the transfer at full speed.  Should
I try a dump while running the mac, inet, and the telnet?  Could
it be a driver interaction between the two serial ports on the same
chip?  Is it a known problem with the TCP/IP code?  Any hints on
improving the situation?

Thanks all (again)
Jon Buller <jonb@metronet.com>