Saturday, November 15, 2003

Windows 2000 TCP Performance Tuning Tips

I'm currently troubleshooting some network performance problems. You would think, that with a 100Mbps hub, where only 2 Windows 2000 servers are talking to each other, I'd get throughput of over 5 megabytes/sec. Instead, I'm getting anywhere from 0.5 to 2.0 megabytes/sec.

Most likely, I need to give in and upgrade to an 8-port switch instead of trying to use an 8-port hub. Gigabit switches (8-port, workgroup, unmanaged, 10/100/1000) are now below $200. Server-class gigabit NICs are now down around $135.

Windows 2000 TCP Performance Tuning Tips - Now, I tried doing what they recommended (increasing the window size to 128Kb), but it really hasn't made any difference. Gonna pull those settings back out.

Well, I just remembered that the 4-port LinkSys router is a switch (I normally use a 8-port hub that is slaved to it), so I've put both of the boxes on the switch and I'm going to see what happens with performance. Both servers have 3C905B cards running at 100Mbps. Hmmm, no effect, still getting 0.6 Megabytes/sec (doing a sequential write to a file on the other server).

posted by Wuphon's Reach at 9:47 PM

Friday, November 14, 2003

Slashdot on Personal Web Sites

Why Personal Websites Matter

Most opinions seem to be evenly split between those who think free speech is a good thing and those elitists who think that you should only be allowed to put info on the web that is "professional" and appeals to a wide audience.

(Personally, I find them useful for targeted searches... like how to fix "problem X".)

posted by Wuphon's Reach at 8:47 AM

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

WiFi at Mickey D's?

This is just silly news... McDonalds is thinking they can turn their business from a place to get fast-food with lots of kids running around into a high-brow coffee shop where customers relax and use wi-fi to get a spot of work done? Um, yeah... right. Sell me a bridge in NYC please. Their whole business model is based on volume, which means that they need to get customers in and out of the store quickly, not have the customers hanging around sucking up valuable seats. Okay, so maybe valuable isn't the word for the seats in most of the McD's that I've been to. More like cheap plastic that are uncomfortable so you don't stay for long.

posted by Wuphon's Reach at 8:41 AM