News Group Posts

linux slow?

From: Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com>
Subject: Re: linux slower than windows
References: <a6fc297e.0306220742.3c604674@posting.google.com> 
Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2003 16:12:21 +0000

  lazerpub@yahoo.com (Joshua Newman),
  In a message on 22 Jun 2003 08:42:44 -0700, wrote :

JN> I use a dual boot laptop at work.
JN> When i'm in linux (RH7.2) my ethernet connection trickles at ~250Kbs.
JN> But when I boot into windows, I get ~2500Kbs.  

Doing what?  What sort of clients and servers?

JN> 
JN> At home on my cable internet (through a router box) speeds are fine and equal.
JN> 
JN> Does anyone have an idea of why there may be a discrepancy?
JN> 
JN> Thanks for the help.
JN> Joshua
JN>                                         

Since things are 'equal' on your cable network, it sounds like there is
something 'fishy' (or just plain different) with your work network. 
Maybe you have a configuration error (such as a wrong gateway or name
server).  If it is specificly *web browing*, you might have a caching
proxy server at work that your MS-Windows side is using and your Linux
side is not.  Your cable router box won't implement a caching proxy
server.  Often business implement caching proxy servers as a way to
reduce bandwidth demands on their outside connection (it also lets them
censor things as well), letting them use a slower / cheaper outside
connection.  It sounds like your company is using a 250kbs (A)DSL or
fractional T1 connection as its outside connection and is using an
on-site caching proxy server to reduce bandwidth demand on this
'limited' connection.  A 2500kbs transfer rate would otherwise imply
multiple T1s or a T3 or something -- this is probably unlikely, unless
you work for a really big corp.  

2500kbs is 2.5x a 10BaseT connection and .25x of a 100BaseT connection.
I'm *guessing* you have a 100BastT network at work.  Your cable modem
is using an effective 10BaseT connection since cable networking is
limited to something less than 10Mbits, depending on the exact
technology used and how many people are on a given piece of cable.

A caching proxy server means if 10 of your fellow employees all go
visit the same site (say www.cnnfn.com), *one* copy of the page is
fetched and stored locally on the caching proxy server and the 10
employees get the one copy from the caching proxy server.  Actually the
first guy in fetches the page at 250kbps and and the next 9 people get
the copy stashed on the caching proxy server at up-to 100mbits
(10Mbps), depending on other local traffic, with *no* transfers over the
outside connection.  The outside connection is free for the occasional
E-Mail to/from the outside world and occasional updates of pages stored
on the caching proxy server.

All Linux web-browsers can use a [caching] proxy server, if configured
to do so.  I don't believe they do so by default.  Check and compare your
browsers' configurations and see if that explains things.

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