Using Linux To Make a Slow, Awful WAN Connection 110
Julie188 writes "This is a brilliant little Linux trick from Windows fanboy Tyson Kopczynski. He wanted to test a new Windows 7 feature called Branch Cache, which caches remote data on the local machine to reduce traffic on a stressed out WAN connection. But how to fake a crappy WAN? Linux. 'The command that I executed (tc) made use of Linux Traffic Control (a kernel thing) which allows me to easily interject 100ms latency on eth1. Boff, Bonk, Pow, Plop, Kapow, swa-a-p, whamm, zzzzzwap, bam ... instant WAN crappiness,' he writes."
Re:Shit wifi performace is a standard Linux 'featu (Score:5, Interesting)
*raises hand*
Intel 8945J integrated wireless on my laptop. Dual boot, Zenwalk Linux and XP MCE 2005. Until the most recent driver from Intel, the wireless card was *significantly* stabler under Linux. It's now just as stable under Windows (though I replaced by router with a new D-Link 802.11n router recently too), but the throughput at long range is still better in Linux.
As an example of the latter under Windows the useable range on my wlan caps out at about 25m. that's enough to cover my house, and much of the front lawn. Under Linux, I was able to connect to my network from the picnic table at the park across the street, about 100m. I was only getting 1mbit of throughput, probably less, but it was definitely getting better error correction and a more useable connection at that range than under Windows.
Re:Goal? (Score:2, Interesting)
I just went through a similiar exercise at work, to determine if TCP was a good enough protocol for a slow point to point wireless connection with a high bit error rate.
We ended up using DummyNet on FreeBSD, mostly because we happened to have a high-end FreeBSD box handy...
Re:so.... (Score:3, Interesting)
I think the still haven't fixed the thing where Vista is limited [technet.com] to 100mbps if you are also playing audio [slashdot.org].
They should have stuck with the BSD network stack. As many bugs as they inserted into it to make it vulnerable, it still would pass traffic at the full data rate.
Re:Shit wifi performace is a standard Linux 'featu (Score:3, Interesting)
You know, I have noticed this with my laptop in my house. Under windows xp I get one bar of connection and its flaky at best. Granted this is on the other side of the house from the router and also on a different floor, so I am not surprised by that. But in the same location on the same laptop running an Ubuntu liveCD gets better signal and a much more reliable connection.
My guess is that the linux driver allows for a higher power setting, though over the years I've come to think that the Linux TCP/IP stack seems a little speedier than Windows... I dunno if that is really the case, but I like to think so :-)
Re:so.... (Score:3, Interesting)
I've found when transferring files across my local network, if I have any audio applications open I can't get more than 28-30 Mbps out of my wireless. If I close the audio application, I can often get over 40 Mbps.