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Xref: sserve comp.os.linux:32177 comp.os.386bsd.questions:1168 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!igor.rutgers.edu!geneva.rutgers.edu!hedrick From: hedrick@geneva.rutgers.edu (Charles Hedrick) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux,comp.os.386bsd.questions Subject: Re: 386bsd, linux: which runs more out of the box? Message-ID: <Mar.29.23.07.34.1993.4241@geneva.rutgers.edu> Date: 30 Mar 93 04:07:43 GMT References: <hwr.732964586@snert.ka.sub.org> <1ou728INNhfn@aludra.usc.edu> <ins407x.733191967@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au> <C4JopF.KrH@sugar.neosoft.com> Followup-To: comp.os.linux Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 27 peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >I was particularly disturbed on hearing Linux was using KA9Q as the base of >its networking code. I'm all too familiar with *that* software. It's an >amazing feat, getting networking up on DOS (or any system with no usable >O/S)... but the result is a program with all sorts of weirdnesses. This is wrong. Linux has a full TCP/IP implementation in the kernel. It was written from scratch for Linux. I would have preferred a port of the BSD networking code. But since one purpose of Linux is to be a backup in case there are legal problems with Networking 2, I guess it's safest to do it from scratch. There is a KA9Q port available for Linux. As far as I can tell, it is used only for SLIP and the ham radio devices. People with Ethernets use the kernel TCP/IP. Kernel SLIP is still in pre-alpha. KA9Q is a stopgap, though in my opinion a fairly good one. For a single-user end user machine, it has reasonable facilities. As a network server, it leaves a lot to be desired. The architecture isn't bad for a user-mode TCP/IP. It uses select intelligently, and is fairly efficient and responsive. (In fact I find that I prefer the feel of telnet under KA9Q to kermit.) There's a separate telnet program that talks to it, so you can run telnet sessions from several X windows (or virtual consoles) if you want. There's also X support, so Linux will pass packets through to the X server. This lets you open X windows via SLIP. But KA9Q is not intended as the final Linux solution for SLIP.