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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!chi-news.cic.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!svc.portal.com!news1.best.com!shellx.best.com!shellx.best.com!not-for-mail From: rcarter@shellx.best.com (Russell Carter) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: BSD networking advantages Date: 16 Dec 1995 09:58:23 -0800 Organization: Best Internet Communications Lines: 50 Message-ID: <4av1bv$bhd@shellx.best.com> References: <4ath91$bqb@duckula.cs.utexas.edu> <MICHAELV.95Dec15232542@MindBender.HeadCandy.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: shellx.best.com In article <MICHAELV.95Dec15232542@MindBender.HeadCandy.com>, Michael L. VanLoon <michaelv@MindBender.HeadCandy.com> wrote: >In article <4ath91$bqb@duckula.cs.utexas.edu> gajit@cs.utexas.edu (Ajit George) writes: > > I've seen several statements to the effect of xBSD networking being > better than Linux networking. Can someone clue me into some > specifics. I've heard IP firewalling mentioned... > > I currently run Linux, but I'm planning on setting up a LAN gateway in > the near future and would like to consider my options. > >The networking advantage comes from the fact that it is genuine BSD >networking code. This is the same networking code that, in essence, >birthed the Internet, and TCP/IP many years ago, only more modern. >This is the same networking code that Sun built a Unix networking >powerhouse out of, in SunOS. That DEC Ultrix, etc. used as a base for >years. > >Basically, if it doesn't work with BSD code, it's probably broken. > >On the other hand, the Linux networking code is a from-scratch clone. >It is reported to have many flaws and be logically broken by some, and >to be totally perfect by others. The truth lies somewhere in between. >What has been verified by many is that the Linux NFS code is still in >need of tuning and further refinement to come close to that offered in >the BSDs. For several years and right up to the last time I measured it, a couple of months ago, Linux NFS *serving* performs so slowly as to justifiably called broken. Second, the 100BASE-TX support in Linux is between 2-3x slower than the identically configured card in a FreeBSD system. Put the two together, and you can have a FreeBSD (or NetBSD system, I believe) that will serve reads and writes (asynchronous) at 1-3 MBytes/s. And NFS3 is coming, which will get rid of that asynchronous bugaboo. That's probably 10-20x faster than any Linux box can serve. Now what if you were an ISP, and wanted to add a Pentium or two to your startup single system configuration in order to add throughput, redundancy, etc. *BSD networking scales, Linux does not. Everything else bad I have heard about Linux networking is completely unverified (by me). Some FreeBSD networking performance numbers are available at http://www.geli.com/data/net.perf.html Regards, Russell