🚀 go-pugleaf

susanh@ossi.com (Susan Hunts) writes:

>1. Is this a reasonable approach?  Any major drawbacks I should know
>   about?  What kind of performance am I likely to see?  Any
>   problems with the PPP software and SunOS 4.1.1?

Yes it is reasonable. I've run PPP between my Sparcstation at home
(SunOS 4.1.1 and 4.1.2) and our campus net, mainly through a Telebit
Netblazer, but another Sparcstation will work just fine. What do you
mean by "performance" ? 'Interactive' (telnet, ftp)performance between
2 V.32bis modems is quite good, although sometimes you do notice
you're not on a 10MB/s ether..

>2. Does building, installing, configuring, etc. require a guru?  The
>   PPP software appears to have nice, clear cookbook instructions
>   which can be followed by a neophyte.  Any additional hints or tips 
>   someone would like to pass on?  What about setting up the modems?

Building and installing it doesn't require guru status (although it
certainly doesn't hurt :-} ), as the instructions are pretty clear. I
think there was a file that needed to be copied into /usr/include
somewhere that the instructions didn't mention.

If you're going to be running NFS over the link, I'd recommend turning
on UDP checksumming in your kernels (Its OFF by default in SunOS 4.x):

gonzo csh[42]:adb -k /vmunix /dev/mem
physmem 1bf3
udp_cksum?
  _udp_cksum:
  _udp_cksum:     0               = unimp         0x0
udp_cksum/w 1
  _udp_cksum:     0x0     =       0x1
$q


using a '?' instead of '/' will change the value both in the running
kernel and /vmunix on disk. If you use the '/', it only gets changed
in the running kernel, and will be set back to 0 when you reboot. If
you want to generate new kernels with udp checksumming turned on, you
can change /usr/sys/`arch`/OBJ/udp_usrreq.o with the adb in the same manner.

>3. Any comments on choice of modems?  (Cost is a factor.)  If there's
>   a random modem available for free, what minimum capability should
>   it have?

Go for the highest speed modems you can. There is a noticeable
difference between V.32 (9600) and V.32bis (14400), at least in terms
of how fast the link 'feels'. So, at a minimum, make sure you have
V.32. I dont know how/if MNP/compression helps. Perhaps someone here
has done some testing in this area ? I dont think you'd want to run NFS over
anything slower than a 9600 baud link....

							/AWF
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internet: feigin@iis.ethz.ch				 Adam W. Feigin
UUCP:{backbones}!iis!feigin			     Network Systems Manager
Mail: Integrated Systems Laboratory	      Institute for Integrated Systems
      ETH-Zentrum			  Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
      CH-8092 Zurich				       Zurich, Switzerland
      Switzerland
Phone: +41 1 256 50 53
      
  "In Confession, you blame yourself, in analysis, you blame everyone else"