Up thru 1.3.72, performance was "normal", with the xrn startup
taking about 3.5 minutes, and xpppmon showing a steady packet rate limited
only by the modem link, with an occasional minor glitch caused by a lost
packet every 60-90 seconds. This loss has been chronic, and coincides with
disk activity (update) due to a known latency problem in the SCSI area.
For kernels .73 & .74, packet loss got significantly worse, with a
lost packet every 2-10 seconds. The resulting timeout-retransmit from my
ISPs server increased the startup time by over 50%, but the link was still
usable locally. This loss level made high delay (overseas) connections
practically impossible. The xpppmon trace never got up to the normal
thruput levels, but did show packets flowed most of the time. There was no
disk activity or other processes running that correlated with the loss
timing.
Kernels .75 thru .77 then became much worse, with packet losses
increasing to about 35% of all packets. Only the shortest mail items could
get thru, and these taking over 10* the normal time. An attempt to use xrn
gets nowhere, with delays between retries quickly extending out to
minutes. Only an occasional small spike appears on the xpppmon display,
thruput is essentially zero. As best I can estimate, the loss rate of
kernels .75 thru .77 is about the same.
All the above comes from compiling kernels .70 thru .77, using the
same config for each, and trying them alternately at a time that the ISPs
server was lightly loaded. If anyone can spot a connection or clue, please
do so...
Bill Earnest wde@fast.net
Fax (610) 432-7477