linux TCP stack performance tuning?

trepanne · n00b Joined: 23 Aug 2003 Posts: 35

all right. so i've got this box double-booted, windows XP and gentoo; setting it up as a KDE desktop.

web browsing is quite bad under linux. extremely long latency in beginning http downloads, throughput is OK once it gets going but not great... the worst problem is that connections often hang and leave web pages partially downloaded FOREVER and don't really time out.

this poor performance is the same on both konqueror and opera.
in fact, it's the same across gentoo and debian, and several different kernel versions under each distribution.

however, the same machine zips right along the web under windows XP.

i am beginning to suspect the TCP windowing parameters.
i live in taiwan and access most websites in USA, which sends packets over some really horribly oversubscribed subsea FO cables.
this doesn't help, but i'm at a loss to explain the performance differential between linux & windows in the same environment.

is there any good online guide to troubleshooting this wretched network performance, to isolate the source of trouble? and tuning the TCP connection parameters, if that is indeed my trouble?

i am new to linux; the whole /proc branch of the filesystem frightens me, and i'd appreciate any help.

trp

nikai · Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2003 1:34 pm Post subject:

You can do that with ifconfig, like

devon · l33t Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 943

Also, have a look at /usr/src/linux/Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt for an explanation for all those choices under /proc/sys/net/ipv4/.