Stuart Henderson wrote: > On 2006/10/04 10:42, Richard P. Koett wrote: >> I'm setting up a Soekris net4801-50 (128 Mb RAM) for use as a >> firewall. For storage it has a 40Gb IDE drive rather than compact >> flash. For my first attempt I used a generic install of OpenBSD >> 3.9. The user complained that Internet access seemed slow, however. >> I'm planning to try again using a custom kernel based on the config >> file included with Chris Cappuccio's Flashdist installer. (A copy >> is provided below for reference). Is this a good idea? > > I don't think a custom kernel will help internet access speeds. > There are some reasons you might want (or need) to use a custom > kernel, this isn't one of them... > > Slow in comparison to what? If you can give some more idea about > 'seemed slow' that might help. Quantitative data especially. > Collecting that data might give you your own clues too. Any > particular sites or everywhere? Any particular protocols? Has the way > DNS is being done changed? Are you using PF? Are the network > interfaces configured properly (esp. duplex setting)? etc. etc.
The device was reported to be slow in comparison to their previous router - a SonicWALL SOHO3. I know that the SonicWALL is a highly optimized device. This led me to think I might need some optimization to compete. I didn't do any quantitative speed measurements at the time. I'm just going on qualitative comments from the users. As for your other questions, there was particular mention of e-mail seeming slow. My first thought was that I was filtering IDENT connections without sending a reset packet (yes, I'm using pf) but that wasn't the case. DNS hasn't changed. I'll check the duplex settings etc. when I reinstall the device. If I continue to have speed problems on my second attempt I'll post some quantitative information. Thanks very much for assisting. RPK.
