[NBLUG/talk] making DSL run faster

[Kyle Rankin]

On Thu, May 01, 2003 at 03:58:57PM -0700, E Frank Ball wrote:
> This was linked on Slashdot today:
> http://www.benzedrine.cx/ackpri.html
> (does not render on Netscape 4.XX, mozilla works fine)
> 
> "Problem:
> I'm using an asymmetric DSL with 512 kbps downstream and 128 kbps
> upstream capacity (minus PPPoE overhead).  When I download, I get
> transfer rates of about 50 kB/s.  But as soon as I start a concurrent
> upload, the download rate drops significantly, to about 7 kB/s." ...
[snip]
> 
> http://lartc.org/lartc.html#LARTC.COOKBOOK.ULTIMATE-TC
> 
[snip]
> When uploading, downloads proceed at ~80% of the available speed. Uploads
> at around 90%. Latency then jumps to 850 ms, still figuring out why." 
> 
> 
> 
> I haven't tried it yet, and I'm not even sure how to, but I really want
> to, but this code is way over my head.  Any comments from the guru's?
> 
> Can I just edit the speeds in the CBQ script, run it, and magic will
> happen?  I'm using Debian woody with Kernel 2.2.something (ipchains).
...

Ahh, the WonderShaper program.  (http://lartc.org/wondershaper/)

I use this script on all of my firewalls.  It really is useful and helps if
you have assymetric DSL.  Unfortunately for you to use it, you will need to
make some changes to your system.

Wondershaper requires tc be installed (apt-get install iproute on debian)
but to use it, you need to enable traffic shaping in your kernel (which
needs to be from the 2.4 series).  So, grab the 2.4.20 kernel, and when
configuring it, under Networking options you need to enable "IP: advanced
routing" and I'd go ahead and enable all of the settings under that too.
That will enable you to do traffic shaping.

Once you have that built and running, you basically download the
wondershaper package and follow the docs, which are basically to edit the
upload and download rates to match (well, lower actually) your speeds.

-- 
Kyle Rankin (greenfly)
http://greenfly.org