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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@ppc970.osdl.org>2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@ppc970.osdl.org>2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700
commit1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 (patch)
tree0bba044c4ce775e45a88a51686b5d9f90697ea9d /Documentation/networking/Configurable
Linux-2.6.12-rc2v2.6.12-rc2
Initial git repository build. I'm not bothering with the full history, even though we have it. We can create a separate "historical" git archive of that later if we want to, and in the meantime it's about 3.2GB when imported into git - space that would just make the early git days unnecessarily complicated, when we don't have a lot of good infrastructure for it. Let it rip!
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+
+There are a few network parameters that can be tuned to better match
+the kernel to your system hardware and intended usage. The defaults
+are usually a good choice for 99% of the people 99% of the time, but
+you should be aware they do exist and can be changed.
+
+The current list of parameters can be found in the files:
+
+ linux/net/TUNABLE
+ Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt
+
+Some of these are accessible via the sysctl interface, and many more are
+scheduled to be added in this way. For example, some parameters related
+to Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) are very easily viewed and altered.
+
+ # cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/arp_timeout
+ 6000
+ # echo 7000 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/arp_timeout
+ # cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/arp_timeout
+ 7000
+
+Others are already accessible via the related user space programs.
+For example, MAX_WINDOW has a default of 32 k which is a good choice for
+modern hardware, but if you have a slow (8 bit) Ethernet card and/or a slow
+machine, then this will be far too big for the card to keep up with fast
+machines transmitting on the same net, resulting in overruns and receive errors.
+A value of about 4 k would be more appropriate, which can be set via:
+
+ # route add -net 192.168.3.0 window 4096
+
+The remainder of these can only be presently changed by altering a #define
+in the related header file. This means an edit and recompile cycle.
+
+ Paul Gortmaker 06/96