response 59 of 219:

Dec 30 16:08 UTC 2004

Re resp:41: Are you running a 2.6 kernel, by any chance?  If so, try
this as root:

sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_default_win_scale=0

This turns off TCP window scaling.  It's on by default in 2.6.8 and
later, and some routers and operating systems don't handle it properly.
OpenBSD is one that's be identified by the Linux kernel developers as
problematic.  (The reaction by OpenBSD developers, judging from the list
posts I've seen, seems to be "Linux 2.6 is unstable and you shouldn't be
running it."  So don't hold your breath waiting for a fix.)

If adjusting that sysctl solves your problem, add this to
/etc/sysctl.conf or the equivalent in your distribution:
net.ipv4.tcp_default_win_scale=0

More info is available here:
http://www.apu.edu/imt/awg/node/view/101

response 65 of 219:

Dec 30 21:51 UTC 2004

(#54 is the answer to #50's question, which was repeated in #56.  It's nice
to see that the subsequent responses echoed #54. :)

response 67 of 219:

Dec 30 22:18 UTC 2004

Thanks, Jim. :)

response 69 of 219:

Dec 31 00:44 UTC 2004

I ran a script that updated .login and .profile files, but only if they
were pretty close to the original distributed versions.  People who have
modified theirs much will have to fix them themselves.

There are two changes that need to be made to tset commands.  First the
path has changed from /usr/ucb/bin to /usr/bin.  Second, if you are
using the following syntax

    tset -m something  -m something  $TERM

It should be changed to

    tset -m something  -m something

That is, delete the '$TERM' thing.

I did this to nearly everyone's .login and .profile files, but my script
was conservative about not modifying things that had already been
modified.

I want to avoid as much as possible putting in symlinks for things like
this.  They would have to be there forever, they'd have to be recreated
everytime the system is upgraded.  I'd rather have the few people who
the script missed fix things once instead doing it over and over again
for the rest of my life.

It is useless and harmless to have /usr/ucb in your path.  I also don't
recommend putting /suidbin in your path.  Since that is non-standard, we
always have symlinks to anything you need there.

response 71 of 219:

Dec 31 03:09 UTC 2004

Re: #60. That worked a treat, thanks very much.

Hmm. If Linux 2.6 is "unstable", maybe I should try installing OpenBSD and
seeing what "stability" is like (I presume at least one recent version of
their system rates "stable" in their eyes). Personally, I think if WindowsXP
were so "unstable" as to require a one-line change in one config file to work
with an obscure OS's obscure network communication program, Open Source UNIX
wouldn't stand a chance in hell.

response 73 of 219:

Dec 31 03:24 UTC 2004

I don't know, but the OpenBSD folks seem to think it has something to do with
it; see above.

response 75 of 219:

Dec 31 03:33 UTC 2004

Ah; I see. For a minute I thought *they* thought the two were connected.
Anyway, the point still stands that stability (or the lack of it) is in the
eye of the beholder. This Gentoo box is running gentoo-dev-sources, the
development version of the tweaked Gentoo kernel, without problems so far
after four weeks of use (touch wood).

response 77 of 219:

Dec 31 21:38 UTC 2004

Grex panicked.  So I cycled the power.

response 79 of 219:

Jan 1 16:55 UTC 2005

What was the cause of the panic?

(And they say Linux 2.6 is unstable. Apart from panics that result from
incorrectly specified boot parameters or an incorrectly built new kernel,
I've not seen one in years.

response 81 of 219:

Jan 2 13:42 UTC 2005

Please realize that Grex is using OpenBSD. OpenBSD is not intended to be
highly stable, although it tends to be. Nowhere in OpenBSD's stated goals will
you find the word "stable" :). OpenBSD emphasizes "portability,
standardization, correctness, proactive security and integrated cryptography"
(openbsd.org).