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#1 2004-12-15 22:25:17

Dusty
Schwag Merchant
From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
Registered: 2004-01-18
Posts: 5,986
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Confused about IP traffic control

I've been reading through the information provided at lartc.org to try to solve a simple traffic QoS problem. Its given me hope that I can solve the problem, but its a little too in depth for my current knowledge level.

Basically, the problem is this: I want to have pacman download stuff "in background" so that all other data in forground. In other words, I want to divide incoming TCP data into two priorities. I want packets coming from ftp.archlinux.org to receive lower priority than all other packets.

I think I may be able to achieve this with the pfifo_fast queue: http://lartc.org/howto/lartc.qdisc.clas … tml#AEN659

if I could figure out how to put ftp.archlinux.org packets into a lower priority queue.  Would this work? Does anybody know what command I need to set this up?  Is there a better way of queing the packets?

The lartc HOWTO refers to a command 'tc' that seems to do all this magic... only, what package would that be in?  :oops:

(EDIT: Got it: pacman -S iproute.... now what?)

The idea here is to allow pacman updates to happen more or less painlessly in idle periods while I'm surfing the web. As it is, I can be either downloading stuff or surfing the web. Trying to combine the two on this crummy dialup connection is starting to put horrible keyboard key shaped impressions on my forehead.

Thanks,
Dusty

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#2 2004-12-16 07:48:51

Xentac
Forum Fellow
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2003-01-17
Posts: 1,797
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Re: Confused about IP traffic control

http://monkey.org/~marius/pages/?page=trickle

I just ran into this, maybe this is all you really need.


I have discovered that all of mans unhappiness derives from only one source, not being able to sit quietly in a room
- Blaise Pascal

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#3 2004-12-16 16:00:09

phrakture
Arch Overlord
From: behind you
Registered: 2003-10-29
Posts: 7,879
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Re: Confused about IP traffic control

i think i still have trickle in my repo... you can view the pkgbuild by browsing to it if ya want... to make life easier... needs libevent, which is there as well

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#4 2004-12-16 16:42:55

Dusty
Schwag Merchant
From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
Registered: 2004-01-18
Posts: 5,986
Website

Re: Confused about IP traffic control

I'll try it. I don't understand the priority mechanism. The manpage for the config file says see the manpage for the trickled daemon for more information, but that man page has no information on priorities. :-D I'll try downloading it later. A friend offered to download all the big files I need to reinstall Arch, so its not quite as important. It would be nice if I could just have pacman running Syu whenever I'm connected to the Internet without really noticing that its running though.

Thanks for the links!

Dusty

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#5 2004-12-17 00:19:15

Dusty
Schwag Merchant
From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
Registered: 2004-01-18
Posts: 5,986
Website

Re: Confused about IP traffic control

I still can't figure out priorities, but I think limiting trickle to 1 KB in both directions will work well; I can still browse the web... I think when I get it all up to date I'll set it to run trickle -d1 -u1 pacman -Syu whenever I connect to the Internet and I shouldn't even notice it. Thanks!

Dusty

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#6 2004-12-17 03:51:47

phrakture
Arch Overlord
From: behind you
Registered: 2003-10-29
Posts: 7,879
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Re: Confused about IP traffic control

i'm just wondering why exactly you're doing this?

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#7 2004-12-17 16:51:24

Dusty
Schwag Merchant
From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
Registered: 2004-01-18
Posts: 5,986
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Re: Confused about IP traffic control

I'm doing it because I have 180 hours per month connection to the Internet and I can't afford to have stuff downloading while I lose all ability to browse the web or carry on an IM conversation. This way, I can do the downloads while I'm doing the interactive stuff too.  Since things like xorg take a week to download anyway, it may as well happen in the background over two weeks... one week, two weeks, its all the same when you've run out of patience. I have to do something.

It would actually be better if I could figure out how to make all ftp packets come in only if there are not other packets waiting. Then it could use my full bandwidth (a meager 3 KB / second) unless there's something 'more important' coming in. I don't mind starving pacman when I'm downloading a web page, but I don't want pacman to be starving mozilla. It slow enough as it is.

But this will work for now. I might be moving in the fall. Then I can get broadband of some sort.

Dusty

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#8 2004-12-17 17:01:40

phrakture
Arch Overlord
From: behind you
Registered: 2003-10-29
Posts: 7,879
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Re: Confused about IP traffic control

Dusty wrote:

I might be moving in the fall. Then I can get broadband of some sort.

Move to Chicago, broadband is about 13-20 USD a month

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#9 2004-12-17 17:25:18

Dusty
Schwag Merchant
From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
Registered: 2004-01-18
Posts: 5,986
Website

Re: Confused about IP traffic control

I may only have to move as far as town. :-P I'm three miles outside the radius right now.

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#10 2004-12-17 20:52:18

i3839
Member
Registered: 2004-02-04
Posts: 1,185

Re: Confused about IP traffic control

If it's only pacman then you can use wget with the --limit-rate option. For instance, I use:

XferCommand = /usr/bin/wget --passive-ftp --limit-rate=40k -c -O %o %u -T 30 -t 5

in pacman.conf.

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#11 2004-12-17 21:34:37

phrakture
Arch Overlord
From: behind you
Registered: 2003-10-29
Posts: 7,879
Website

Re: Confused about IP traffic control

i3839 wrote:

If it's only pacman then you can use wget with the --limit-rate option. For instance, I use:

XferCommand = /usr/bin/wget --passive-ftp --limit-rate=40k -c -O %o %u -T 30 -t 5

in pacman.conf.

heh, i3839 wins this one, good call

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#12 2004-12-17 23:46:11

Dusty
Schwag Merchant
From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
Registered: 2004-01-18
Posts: 5,986
Website

Re: Confused about IP traffic control

this is one of those *smacks forehead* moments.  Its not just pacman; but I can use wget for most all major downloads too, so it all works out.

Thanks.

Dusty

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