slow external ssh speed

AlexS · 2010-10-29 16:26:17

I'm running an old toshiba laptop as a server (0.6 GHz), and I'm quite frustrated at the huge latency I experience when connecting to it via ssh from outside home (2-3s between key press and visual feedback).

Within my domestic network there is no issue, I can create a sshfs mount and play videos over the wireless, so the problem is not due to lack of cpu power. Domestic ssh connections are snappy, does not feel any different than using my own terminal.

The internet connection seems also not to be the issue, since I can for instance easily use skype, which for sure is more demanding on upload bandwidth than a ssh connection.

I've tried the tips suggested in the Arch Wiki ssh page (compression, encryption options, etc), without any noticeable improvement.

I could find no clue about this issue on the forum. Why is ssh from non domestic computers so slow, I doubt my ISP would throttle ssh connections, and I don't really see how a router misconfiguration could lead to this. Any suggestions?

toffyrn · 2010-10-29 19:27:15

How are other services performing on that server?

AlexS · 2010-10-29 20:00:54

toffyrn wrote:

How are other services performing on that server?

I only use rtorrent and wget, on it, but I did not notice a problem. I don't actually use the server for hosting sites, etc.

Back home, I checked that it's the same with my main laptop (also Arch), ssh'ing to an external server is doggedly slow.

I did a speed test on speedtest.net, and it came with the following results (from a server 50 km away):
download 4.88 Mb/s
upload 0.03 Mb/s
ping 1657ms

Which is pretty terrible, and I guess explains most of it. Now I need to bark at the ISP customer service

toffyrn · 2010-10-30 11:55:03

ouch... that is over one and a half second for ping...

Last edited by toffyrn (2010-10-30 11:55:56)

R00KIE · 2010-10-30 14:40:42

AlexS wrote:

I only use rtorrent ...

So you use a torrent client, which can saturate your connection to the world and you are still surprised it is slow?

Local network is always snappy unless there is something seriously wrong, stop rtorrent and anything else you may have running, reboot your router for good measure and try again _without_ anything else running. You do know that 0.03 Mb/s upload speed is not much (probably your upload speed is higher but the torrents are using it) and over 1.5s of ping time doesn't help either.

You can tweak rtorrent's settings to use less connections and maybe limit the upload speed but it will always have some impact.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-10-29 16:26:17

slow external ssh speed

#2 2010-10-29 19:27:15

Re: slow external ssh speed

#3 2010-10-29 20:00:54

Re: slow external ssh speed

#4 2010-10-30 11:55:03

Re: slow external ssh speed

#5 2010-10-30 14:40:42

Re: slow external ssh speed

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