(PM) Analog PPP MultiLink: TI vs. Rockwell

drh-l2@drhilton.com
Wed, 27 May 1998 03:12:53 -0700 (PDT)

When I discovered that the ComOS beta supported m/l, I bought a
second Wisecom Rockwell internal. With one, I get about 42K
reliably, and can stay on line for days. I use an MTU of 1500
and a DTE of 115K. Its about a mile and a half from me to the
CO and back to the ISP. Their (my) lines are quite new. The
results were the same with Win98 and BSDI 3.1. With two, I
could get a reliable ~85K for days, if I 1) backed the MTU
to 750, 2) backed the DTE to 57K, 3) forced a lower connect
rate (40K) and 4) pulled the FIFO triggers (in Win98) back
to 1. Even so, I got a constant (but small) amount of CRC
errors. I did not try to mess with the FIFO in BSD, which
consistantly worked more reliably than Win98.

When I saw my clients connecting at 49333 with V.90, I bought
a couple of USR/3Com externals. With one, I also get the ~50K
connect, and get reliable transfers rates at a flat out 56k (Win
98 even says 58K). But I have failed to make multilink work with
Win98 and the USRs. Even with the MTU backed to 576, the connect
speed choked to 40K, the DTE at 57K and the FIFO at one, I get
swamped with CRC errors, and experienced my first overruns and
framing errors. With BSDI, though, I can usually leave the MTU
at 1500, set the connect rate to 48K, and get day-long transfers
at well over 100K.

So, Win98 won't do multilink with the USRs. Should I have stayed
with internals, perhaps? Your thoughts and comments are invited,
as multilink is a very marketable product in a community that
doesn't have ISDN.

TIA
- drh

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