Date: Sun, 03 Nov 2002 13:12:54 -0600
From: "J.D. Bronson" <lists@...c.com>
To: popa3d-users@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: Re: performance under solaris

At 01:02 PM 11/3/2002, you wrote:
>On Sun, Nov 03, 2002 at 07:25:09AM -0600, J.D. Bronson wrote:
> > It is a little hard to describe, but basically when we use qpopper and 
> have
> > a sizable mail spool file, it is 'popped' down very fast and continously
> > flowing.
> >
> > However, with popa3d I see pauses (although not of any duration to 
> speak of)
> > when grabbing this same exact mail spool file.  grab-pause-grab-pause and
> > so on...
>
>How long are the pauses?

1-2 seconds....enough to be noticed, but not enough to be a problem :-/


>What network equipment is in use between the server and the client?
>What bandwidth?  What client OS?

100MB/FD switches/cards. All on the same LAN segment. Clients run XP Pro.

> > I was therefore wondering if there are any suggestions with buffer
> > adjustments (?) or similar within the params.h file to improve my
> > performance.
>
>Well, this sounds like a networking problem, so you may try one of the
>following:
>
>1. Investigate and solve it.  tcpdump may be helpful.  You may post
>some details in here (but please keep your message size under 10 KB),
>such that me or others might be able to help.
>
>2. Try to workaround it by reducing buffer size to be under MTU.  Set
>RETR_BUFFER_SIZE to be less than half your MTU, say, to 700 bytes.
>(The "less than half" is because content may be at worst doubled by
>LF -> CRLF expansion.)

This sounds interesting :)

>You may first try the latter to confirm the problem as MTU-related,
>then go for the former to really solve it.
>
>Of course, the smaller buffer size is less efficient.
>
>--
>/sd

OTOH, since running spop3d or qpopper result in higher performance, I doubt 
there is anything on my network that needs fixing......:-/

However, I am presuming that these programs make use of something in a 
different manner than popa3d and hence I was wondering what tweaks (if any) 
are available to popa3d...if there is nothing, it was simply worth asking.

I am satisfied with popa3d, but always looking for speed improvements.
I am installing an xBSD machine and will test popa3d on there for a simple 
comparison. Some POP3 daemons fly on some OS's and others fail miserably 
with performance.

Thanks for the reply...






-- 
J.D. Bronson
Aurora Health Care // Information Systems // Milwaukee, WI USA
Office: 414.978.8282 // Fax: 414.328.8282 // Pager: 414.603.8282

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