[nzlug] Bridging network cards and speeds

[Nevyn]

On 9/11/07, Nick 'Zaf' Clifford <zaf at nrc.co.nz> wrote:
> Warren Boyd wrote:
> > On 11/9/07 08:09, "Nick 'Zaf' Clifford" <zaf at nrc.co.nz> wrote:
> >
> > I really worded it all wrong ... This is my play LAN (and home network) ...
> > the reason why, is basically to giggles and laughs - it's all just learning
> > about what can be done (bridging, transparent firewalls) - and the impacts
> > of it all.
> >
> Ahh, in that case, have fun :)
>
> Go ahead and bridge it, should be fine, and don't forget to report back
> on any problems and solutions found :)
>
> As I said earlier, the bridge will store-and-forward, so in theory there
> shouldn't be any technical problems, except when it comes to high loads.
>
> I'd be interested to see what happens if you load the network up with
> various transfers, effectively flooding the gigabit. Does the 100mbit
> cope? How much packet loss do you get? Does the linux kernel warn its
> dropping packets?
>
> > Not sure that I would have done this in a "real world" situation ...
> >
> > Thanks to both Nick and Martin for their advice and help though - I'm going
> > to return back to lurking.
> >
> Ok, sorry that I may have come off a bit gruff, but please feel free to
> contribute, and not hide in the corner :)
>
> Nick

While we're on the subject, I don't understand terribly much about
network engineering myself. Can anyone suggest a good website which
gives you an idea of how all of this stuff works? I mean, I get (most
of) the basics but I'd love to be able to identify bottlenecks, be
able to say for certain that speeds between this computer and that
computer are only going to be 100Mb despite there being a gigabit
switch in the fold somewhere etc.