Packet Sizes?

[-SpYrL-]

I've been on D.net for a while but I never really asked exactly what the difference in packet sizes are. I leave mine at the default of 30...

-SpYrL-

 

[poohke]

well.. larger packets means less discactivity I believe

 

[JonB]

When you set a size value, you are telling D.Net the maximum size they should send you on a "fetch." Packet (block) sizes tell you how many RC5 Keys there are, based on exponents.

a packet (block) size of 28 is 2 to the 28th power (2^28) (268 Million)
a packet (block) size of 30 is 2 to the 30th power (2^30) (1 Billion, or four times larger than 2^28)

etc., etc., up to 2^32 or 2^33, last time I checked.

 

[LeBlatt]

Biggest packet a client can handle is 2^33, that is 32 blocks.

Large packets may give slightly better performance because of less writing to disk, however if your machines are not the most stable (some users like the reset button) you'll want to set checkpoints on (writes every 10mn or every 10% of packet done, whichever comes first).

The main advantage of large packets is reduced log size on pproxies, and less memory usage at Mika's

Pproxies handle packets of up to 64 blocks (2^34) so we may see such packets on our clients soon.

 

[dkappos]

I think that this is exactly what you need:

http://forums.anandtech.com/arcmessageview.cfm?catid=39&threadid=193654

 

[ViRGE]

LeBlatt, proxies handle 2^34 blocks(mega-blocks) to keep disk/bandwidth usage down for Dnet and the proxy operators. After a proxy gets them, it can then break it down to the size needed.

 

[vss1980]

Actually, do any proxies give out 2^32 blocks? That's what I set my client to but the TA proxy just sends out the dull and boring 2^28 blocks.

 

[ViRGE]

They can give out up to 2^33, but fragmentation often gets in the way.:Q

 

[RaySun2Be]

I get my blocks for the work herd from Clueless' proxy, and seem to get 2*33 most of the time.

 

[RC]

Is there an easy way to specify one proxy for fetching and another for flushing? Last night I attempted to find a key server that would give me large blocks (2*33 ) but could not find one. Yes, I did try Clueless. It would be great if the dnet client had the option to refuse a packet if it is deemed to be too small.


Thanks for the tip regarding Clueless' proxy. Last night was the first time for me to try Clueless' proxy, perhaps it was just a bad time to look for large blocks.

Can someone explain why one pproxy would have larger blocks compared to another pproxy? The source for all blocks is the same - distributed.net.

 

[ViRGE]

It's all timing. If clueless(or any other proxy) checks into a Dnet proxy that just got a fresh load of blocks, it can easily get the prefered mega-blocks it wants. It'll then distribute them out to the clients, and will hand them out in FIFO order I belive, breaking them down when nessicary. If a bunch of clients using smaller blocks have droped by before you or the proxy you fetch from can get there, you'll usually find the remaining blocks from the smaller clients. Timing is of the essence.:Q