To begin with I have not applied and am not using the patches provided by Julian Anastasov. http://www.linuxvirtualserver.org/~julian/ I do not believe at the moment they apply to the problem I am having. If they are I will go through the process of applying the patch. They mostly have to due with what happens when a connection dies. At the moment both of my connections are live, and I am having other problems. I am trying to use more than one internet connection and seem to keep running into the same problem no matter how I address it. At the moment you can establish a connection using either line without a problem. After a little while the connection will be dropped as the linux router attempts to use a different interface. The connection will only be re-connected after the new route has expired in the route's cache. Then the connection can continue on the same interface it was originally established under for a period of time until the whole thing repeats itself. What I would like to happen is if a connection from the outside is established, the linux router will continue to keep the connection on the same interface until the user drops the connection. At which time if the connection is re-established by the user the linux router then could use a different interface but it should only use the interface that the connection was established under. I have made some progress playing around with the gc_interval gc_timeout and gc_elasticity. I also started looking at the code behind the routing and gc logic in the route.c file in the linux kernel source. It appears that the gc does not compare which routes to keep or which routes to drop. It just does sort of a first come first out sweep. Also it is my assumption from the code and experimentation that the gc_elasticity effects the amounts of routes which are cleared out by the gc. So if you decrease the gc_interval and gc_timeout it may still take a while to clear out the route in cache, by gc 8 routes at a time, the default. I have increased it gradually to 256 the size of the route cache, and my gc_interval and gc_timeout appear to be a little more accurate based on the time it takes in real life to re-establish the connection. So aside from the route caching issue I really want to know why in the middle of a connection the router will stop using one interface and begin using another. I have tried both ip route default equalize and just ip route default for the multipath route table. I have also tried both ip route append default table 20 metric 1 proto static and ip route append prohibit default table 20 metric 1 proto static for each interface. So each interface has a table showing which gateway to use. Those tables have a higher priority and should be checked/used before the multipath table. As per examples in both http://www.linuxvirtualserver.org/~julian/nano.txt http://www.linuxvirtualserver.org/~julian/dgd-usage.txt Each of those examples do things a little differently so that alone is fairly confusing. Bottom line I am stuck at the moment with it dropping and re-establishing connections no matter what I do. I have been able to decrease the time it takes to re-establish, but I believe that also effects the time the connection will last for before needing to be re-established. On the other hand, if a request is sent from inside to the outer world without having a connection from the outside world previously established it then could use the multipath route. I would assume the routing tables, rules, and their priorities would effect this but it does not seem to do the job. I also tried to turn off rp_filter, just to see if it could come in one interface and go out another. Once again no noticeable difference. I did not try setting the rp_filter to 2, for increased filtering. Has anybody else experienced this or know of a solution. My gut is telling me that the logic in the route cache gc might need to be improved, but I am not sure that is really it or not. Knowing my luck the solution is right under my nose and I am missing it. I am about ready to daisy chain the routers and attempt to use both connections that way if I can get out on both using a single ip as the gateway. My deepest gratitude to anyone who can help or come up with a solution. I am more than willing to pay back the favor in some manor or another. FYI, I am currently using kernel 2.2.19 that comes as part of the old Linux Router Project version 2.9.8. I have made attempts to compile my own kernel, but have not had any luck booting off of it due to the use of a ram disc as the root file system. Basically I wanted to replace the Linux Router Kernel with mine, but seem to run into problems mounting the root file system. Errors and problems for another list. If the version of my kernel is the problem or if I need Julian's patches that is the route I will take. Also if it matters I am using a 75mhz pentium with 24mb ram. Using a 16 mb ram disk, with 8mb left over to use for memory. It seems to screem, but my gc may be delayed by the processor not being able to keep up? -- Sincerely, William L. Thomson Jr. Obsidian-Studios, Inc. 439 Amber Way Petaluma, Ca. 94952 Phone 707.766.9509 Fax 707.766.8989 http://www.obsidian-studios.com -- Sincerely, William L. Thomson Jr. Support Group Obsidian-Studios Inc. 439 Amber Way Petaluma, Ca. 94952 Phone 707.766.9509 Fax 707.766.8989 http://www.obsidian-studios.com
