[From the Archives of Amusing Technology…] Back in the ’90s, Dave Fisher and I created NameD•tective, a Macintosh control panel that gave any Mac on the Dartmouth network a static DNS name. It used Name Binding Protocol to let someone create a DNS name based on their name plus their AppleTalk zone. The DNS name
Last month, Comcast released a paper Improving Latency with Active Queue Management (AQM) During COVID-19 that shows that their PIE AQM dramatically decreases lag/latency (by a factor of 10X — from 250 msec down to 15-30 msec.) From the paper (page 13): … As explained earlier, for two variants of XB6 cable modem gateway,
At a recent videoconference, I advocated strongly for a consumer-facing measurement of latency/responsiveness. I had not planned to speak, so I gave off-the-cuff comments. This is an organized explanation of my position. I offer these thoughts for consideration at the IAB Workshop “Measuring Network Quality for End-Users, 2021” – Rich Brown I hunger for a
The link below goes to the current Internet Draft for Responsiveness under Working Conditions. It is available at: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-cpaasch-ippm-responsiveness/
My friends frequently ask, “Why is my network so slow?” And often, the answer is “latency” or the screwy term, “Bufferbloat” – the “undesirable latency caused when a router buffers too much data.” But what the heck does that mean? A while back, I attempted a layman’s explanation of Bufferbloat. I compared it to a
The NH Stone Wall Mapper project uses Lidar data to display small variations in ground elevation. A UNH project built this map to identify stone walls in the state. This site can be “misused” (in a good way) to show lots of other topographic features. Here’s a “Lidar view” of the grounds of Loch Lyme
A WireGuard VPN provides a fast, secure tunnel between endpoints. It uses public/private key pairs to encrypt the data. If you have several clients, you have to enter their public keys into your server. Keeping track of those keys gets to be a hassle, since ordinarily, the keys are essentially random numbers. I found a
A WireGuard VPN provides a fast, secure tunnel between endpoints. A macOS GUI client is available from the App Store It works great. But its documentation is minimal. Even though the required keywords (which you must type manually) are the same as other clients, the GUI doesn’t give a hint about whether it’s right until
A friend (thanks, Ted!) directed me to a nice science-based article that assigns some probabilities of risks of transmitting a disease like coronavirus. The author highlights two major scenarios: Warm body transmission: how far apart should you be from other people if you want to avoid transmission from another “warm body” Surface-based transmission: what precautions
Now that we’re computer conferencing all the time, I needed a better microphone, (My MacBook Pro’s built-in microphone doesn’t work well. The volume is too low – perhaps there’s something wrong.) I suspect many others would benefit from a better microphone, too. Not only do they give a better sound, but a microphone close to