From owner-freebsd-hackers Mon Jan 29 10:14:29 1996 Return-Path: owner-hackers Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id KAA18952 for hackers-outgoing; Mon, 29 Jan 1996 10:14:29 -0800 (PST) Received: from interbev.mindspring.com (interbev.mindspring.com [204.180.142.2]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with ESMTP id KAA18942 for ; Mon, 29 Jan 1996 10:14:22 -0800 (PST) Received: (from rsanders@localhost) by interbev.mindspring.com (8.7.Beta.13/8.7.Beta.2) id NAA26266; Mon, 29 Jan 1996 13:14:18 -0500 Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 13:14:18 -0500 From: Robert Sanders Message-Id: <199601291814.NAA26266@interbev.mindspring.com> To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org In-reply-to: David Greenman's message of Mon, 29 Jan 1996 06:22:43 EST Subject: Re: Why RFC1323 is disabled on freefall and freebsd.cdrom.com ? References: <199601291004.CAA29539@Root.COM> Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org Precedence: bulk On Mon, 29 Jan 1996 06:22:43 EST, David Greenman said: > It is disabled on both machines because they are public FTP/WWW servers, > and RFC1323 (and other TCP extensions) don't work for all people. > It will remain disabled until such time that 99.999% of the people out > there can deal with TCP extensions. Otherwise, we'll be getting way too many > bug reports. Wcarchive, for example, serves 20000 people a day; I'm sure you > can imagine the extremely high probability that more than one person per day > will run into this problem. :-) I earlier suggested that RFC1323 should be disabled by default in the FreeBSD distribution. In fact, I suggested it for the very same reasons that you disabled the RFC1323 extensions on the machines you maintain. It's even worse to leave the extensions enabled in the distributions; the average new FreeBSD user isn't in the know about the broken TCP stacks out there, and just sees that his shiny new BSD box can't use the network as well as Linux. The only places I see this timebomb mentioned is a cryptic comment in /etc/sysconfig and the FAQ under this heading: 10.10. I'm having problems with my NeXTStep machines and other FreeBSD ones accross PPP ...which may not describe the problem at all. For example, under -current I can't finger an AIX box without disabling RFC1644. No terminal server required. The counter-argument to disabling TCP extensions by default was that it would force vendors to fix their broken TCP stacks. That may be (though I doubt it), but it's much kinder to let our users consciously choose whether to be anti-vendor weapons or have systems that work. If nothing else, at least make this an option at install time or a large red flashing sign saying "WARNING: TCP extensions enabled by default, read manual section XX!" Most users who run into this problem spend hours on it; if you value your time enough (we all do!) to spare yourself the minutes a day it would require to answer the complaints about freefall and wcarchive, please value your users' time enough to spare them the agony of rediscovering this dubious "feature" time and time again. Thank you, and goodnight. You've been a great crowd :-) mountains? molehills? -- Robert