[Sussex] Mandriva faster at Internet than Windows

[Nico Kadel-Garcia]

Jacqui Caren wrote:
> John Milbank wrote:
>> I have an old 1200MHz computer with 512MB ram and an 80GB hard drive.
>>  
>> I have installed Windows XP Pro and Mandriva Spring 2008 as a dual 
>> boot. I use a D-Link ADSL modem that is connected to the computer 
>> with a network cable. This replaces the USB device provided by the 
>> Tesco internet service.
>>  
>> The Windows XP is fully patched. It is SP3. I also have AVG antivirus 
>> and Spybot S and D running on Windows.
>>  
>> The difference in performance between the two operating systems is 
>> astounding.
>>  
>> Mandriva Linux is much faster at loading web pages. It is so obvious 
>> that I am wondering if there are serious design flaws in Microsoft 
>> Windows.
>
> It is very likely an MTU/MRU size issue. FWICR windows boxen will not
> drop MTU size when establishing a DHCP link with the DSL modem
> but eh linux Dhclient/dhcpd will.
>
> This when badly configured can make a hell of a difference.
>
> The other issue can be the firewall. The web page pre/post scan
> change for a certain firewall has been causing "ructions".
And Anti-virus. And overwhelmingly complex browsers, and 'Helper' 
applications running in the toolbar. It takes some poking to tell what 
the real bottlenecks are.

>> I have two computers and the only one that can surf the web with 
>> Windows XP SP3 is the 2200 MHz Sempron. 1200 MHz is not enough for 
>> Windows.
>
> I have XP of ~1Gh machines and XP works well. My laptop is XP and 
> ~1.3GHz and works well with both XP and various linux distro's.
>
> Having said this I would never consider connecting a winods machine
> to a DSL modem - you are just asking for it. My home systesm hide behind
> one or two linux boxen and that stops most of the nasties getting 
> through.
>
> Jacqui
One *hopes* that the DSL modem is at least running a NAT, both for Linux 
use and Windows use? Leaving a Windows box directly exposed to the 
Internet is like sleeping on a bus with your laptop sitting in the cargo 
compartment. It's asking for trouble.