Internet Connection Limits
Submitted by forsytad on September 16, 2009 - 8:07am
We manage our internet connection with a piece of equipment called a NetEqualizer. The NetEqualizer’s job is to ensure that all of our internet users share the available bandwidth in a fair manner. One way it does this is to limit the number of simultaneous network connections that each computer can make. The limit is set to a total of 40 (20 incomming and 20 outgoing).
Many network applications like web browsing make several connections at the same time, but these connections typically last for only a very short period of time, and are unlikely to add up to enough connections for the user to reach the connection limit.
Applications like P2P file sharing tend to make a bunch of long lasting connections, and are much more likely to cause a user to reach their connection limit.
When a user is hitting their connection limit, new network connections are rejected. This can result in an experience of the network seeming slow, or sporadic (for example you have to click a web link several times before it will actually load).
The solution to this problem is to limit the number of connections your computer is making. Look for a setting in your p2p program that will limit the number of connections it makes at a time. Also you can turn that type of program off when you want to use your computer for other purposes.
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Very interesting. How do I tell how many simultaneous connections my computer is making? I don’t use any P2P software, but my internet connection has certainly seemed “sporadic” since I’ve been back this year. I always have multiple browser tabs open, etc…does this cause multiple connections to be opened? Multiple different browsers? Is there any way for me to see when my connections are being blocked?
Good Question
It does seem like it would be nice if a web page existed where you could see how many connections you are currently using. I’d try to build such a web page, but I have trouble seeing how it could be made to provide information that was actually useful in practice. The reason I don’t think it would turn out to be useful is that the connection limiting is done on a second by second basis. So a lot of luck of when exactly you loaded the web page would be involved in determining what information you’d see.
It would be pretty rare that you’d run into this limit by web browsing. When you open a web page in your web browser, the browser loads the page and the pictures on it simultaneously. It does make several connections at the same time to do that, but they last only a short period of time. At that point the page is loaded and the connections are no longer open. The same holds true for multiple browsers and multiple tabs. Once the page is loaded it generally doesn’t do any more network activity, and if it does its in short little bursts that don’t tend to add up.