For example, you will be able to take a one-gigabit pipe and break off 1,000 users into a subnet mask to share 100 megabits (with smoother results than current versions). Most routers that break out chunks of bandwidth use harsh rate control methods such as dropping packets when the limit is reached. Although there will be a small margin of error, the optimizations and techniques used to break off larger chunks of bandwidth and shape them smoothly without dropping packets rivals that of carrier class shapers sold for 10 times our cost (click here for a NetEqualizer price list).

The following features and enhancements will also be available with Carrier Class 4.0:

• Full one- to 32-bit mask fields for hard limits -- You can now take any IP address and specify a mask in x.x.x.x/y format where y is the number of bits you wish to mask. All IP addresses in the masked range will receive the specified hard limit (Hard limits are individual rate limits for an IP address).
• Pools support masks - You can now add members to a bandwidth pool using a mask field of the form x.x.x.x/y, Y can range from one to 32. The NetEqualizer will automatically add members of the range specified as they become active and retire them if they become inactive. This optimization will allow users to specify large ranges without overwhelming the system.
• Full one- to 32-bit masking for traffic masking - You can now use the NetEqualizer masking function with odd numbered mask specifications, prior to this release only /24 and /16 masks were allowed.
• Pool number displayed in active connection table - You can now see if a connection is part of a pool, the pool number will be displayed in the last column of the connection table.
• Support for URL-based blocking - Now you can block a list of URL's. This feature is commonly used by libraries and private institutions where there is a mandate to block particular recreational sites. In the initial release, customers need only supply a config file with all URLs by name that they wish to block and then hit the start button. In future releases, we will be contracting with providers that supply updated lists on a regular basis. There will be no charge to enable our URL-blocking feature, however there will likely be subscription charges to use third party URL lists.
• Connection limit masks now fully supported - You can specify a connection limit mask of the form x.x.x.x/y where y is an int from one to 32. Prior to this release, only /24 and /26 were supported.
• New automatic detection of license overruns - The NetEqualizer will now automatically report any new license overruns. Any time you log into the GUI, a message will be displayed indicating how many license overruns you may have incurred since your last reboot. If you do see a license overrun, you should call support and see about upgrading your license.
• New license levels available for enforcement in kernel
• Support for URL-based shaping

For more information on the Carrier Class 4.0 update, contact us at admin@apconnections.net or 303-997-1300.

The following article works to identify and break down the applications that will most certainly kill your network, but also provides suggestions as to what you can do about them. While every application certainly isn't covered, our experience working with network administrators around the world has helped us identify the most common problems.

The script counts the number of penalties currently in the log and gives you the top 10 hosts and their count.

Note: Each time your log refreshes every 20 minutes or so, the count will change. However if you are a perl programmer you can modify this script to do a variety of cool things. It is a starting point.

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
# this script is property of APconnections ,
Lafayette Co
# and may not be usedi, copied or distributed
with permission from APconnections
open (LOGF, "/tmp/arblog") || die "opening
log file ";
$tablesize=0;
@table=("0");
@penalty_count=(0);
unless(@ARGV)
{
print "Usage: penalties mm/dd/yy (you must
include leading zeros in date)\n";
exit;
}
while($line=)
{
chomp($line);
if ("$line" eq "" ) { next; }
@foo = split (" ",$line);
if ($foo[0] ne $ARGV[0] ) { next; }
if ( "$foo[2]" eq "PENALTY" && "$foo[3]" eq
"IP")
{
insert($foo[5]);
insert($foo[6]);
}
}
for ($i=0; ($i {
printf ( "Host= %-15s Count=%d\n" ,
$table[$i], $penalty_count[$i] );
}
sub insert {
my($ipx)=@_;
$ip =${ipx};
$match=0;
for ($i =0 ; $i {
if ($table[$i] eq $ip)
{ $match=1;
$penalty_count[$i]++;
if ($i >0 && $penalty_count[$i] >
$penalty_count[$i-1])
{
$x = $penalty_count[$i];
$y = $penalty_count[$i-1];
$ip1= $table[$i];
$ip2= $table[$i-1];
$penalty_count[$i-1] = $x;
$penalty_count[$i] = $y;
$table[$i]= $ip2;

$table[$i-1] =$ip1;
}
}
}
if ($match == 0 )
{
$table[$tablesize]=$ip;
$penalty_count[$tablesize]=1;
$tablesize++;
}
}