From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:01:00 +0000 From: Eris Discordia To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <16173.1226917223@lunacy.ugrad.cs.cmu.edu> References: <16173.1226917223@lunacy.ugrad.cs.cmu.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Subject: Re: [9fans] Do we have a catalog of 9P servers? Topicbox-Message-UUID: 478c73ea-ead4-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 > Are there any NAT solutions which handle millions of hosts? Are > we having a discussion about unicorns? No. Which is why "not that existing ones have been." And "wreak of havoc occurs _long_ before" refers to the hypothetical gateway being brought down with far fewer connections, irrespective of which OS it ran. There remained the question of which OS/approach required less resources for performing the task at hand. The resolution I think was that NAT requires less resources but creates more hassle. Some 9fans pointed out the trade-off between elegance and performance. Some others pointed out the technical details and what could/could not be done with each approach. The most notable comment, in my opinion, was Ron Minnich's that brought to light the single essentially and irrefutably advantageous feature of Plan 9's approach. I believe your are a little late with your remark. The issue has been resolved. --On Monday, November 17, 2008 5:20 AM -0500 Dave Eckhardt wrote: >> Every sensible NAT solution must be implemented with that in >> mind--not that existing ones have been. Even imagining persistent >> connections from an entire Class A network makes one shudder. >> Needless to say, the wreak of havoc occurs _long_ before over 16 >> million hosts need persistent connections. > > Especially since you get only 64k TCP connections between any pair > of IP addresses, e.g., between a NAT box and www.cnn.com. > > Are there any NAT solutions which handle millions of hosts? Are > we having a discussion about unicorns? > > Dave Eckhardt >