slow sparc questions

[Damien Miller]

On Thu, 10 Aug 2000, Gregory Leblanc wrote:

> I've got a couple of SPARCstation 2s (about as fast as a fast 486, for most
> thing) that I'm going to be using for some testing.  I realize that these
> machines are a bit slow, but when connecting via OpenSSH, it's MUCH slower
> than connecting to my 486-DX 50.  The point where it waits is just after
> "debug: Sent encrypted session key.".  The pause is for about 10 seconds,
> while when connecting to the 486 the pause is barely noticeable.  All
> machines are using 3des as the encryption type.  So, I've got a few
> questions.
> First, why is this machine SO much slower than my 486?  Crappy compiler
> (linux is compiled using egcs 1.1.2 and the OpenSSH box is using
> ssl-2.6-USA, installed when I did my OpenBSD install)?

This sounds like DNS problems - the server may be trying to resolve the 
client's hostname from its IP address? If the client does not have an
in-addr.arpa address or an entry in the hosts file then this can take
a while to timeout.

> Second, would I be better off using another encryption algorithm?  If so,
> which one?  These machines are just my toys, not commercial in any way.
> What are the pros and cons?  (RTFM links appreciated)
> Third, what can I do to help "fix" this slowness?
 
3des is slow and secure (due to many years of review and attacks)
blowfish is faster, but not as well examined

-d


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| "Bombay is 250ms from New York in the new world order" - Alan Cox
| Damien Miller - http://www.mindrot.org/
| Email: djm at mindrot.org (home) -or- djm at ibs.com.au (work)