I had a similar problem that manifested itself in virtually stopping all network traffic if there is any activity on the dialup-masq server (Pentium 100, 24Mb and plenty other services running) The reason was that any HD activity stopped interrupts and serial port stopped. The solution was to unmask IRQ with hdparm: "hdparm -u1 /dev/hda" or wherever your hard drive is. Read hdparm manpage carefully - it warns about the use of -u with CMD640 and RZ1000 IDE controllers. Your 486 might have of those. If you use floppy-based router, that should not be the problem though.
I also use irqtune, but that didn't give any significant performance advantages and didn't cure the above mentioned problem. -- = mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] === http://www.geocities.com/astavitsky ===== GPG Key 0xF7343C8B: 68DD 1E1B 2C98 D336 E31F C87B 91B9 5244 F734 3C8B |_____Alexander Stavitsky
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