Thanks Sean for the clarification.
One point of clarification.. can you please define exactly what a 'state' is ? Regards, Mike Lever Tenacity Films (Pty) Ltd t/a Velocity Films (T) +2711-807-0100 (F) 086-681-7518 <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.velocityfilms.com> http://www.velocityfilms.com CONFIDENTIALITY CAUTION: If you have received this communication in error, please note that it is intended for the addressee only, is privileged and confidential and dissemination or copying prohibited. Please notify us immediately by e-mail and return the original message. Thank you. _____ From: Sean Cavanaugh [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 04 Mar 2008 07:44 PM To: support@pfsense.com Subject: RE: [pfSense Support] Load Balancing further info load balancing is fairly easy to learn. first step, the user sends a request (i.e. visiting www.cnn.com) his computer will forward the request to the gateway (lets assume pfsense set up with load balanced WAN connections) pfsense will then assign the current connection state to a WAN interface. this should happen with states spread evenly accross all WAN links. as long as information being transmitted between the users computer and www.cnn.com are part of the same stream, it will use the same connection path on the WAN link. if the user goes to www.msnbc.com also, this will start a new state connection on the firewall and would theoretically use a different WAN link than the first connection to www.cnn.com. some issues with this is if the state is set to a very short TTL, then the user will constantly be setting up new states and will be bouncing all over the WAN links. this can make it really bad if theyre trying to use encrypted protocols as it will not be valid and will more than likely be denied a lot. if the value is set to high, states will build up on a WAN interface and persist longer than need be. they will however be more reliable as encrypted protocols will have a nice stable connection. a misconfiguration in how the states are load balanced will lead to one WAN link being more heavily favored than others. this isnt the BEST explanation but should help some. -Sean > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To: support@pfsense.com > Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 16:50:26 +0200 > Subject: [pfSense Support] Load Balancing further info > > Hi, > > Excuse my ignorance on this one. > > I am having a debate with my boss. > > Please explain to me the basics of load balancing ? > > IP address x is accessing www.cnn.com > > It arrives at the load balancer which at that point in time pings a > pre-determined gateway / IP address. Based on that speed, it will then > submit the request over that line and wait for the transmission ? > > How does it actually decide which WAN port to send the packet ? is it > constantly pinging on all WAN ports ? > > How is a typical webpage broken down into packets ? i.e. how many packets > are there in a typical page ? > > Again apologies for the simple ness...just want to get my head around the > load balancing / round robin concept. > > Lastly, looking at usage on the interfaces. My WAN port is showing quite a > bit of throughput while my OPT1 and OPT2 aren't. I have setup my system as > close to the manual as possible but it doesn't seem to be load balancing > correctly. > > > > Regards, > > > Mike Lever > > Tenacity Films (Pty) Ltd t/a > Velocity Films > > (T) +2711-807-0100 > (F) 086-681-7518 > > http://www.velocityfilms.com > > > CONFIDENTIALITY CAUTION: If you have received this communication in error, > please note that it is intended for the addressee only, is privileged and > confidential and dissemination or copying prohibited. Please notify us > immediately by e-mail and return the original message. Thank you. > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > _____ Helping your favorite cause is as easy as instant messaging. You IM, we give. Learn more. <http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Home/?source=text_hotmail_join>
