Questions tagged [computer-networks]

Questions about problems that arise when you connect multiple computers to form a network.

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Why are so many internet protocols text-based?

From what I have found, a very large amount of protocols that travel over the internet are "text-based" rather than binary. The protocols in question include, but are not limited to HTTP, SMTP, FTP (I think this one is all text-based?), WHOIS, IRC.…
IQAndreas
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Clock synchronization in a network with asymmetric delays

Assume a computer has a precise clock which is not initialized. That is, the time on the computer's clock is the real time plus some constant offset. The computer has a network connection and we want to use that connection to determine the constant…
Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
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What happens when an internet connection is faster than the storage write speed?

If one attempted to download a file at a speed of 800 Mb/s (100 MB/s) onto a hard drive with a write speed of 500 Mb/s (62.5 MB/s), what would happen? Would the system cap the download speed?
ymulki
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If the two generals problem is unsolvable how can we human beings agree on things?

If the two generals problem is unsolvable how can we human beings agree on things? I mean, we communicate everyday and have the same limitations as any communication problem handled by computer science. Why doesn't it affect us?
user1508072
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Measuring one way network latency

This is a puzzle about measuring network latency that I created. I believe the solution is that it's impossible, but friends disagree. I'm looking for convincing explanations either way. (Though it is posed as a puzzle I think it fits on this web…
Craig Gidney
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TCP Connection Termination - FIN, FIN ACK, ACK

I've been reading that to terminate a TCP connection 3 handshakes are required: FIN, FIN ACK, and ACK. However, when closing a connection, Wireshark displays FIN ACK, FIN ACK, ACK; it never displays FIN by itself. However, when establishing a…
Jack
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How does a wifi password encrypt data using WEP and WPA?

How does the password that we enter (to connect to a wireless network) encrypt the data on the wireless network? Through my reading I am not sure if the password that we enter is the same as the passphrase. If that is right then how can the…
MR.NASS
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Weak hashing function for memorable IPv6 addresses

IPv6 addresses in the form of 862A:7373:3386:BF1F:8D77:D3D2:220F:D7E0 are much harder to memorize or even transcribe than the 4 octets of IPv4. There have been attempts to mitigate this, making IPv6 addresses somehow more memorable. Is there an…
Jason Kleban
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Can the end-to-end principle be formalized?

In the late 1990s, when I was in graduate school, the paper JH Saltzer; DP Reed; DD Clark: End-to-end arguments in system design . ACM Trans. Comput. Syst. 2(4):277-288, 1984. DOI=10.1145/357401.357402 was pretty much required reading in every…
Wandering Logic
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What is the growth rate of the world wide web?

Is there any way to estimate how much data is added to the world wide web each second? Are there any studies about this?
Samrat Man Singh
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Analysis of and references for Koch-snowflake-like (and other exotic) network topologies

In computer networking and high-performance cluster computer design, network topology refers to the design of the way in which nodes are connected by links to form a communication network. Common network topologies include the mesh, torus, ring,…
Patrick87
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Why is TCP known as reliable protocol?

Is it because it uses 3 way handshaking, it is reliable? Or is it due to other reasons? Like due to congestion control, flow control and error control in TCP? Why do we call TCP as reliable?
Team B.I
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What techniques exist for energy-efficient computing and networking?

I am currently reviewing the potentials of cloud computing regarding energy efficiency and green IT. In connection with this review I am having a look on techniques for increasing energy-efficiency in data centers (computing), hardware, networking…
Erik
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Link utilization of sliding window protocol

Before I ask my doubt I would like to state that problem which led me to my doubt. It can also serve as a good example scenario. A $20\ Kbps$ satellite link has a propagation delay of $400\ ms$. The transmitter employs the "Sliding Window protocol"…
Prateek
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Algorithm for Dynamic Client Side Throttling

Problem I am trying to come up with an algorithm that will dynamically throttle a client's number of outstanding requests based on the response times of completed requests. Response times are unpredictable and can be between 7 and 90 seconds. The…
Animal Style
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