Difference between revisions of "Broadcast packet meltdown"

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On old, slow and big networks, the system early Doom versions were using to broadcast its packed during a multiplayer game could crash networks. Packets were sent to every computers on this network, even if a Doom game was not running on it. Slow computers could crash if their network card was not fast enough to keep up sending sending packets.
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On very slow or particularly large [[wikipedia:Local area network|networks]], as judged by the state of the art when [[Doom]] was released in 1993, the [[wikipedia:Broadcasting (computing)|broadcast packet]] [[Multiplayer|netgame]] system employed by early Doom versions could crash the network. [[wikipedia:Network packet|Packets]] were sent to every computer on the network, even if a Doom game was not running on it. Slow computers on the network would also suffer performance problems if their [[wikipedia:Network interface controller|network adapter]] could not handle the traffic. [[id Software]] addressed the issue in [[Versions of Doom and Doom II#v1.2|version 1.2]].
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The {{wp|Jargon File}} cites Doom as an example of ''"network meltdown"'' due to overuse of broadcast packets, but does not mention the fix.
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The fix to the [[IPXSETUP]] utility was implemented by {{wp|Novell}} network engineer [[John Cash]] after he emailed [[Shawn Green]] about a possible fix.
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[[Category:Errors and bugs]]
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[[Category:Historical]]
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[[Category:Multiplayer]]

Latest revision as of 18:01, 21 April 2021

On very slow or particularly large networks, as judged by the state of the art when Doom was released in 1993, the broadcast packet netgame system employed by early Doom versions could crash the network. Packets were sent to every computer on the network, even if a Doom game was not running on it. Slow computers on the network would also suffer performance problems if their network adapter could not handle the traffic. id Software addressed the issue in version 1.2.

The Jargon File cites Doom as an example of "network meltdown" due to overuse of broadcast packets, but does not mention the fix.

The fix to the IPXSETUP utility was implemented by Novell network engineer John Cash after he emailed Shawn Green about a possible fix.