Minimizing Network Traffic Across WAN Links

Articles and Tips: tip

01 May 2001

In a NetWare 4 environment, WAN traffic can be seen from the following sources:

Time Synchronization
NDS
SAP/RIP

You can reduce traffic from each of these sources in the following ways

Time Synchronization. Adjust the following two SET parameters to change the frequency (number) and polling interval (seconds) for time synchronization polling:

TIMESYNC Polling Count = number (default 3).
(Decrease this figure.)
TIMESYNC Polling Interval = seconds (default 600). (Increase this figure.)

NDS. You can reduce NDS traffic by using the DSFilter utility. This utility lets you set the periods during which synchronization can take place. Using this utility, NDS synchronization will only occur at certain times of the day. DSFilter NLMs are available as part of the Novell MultiProtocol Router (MPR) 3.0 product, or in the Novell Consulting Toolkit.

Additionally, you can change the SET parameter:

NDS inactivity synchronization interval =

to increase the time between periods when a synchronization attempt takes place, if no other activity has been seen during this time. This parameter is set in minutes. Its default setting is 30 minutes. This is of particular interest on ISDN (and other switched) connections where frequent activation of the line might be undesirable.

SAP/RIP. You can reduce SAP (Service Advertising Protocol) and RIP (Routing Information Protocol) traffic by using a filtering utility included with NetWare 4.0x and 4.1. This utility can be used on servers which are acting as routers within the network. If servers are not acting as routers, you might want to use the filtering facilities as provided by the third-party router. For more information on this topic, see the Novell AppNotes article entitled "Managing Novell Directory Services Traffic Across a WAN: Part 1" in the June 1996 issue.

* Originally published in Novell AppNotes

Disclaimer

The origin of this information may be internal or external to Novell. While Novell makes all reasonable efforts to verify this information, Novell does not make explicit or implied claims to its validity.