LWN.net Logo

How to fix it

How to fix it

Posted Jul 15, 2008 15:30 UTC (Tue) by salimma (subscriber, #34460)
In reply to: How to fix it by i3839
Parent article: Study: Attacks on package managers

Multicast would be useful for a sysadmin wanting to update multiple computers all at once, but
otherwise, data still has to be transmitted multiple times.


(Log in to post comments)

How to fix it

Posted Jul 17, 2008 14:41 UTC (Thu) by i3839 (subscriber, #31386) [Link]

I was more thinking about distro's multicasting package updates and everyone being able to
pick them up. Sending a package update ten times a day for ten days means almost everyone has
the chance to pick it up. Uploading a file a hundred times instead of once per user uses much
less bandwidth if you've more than a few hundred users. Bandwidth usage can be controlled on
the client side by choosing how many streams are read simultaneously.

Throw in a traditional client-server thing to retrieve lost packets or missed updates, and to
enable people with crappy ISPs or routers which don't support multicast, and you've a complete
solution.

Of course multicast has its downsides and troubles, so you'd want to use Source Specific
Multicast, and IGMPv3 support is needed for that. No idea how well (home/ISP) routers do that
though.

Copyright © 2012, Eklektix, Inc.
Comments and public postings are copyrighted by their creators.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds