Homebrew A noobish hypothetical involving Wi-Fi

[choconado]

Number 1.) I know nothing about programming in literal terms, and make no claims that I do, so bear with me. (sheesh, this is practically becoming my catch-phrase)

Number 2.) What I'm going to ask about is primarily hypothetical, so any quick shoutdowns or left-handed insults can go somewhere else (refer to number 1 if you need any reason why)

Number 3.) I have a vague idea how web browsing works, so I have a good idea of what sort of speeds represent what sort of traffic.

Number 4.) There seem to be pretty much three reasonable web browsers for the DS; Bunjaloo, plus the ones included in DSOrganize, and DSLinux. The Latter I can make neither heads nor tails of (again, refer to Number 1.)

Finally, Number 5.) DSLinux's browser can run at speeds up to 10 times that of the other two browsers. My questions are this: Why (in layman's terms, if possible) can DSLinux do what the other two can't? Would it be possible to make the other two more uniform with this? And if so, would that be another "worthless" endeavor (read: Noone around here would want to bother to do it).

Spoiler

Sorry that I don't know a lot about programming, but I'd wager that a high percentage of the users at this very board don't either. And I'm just tired of having to wade through materials where they assume you're a comp sci major just to run a small homebrew on the DS--a device it should be noted has very few interface options. (If you don't believe me, just look at the wiki's out there for games and emulators and ask yourself "If I didn't know anything about the programming, would any of this make sense to me?" Some highlights for me include the FPS ports instructions, and the SNES compatibility lists.)

 

[Rydian]

From what I've read, DSLinux doesn't use the standard DS WiFi library (handful of pre-defined programming functions) that everything else uses, so it doesn't have it's WiFi speed locked down to a pathetic (by today's standards) rate like usual.

Having the original programmers (or somebody with access to the source) substitute the original libraries for the one DSLinux uses somehow should grant them access to the higher download speeds, if what I read is correct.

 

[choconado]

wow, my hairbrained "no idea what I'm talking about" idea is actually the correct one. Hmm.

Now the next step is to try to figure out how to convince the other programmers to upgrade their programs.

(some table support for bunjaloo would be nice too--so that webpages could actually be formated in the way they're supposed to be.)

 

[twiztidsinz]

wow, my hairbrained "no idea what I'm talking about" idea is actually the correct one. Hmm.

Now the next step is to try to figure out how to convince the other programmers to upgrade their programs.

(some table support for bunjaloo would be nice too--so that webpages could actually be formated in the way they're supposed to be.)

I cannot say for sure, but I think that Bunjaloo does run with the modified wifi libs... at lest it seems to run faster than other wifi stuff.
The limitation of browsers is the memory and CPU of the DS.

 

[choconado]

well, I'm pretty certain that it doesn't run at 100. It moves fairly slow imo.

 

[twiztidsinz]

well, I'm pretty certain that it doesn't run at 100. It moves fairly slow imo.

Up to =/= at

 

[Rydian]

well, I'm pretty certain that it doesn't run at 100. It moves fairly slow imo.

Up to =/= at

Yeah, the home connection could be limiting as well, and network speed is measured in bits, whereas filesize is in bytes.
I know a sticky around here somewhere points it out, there's 8 bits in a byte.

 

[fgghjjkll]

pfft. No one knows EVERYTHING about the wifi chip. The only stuff we know is what people have reversed engineered.

 

[choconado]

I don't use home wifi. I've only tested the connections at public places like starbucks or mcdonald's. Would those places be fast or slow? (Again, I'm pretty ignorant about these matters as yet)

For no other reason than testing purposes, any one willing to give me exact instructions for how to install (i.e. download the proper files and extract them properly) dslinux onto my system (running an AK 2.1 with AKAIO 1.5.1--no slot-2 device) and access the webbrowser specifically? Because if you aren't already a Linux veteran, there's no chance of just "playing around" until you figure it out...

 

[Rydian]

Those places would be slower than a home connection.

 

[Jakob95]

I don't use home wifi. I've only tested the connections at public places like starbucks or mcdonald's. Would those places be fast or slow? (Again, I'm pretty ignorant about these matters as yet)

For no other reason than testing purposes, any one willing to give me exact instructions for how to install (i.e. download the proper files and extract them properly) dslinux onto my system (running an AK 2.1 with AKAIO 1.5.1--no slot-2 device) and access the webbrowser specifically? Because if you aren't already a Linux veteran, there's no chance of just "playing around" until you figure it out...

Last time I went to McDonalds and checked on my iPod Touch the speed it was 45 KB/s.

 

[twiztidsinz]

For no other reason than testing purposes, any one willing to give me exact instructions for how to install (i.e. download the proper files and extract them properly) dslinux onto my system (running an AK 2.1 with AKAIO 1.5.1--no slot-2 device) and access the webbrowser specifically? Because if you aren't already a Linux veteran, there's no chance of just "playing around" until you figure it out...

Pretty sure you need a slot-2 RAM device to run DSLinux properly.

 

[DanTheManMS]

DSLinux may or may not boot up without slot-2 RAM. However, the process of connecting to wifi and launching any of the browsers (even Retawq) is probably too much for it to handle without having extra RAM. I honestly don't know for certain, since I've never tested it without slot-2 RAM inserted.

Nonetheless, instructions are on the DSLinux wiki. The long and short is that you want the DLDI version, with the "linux" folder on the root of your card and "dslinux.nds" anywhere you want. Don't launch dslinuxm.nds, since that uses up more RAM by default. Wifi config is done by using the interactive script with the "wnc" command. Launching Retawq is done by just typing "retawq" and hitting Enter.

 

[choconado]

well, following the directions on the wiki leads me to a command prompt that won't do any of the things that the wiki says (once again, refer to point 1 for help), and as I have no slot 2 device, I'll just call it a moot point.

However, the idea of having the far more user-friendly browser accessing the wi-fi libraries that Linux does seems like a fairly obvious idea.

Though Bunjaloo may already be using them, as I was able to move at a reasonable pace during my download test. (for the record, it took me about 12 minutes to download approximately 8 mb).

Which may in turn moot this entire thread.

 

[DanTheManMS]

That's about 11 KB per second, which is consistent with most other DS wifi apps. I've gotten DSLinux to go up to about 100 KB/s, but for some reason it tends to freeze entirely about halfway through the download, eventually unfreezing and continuing as normal (though this does bring the average speed down quite a bit).

 

[choconado]

Ah, then that tells me that Bunjaloo probably hasn't changed the wifi libraries. Even 45 KB/S would be a remarkable increase comparatively.