topic Re: CPview Mbits vs Mbps columns in Firewall and Security Management

CPview Mbits vs Mbps columns

iSu10 — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 15:37:46 GMT

Searching through docs and forums, can't seem to get the difference between Mbits and Mbps in cpview under Network, Interfaces, Traffic

We kinda understand Mbps numbers here, but Mbits column is throwing us off.

Thanks again checkmates!!

checkpoint 77.30.. just in case

Re: CPview Mbits vs Mbps columns

HeikoAnkenbrand — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 15:46:58 GMT

Hi @iSu10,

Mbps = Mbits = Megabits per Second

Is exactly the same.

Some programmers will not have agreed on this point. 😀

Re: CPview Mbits vs Mbps columns

iSu10 — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 15:46:04 GMT

But the numbers shown in cpview are not, so the confusion.

Re: CPview Mbits vs Mbps columns

HeikoAnkenbrand — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 15:50:34 GMT

Maybe someone has confused bit and byte.
In networking, only bits make sense.

In cpview some display values are also wrong.

Re: CPview Mbits vs Mbps columns

iSu10 — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 15:50:46 GMT

An example of the cpview data in those columns:

Mbits Mbps

2,578          0
6,482          0
26,368        39
6,484          21
15,500        0
.
.
.

and so...

Re: CPview Mbits vs Mbps columns

HeikoAnkenbrand — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 15:59:02 GMT

Something seems to have gone wrong with the programming:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data-rate_units#Megabit_per_second

Re: CPview Mbits vs Mbps columns

Timothy_Hall — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 16:44:43 GMT

Perhaps Mbits is being expressed as some kind of average utilization over a time period such as 60 seconds, and Mbps is second-by-second utilization in more or less real time?

Re: CPview Mbits vs Mbps columns

Maarten_Sjouw — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 21:13:39 GMT

Mbits is just what is says: a number of Megabits that have passed the interface, since the last reset and the Mbps is just the current Megabits per second.

Re: CPview Mbits vs Mbps columns

iSu10 — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 21:30:13 GMT

We thought that, but the Mbits sometimes lowers in value.
We were thinking it was some number that increments and resets every now and then, but it didn't.

Re: CPview Mbits vs Mbps columns

HristoGrigorov — Sat, 06 Jun 2020 18:48:26 GMT

My favorite in R80.40 is this one:

# fwaccel stats -s
Accelerated conns/Total conns : 18446744073709551613/18446744073709551038 (0%)

I have even seen it to be negative value, like -5% 😀

Re: CPview Mbits vs Mbps columns

Arik_Ovtracht — Sun, 07 Jun 2020 09:09:22 GMT

Hi,

Mbits is current network traffic (MB per second).

Mbps is aggregated network traffic since sampling started (MB per second).

So you understand why they display different results.

Re: CPview Mbits vs Mbps columns

HeikoAnkenbrand — Sun, 07 Jun 2020 18:17:22 GMT

Hi @Arik_Ovtracht

This is confusing from my point of view. If you average values over time, you should output this as an average value.

And you should specify the time period (for example 60 seconds, 1 day or since the last boot). Otherwise the values are mathematically useless.

For example I would then display it:

Mbps average 1 day

Re: CPview Mbits vs Mbps columns

Maarten_Sjouw — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 05:03:38 GMT

On top of what @HeikoAnkenbrand said, the industry standard is that you use Mb for mega bits and MB for mega bytes.

Re: CPview Mbits vs Mbps columns

Noam — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 16:50:36 GMT

like @Maarten_Sjouw said:

Mbits is a number of Megabits that have passed since the last reset (/proc/net/dev reset) and the Mbps is current Megabits per second.

Re: CPview Mbits vs Mbps columns

HristoGrigorov — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 08:38:00 GMT

I have ran into this log entry inside test_ad_connectivity.elg that made me fall off the chair:

hash_drbg_add_sample: Adding 55 bytes worth 27500 milibits. Total: 27500. Required: 0

Is someone mining bitcoins on my gateway ? 😀