I'm Running Out of Network Connections

Over the past year I have been adding all kinds of neat widgets, gadgets, AJAX-driven pages, and other Web 2.0 stuff to my working environment. Google, which used to be a simple search page, now displays my calendar, news, stock quotes, and other information, all updating automatically. Each piece of the page is its own little AJAX application and operate independently. Same goes for my desktop widgets courtesy of Yahoo!, formerly known as Konfabulator. My Google desktop, which used to be about searching for files on my hard drive, now has a bunch of little software applications called gadgets. These gadgets either float free like Yahoo! Widgets or attached to the "sidebar" docking bar. Microsoft Vista (when it finally comes out) is also supposed to have some similar little applications.


This has created an incredibly rich and useful desktop environment. All of these apps allow me to do the little things I used to have to go to a web page for or load some monstrosity of an application. It has also created a problem I've never encountered before on a desktop machine - I'm running out of network connections.

There are lots of other applications that want to get to the network too. Practically every piece of software wants to check for updates (although I turn this off for most applications). Add on all the communications most of us use now including VoIP/Skype, IM, and E-mail and you have major contention for network resources. There are limitations to the number of TCP/IP sessions that Windows allows for each network connection. The more small apps I have trying to get to the Internet or even my own network, the more contention there is for those connections. Network adapters, especially the cheap ones they put in most desktop computers, also have limitations. Even if that is very high, there is still limited bandwidth to work with and building up and tearing down network connections takes CPU and network adapter resources.

Now, I might be an ubergeek who wants to have all of these little do-dads loaded all the time but most of these are becoming normal features of the desktop environment. This coupled with the judicious use of AJAX on web sites and even the average person will soon find themselves running out of a precious resource that they didn't know was limited or even there. In a sense, we are back to the days when most of us would get those cryptic messages from Windows because we were running out of memory. Fine for the computer savvy of the world but mystifying to the average Joe.

Now, some of the problem is the applications themselves. When they encounter an overloaded network connection, they act like something has gone terribly wrong. Rather than wait for resources to become available, they spill out an error message in techno code. The upshot is that normal users of computers may start to see them as more harm than good and shy away from them.

Better application design would also help. These various desktop scripting programs should include a network management capability that takes this into account. Small app designers should also work out better a schema for building and releasing network connections. Some applications are constantly building and tearing down connections which is hard on a system.

For my part, I'm going to try an additional Ethernet card and spread the load out a bit. Most folks can't do that. A little more discipline may go a long way to ensuring that this new approach to software doesn't die on the vine.