Good information for creating a portable cygwin installation: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=132824&cid=11091775

I finally located an introductory article on network programming in Linux, that is suited to my limited programming skill.This article, from Linux Gazette, jumps right into programming a 'dummy' net device, loading it as a module, and testing its, albeit limited, functionality. Granted, in my opinion, the expository language around the code leaves much to be desired, I think I have got a good jumping off point for me to begin breaking my machine. I'll probably spend the next few days re-writing and editing the document for my own education/ research and see if I can't learn something in the process.

Found some interesting research that explains the differences between the commonly used TCP stack ,TCP/Reno, and the lastest implementation, TCP/Vegas.

Analysis and Comparison of TCP Reno and Vegas (1999)

Advanced Protocol Design

Fairness Comparisons Between TCP Reno and TCP Vegas for Future Deployment of TCP Vegas

Analysis and improvement of fairness between TCP Reno and Vegas for deployment of TCP Vegas to the Internet

I'm still looking for information on specific implementations by major vendors (Cisco, Juniper) and what, if any, impact this may have on their product roadmaps.