frequent network dropoffs

Thanks for the idea. Didn't get a "packet needs to be fragmented" message, so I think we're good for now. I need to check out all the equipment to see if it can handle jumbo frames. I suspect not, as some is a bit old.

bamboodyll wrote:
Thanks for the idea. Didn't get a "packet needs to be fragmented" message, so I think we're good for now. I need to check out all the equipment to see if it can handle jumbo frames. I suspect not, as some is a bit old.

They might not help anyway (sometimes they even hurt). So you should measure throughput with them on and off.

I'll wager the router doesn't support them. Every "Gigabit-capable" NETGEAR router i've seen doesn't support jumbo frames, so to maximise performance a switch between NAS and client PC's (which also have jumbo frames enabled) is the best solution.

Other kit on the network that isn't jumbo-frames capable may harm the overall benefit of having jumbo frames enabled though, e.g: wireless devices. If these devices spend most of their time off, then you may want to risk it, if they spend most of their time on, better to take the slight performance hit of running without jumbo frames, but have consistent speeds per device type/class across your network.

My managed switch does jumbo frames, but I don't use them. They don't always improve performance, and they can be hard to troubleshoot.

I don't think they are worth the trouble myself.

I saw a speed improvement on my network, but as alluded to earlier, this drops off once non-capable systems connect to the network, and also causes those systems throughput to suffer. Now i've outfitted the flat with Powerline AV, everything is capable of at least 1500 MTU, so that's what I've set it to on the NAS. Less hassle in the long run. Jumbo frames is an "eye-candy" feature to my way of thinking. It isn't part of the official spec and isn't essential, even with compatible hardware. I tried it, was a mixed bag, but I knew that would probably be the case from the get-go. Satisfied my own curiosity.