MTU of the Internet?

Thu Feb 5 07:04:50 UTC 1998

Somehow this has become a MS bashing thread (gee, imagine that), but from
personal experience it is not only Windows that experiences MTU issues.
Don't ask me why or how it was happening, but about a year ago I had a
Frame T-1 that the only way I could get it to work was to set my routers
MTU to no higher than 1476 and then every machine on the network had to
have an MTU of one less than the router or they could not get past it.

My assumption was that the issue was with my router (a Linux box with a
SDL csu board), but once I figured out a way around the problem I just
fixed it and didn't worry about it.

The only point to that was just an FYI, beyond that I have noticed what
appears to be a general "Internet-wide" issue lately where smaller packets
have much less trouble than larger packets, obviously adjusting your MTU
downwards in that situation has benefits.

What I would like to know is: is there a MTU that is best to use IN
GENERAL, or should we all just trust discovery and live with it?

Ron

  ---------------- Ronald J. Fitzherbert, President ---------------
                  Flying Penguin Productions Limited
              Arlington, Virginia & Austin, Texas  (USA)
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