PMTU and Broken Servers

Mon May 12 19:49:48 UTC 2003

I had a problem where a NXNetworks VPN router didn't process the results 
properly.  I couldn't put my finger on exactly whose router was causing 
the trouble, but using freeswan to a freeswan I was able to test my theory 
as I gradually increased the MTU on my connection until I got a failure.  
One end of the VPN is on a RoadRunner connection and the other was on a 
Prexar connection.  The route in between is anyone's guess, but I think, 
at the time, Prexar was trying to push traffic over their Cable and 
Wireless connection.  Now that C&W is gone, I'll have to try it again.

Curtis

On Mon, 12 May 2003, Stephen J. Wilcox wrote:

> 
> You mean theres routers which get a large packet and silently drop it rather 
> than return an icmp?
> 
> Curious as to know which vendors? (read fundementally broken!)
> 
> Steve
> 
> On Mon, 12 May 2003, Curtis Maurand wrote:
> 
> > 
> > 
> > I've had the problem before.  Not all routers handle PMTU correctly.
> > 
> > Curtis
> > 
> > On Thu, 8 May 2003, Leo Bicknell wrote:
> > 
> > > 
> > > I've recently had the pleasure of troubleshooting a problem I don't
> > > normally have to deal with, and the results don't quite make sense
> > > to me.  I'm hoping someone can enlighten me as to what is going on.
> > > A diagram:
> > > 
> > > server---internet---fw---tunnelbox1----tunnelbox2----user
> > > 
> > > The tunnel between the tunnelboxes is a lower (1480) MTU.  Originally
> > > the user couldn't access some servers, turns out the firewall was
> > > filtering ICMP Can't Fragment messages, preventing PMTU from working
> > > in the server->user direction (tunnelbox1 would generate Can't
> > > Fragement, firewall would filter).
> > > 
> > > That's been corrected.  Going to a server I control I see good PMTU
> > > in both directions between the server and the user.  However, there
> > > are still a number of web servers for popular sites that behave
> > > just like the firewall was still filtering Can't Fragments.  The
> > > theory is that the servers are behind a firewall/load balancer that
> > > is filtering them on the server side -- but I find it slightly
> > > (emphasis on the slightly) that someone would turn on PMTU discovery,
> > > and then filter it out right in front of the boxes where they turned
> > > it on.  Also, it seems to me most DSL users are behind PPPoE links
> > > with lower MTU, and should get hit by the same problem.
> > > 
> > > The temporary hack is to have tunnelbox1 clear the DF bit on all
> > > incoming packets, which just causes the packets to get fragmented
> > > going down the tunnel.  A minor performance hit, but it works.
> > > 
> > > This is a new problem to me, but I'm sure people have run into it
> > > before.  Are the servers really that broken (PMTU enabled, ICMP
> > > Can't Fragement filtered)?  Does the head end box of DSL services
> > > generally do something to work around this (ie, clear the DF bit)?
> > > Am I just being an idiot and missing something obvious?
> > > 
> > > 
> > 
> > 
> 

-- 
--
Curtis Maurand
mailto:curtis at maurand.com
http://www.maurand.com