N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR3700v4
Change the MTU Size
The maximum transmission unit (MTU) is the largest data packet a network device transmits. When one network device communicates across the Internet with another, the data packets travel through many devices along the way. If a device in the data path has a lower MTU setting than the other devices, the data packets are split or “fragmented” to accommodate the device with the smallest MTU.
The best MTU setting for NETGEAR equipment is often just the default value. In some situations, changing the value fixes one problem but causes another. Leave the MTU unchanged unless one of these situations occurs:
•You have problems connecting to your ISP or other Internet service, and the technical support of either the ISP or NETGEAR recommends changing the MTU setting. These
-A secure website that does not open, or displays only part of a web page
-Yahoo email
-MSN portal
-America Online’s DSL service
•You use VPN and have severe performance problems.
•You used a program to optimize MTU for performance reasons, and now you have connectivity or performance problems.
Note: An incorrect MTU setting can cause Internet communication problems. For example, you might not be able to access certain websites, frames within websites, secure login pages, or FTP or POP servers.
If you suspect an MTU problem, a common solution is to change the MTU to 1400. If you are willing to experiment, you can gradually reduce the MTU from the maximum value of 1500 until the problem goes away. The following table describes common MTU sizes and applications.
Table 1. Common MTU sizes
MTU | Application |
|
|
1500 | The largest Ethernet packet size and the default value. This setting is typical for |
| connections that do not use PPPoE or VPN, and is the default value for NETGEAR |
| routers, adapters, and switches. |
|
|
1492 | Used in PPPoE environments. |
|
|
1472 | Maximum size to use for pinging. (Larger packets are fragmented.) |
|
|
1468 | Used in some DHCP environments. |
|
|
1460 | Usable by AOL if you do not have large email attachments.. |
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