Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: David Haller <gentoo@×××××××.de>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} ISP requires MTU below 1500?
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2016 17:38:50
Message-Id: 20160920173801.beu76zur3potnhrk@grusum.endjinn.de
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} ISP requires MTU below 1500? by Grant
1 Hello,
2
3 On Tue, 20 Sep 2016, Grant wrote:
4 >>>Strangely, I'm able to ping with that command even with a very high -s value:
5 >>>
6 >>>$ ping -c 4 -M dont -s 9999 www.dslreports.com
7 >>>PING www.dslreports.com (64.91.255.98) 9999(10027) bytes of data.
8 >>>10007 bytes from www.dslreports.com (64.91.255.98): icmp_seq=1 ttl=54
9 >>>time=331 ms
10 >>>10007 bytes from www.dslreports.com (64.91.255.98): icmp_seq=2 ttl=54
11 >>>time=329 ms
12 >>>10007 bytes from www.dslreports.com (64.91.255.98): icmp_seq=3 ttl=54
13 >>>time=329 ms
14 >>>10007 bytes from www.dslreports.com (64.91.255.98): icmp_seq=4 ttl=54
15 >>>time=329 ms
16 >>>
17 >>>4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3003ms
18 >>>rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 329.159/329.877/331.612/1.158 ms
19 >>
20 >> Look again! You're just looking at the _PING_ packets, not the ICMP/IP
21 >> packets actually going over the interface! You'll need to run
22 >> 'tcpdump icmp' in parallel! "My ping" also just reports 1 packet, but
23 >> there's two IP packets actually going over the interface, due to the
24 >> ping-packet being too large and being fragmented.
25 >>
26 >> Start the tcpdump in another (x)term before running the "ping" ...
27 >>
28 >> If you use '-M do', you should get the
29 >>
30 >> "Frag needed and DF set (mtu = NNNN)"
31 >
32 >
33 >I switched to '-M do' and found that 1464 is the highest size I can
34 >ping without the "Frag needed" error. This means I should add 28 to
35 >that
36
37 The overhead of 28 bytes is just specific to ping.
38
39 It means that your upstream has a MTU of 1492 bytes. And it depends on
40 your local needs if setting this MTU network-wide is the best course.
41 I think I and others wrote enough for you to decide.
42
43 >and set my MTU to 1492 across the network?
44
45 Probably yes. I'd even say: unless you know otherwise for your local
46 needs. It's a very small "pay" (-0.5% max throughput) locally for a
47 potentially much bigger gain towards the 'net side, esp. when
48 factoring in latency ... And BTW: changing the MTU is easy, why not
49 start with one system? Even temporarily just using ifconfig/ip
50 commandline (don't forget to set the default-route if you "down" the
51 connection: 'route add default gw $GW_IP' ) and running some
52 tests/benchmarks.
53
54 HTH,
55 -dnh
56
57 --
58 Actually, NT is more like LSD with all the good effects filtered out.
59 -- Andrew Maddox

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} ISP requires MTU below 1500? Mick <michaelkintzios@×××××.com>