Re: limiting outbound packet size

• Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 13:30:21 PST
• From:
  Christopher Unkel <cunkel@us.itd.umich.edu>
• cc: moo-cows.PARC@xerox.com
• Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
• In-Reply-to: <199701152021.OAA03325@gently.netins.net>

On Wed, 15 Jan 1997, David Morris wrote:

> I was wondering if there was some way to temporarily hack the server to limit 
> the size of outbound packets to fit within the limit? SOme of us are thinking 
> that maybe the internet software will bundle outgoing packtets anyway it 
> pleases and it doesn't matter what we do.

The mooserver uses TCP, which provides a stream abstraction to the user.
As such, it is not responsible for deciding the size or contents of the
packets themselves -- those details are left up to the TCP implementation
of the operating system.

Fortunately for the general use of TCP, and unfortunately for this
application, TCP implementations do not generally give any indication of
how much data is currently being buffered by the OS pending output -- so
you probably can't prevent the situation by preventing TCP from ever
having enough data to form such a large packet.

In short, there's probably no MOOserver-level fix.

However, you can probably reconfigure your ethernet interface with a
smaller MTU to avoid the problem; there is probably an mtu option on the
ifconfig command (I can't find a machine with matching OS version so I
can't confirm this.) that could be used to keep your ethernet interface
from sending large packets.  Doing so would hurt local-network performance
but might solve your other problems. 


  --Chris                           cunkel@engin.umich.edu
    ResComp Network Support Technician, Bursley Hall
    "Invisibility is in the eye of the beholder."
    Home Page: http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~cunkel/

• Re: limiting outbound packet size
• From: Alex Stewart <riche@crl.com>

• limiting outbound packet size
• From: "David Morris" <bweaver@worf.netins.net>

• Prev: limiting outbound packet size
• Next: Re: limiting outbound packet size
• Index: MOO-cows
• Thread: MOO-cows