Routers & switches

[Shenfu]

Is it really necessary to have both a switch and router to get 'jumbo frame' capability? Will not a router with 'jumbo frame' be enough to act as go-between for ADSL2+ modem and gigabit NIC?

 

[sinshiva]

when you say router, are you referring to a soho combination router + switch? assuming that you are, i'll have to say maybe/maybe not. jumbo frames is really meant to be used as a lan-side feature and typically by people with a small business class switch or better. jumbo frames isn't used over a wan connection, though i suppose some ISPs make use of what is called 'baby jumbo frames', which is slightly larger than 1500.

besides, adjusting mtu size is a pain in the butt if you do it on the lan side. it only benefits clients that have the capability and changing the mtu size on a soho router can lead to some weirdness, particularly with clients that have no capability to set mtu, like the xbox 360.

i personally force a smaller than 1500 mtu for everything on my lan for dsl efficiency; i don't care as much about lan to lan transfers. one of the bits of weirdness i saw initially was that when i set the mtu on all the interfaces of my n66 and forgot to do it one of my e2000s, any time the xbox tried to do something over the internet that required a full frame, it would just hang until i changed all the interfaces on the e2000 as well

 

[Shenfu]

when you say router, are you referring to a soho combination router + switch? assuming that you are, i'll have to say maybe/maybe not. jumbo frames is really meant to be used as a lan-side feature and typically by people with a small business class switch or better. jumbo frames isn't used over a wan connection, though i suppose some ISPs make use of what is called 'baby jumbo frames', which is slightly larger than 1500.

besides, adjusting mtu size is a pain in the butt if you do it on the lan side. it only benefits clients that have the capability and changing the mtu size on a soho router can lead to some weirdness, particularly with clients that have no capability to set mtu, like the xbox 360.

i personally force a smaller than 1500 mtu for everything on my lan for dsl efficiency; i don't care as much about lan to lan transfers. one of the bits of weirdness i saw initially was that when i set the mtu on all the interfaces of my n66 and forgot to do it one of my e2000s, any time the xbox tried to do something over the internet that required a full frame, it would just hang until i changed all the interfaces on the e2000 as well

I know very little about this stuff...just what I've read here and there:

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanw...1-need-to-know-jumbo-frames-in-small-networks

Articles like this gave me the impression that jumbo-frames was used on WAN (I have little interest in LAN as I'll only ever have one PC), and I thought I had seen it mentioned somewhere that Sonic.net supports 4K jumbo frames on one of its service plans. Am I off base?
Frankly, I'd just as soon forget the jumbo frames stuff, as its adding yet another level of complexity to this custom-build that a hardware newbie like me could live without! On the other hand, I want this build to be as good as I can make it, so not sure which way to turn. Regarding routers, I am looking at TP-Link TL-ER6120, Cisco RV042 Dual WAN VPN Router, and couple others.

By the way, thanks for your reply!

 

[sinshiva]

perhaps somebody can recommend a product for using jumbo frames on the wan side; you might need something leaning toward the 'small business' side of things. the isp may have recommendations to offer as well

 

[onnoossendrijver]

Please forget about jumbo frames on the WAN side. Even if it is supported you will gain nothing on speed.

 

[stig]

Please forget about jumbo frames on the WAN side. Even if it is supported you will gain nothing on speed.

I completely agree. Jumbo may be useful in a LAN environment transfering large files between servers or back-ups, but anything over 1500 on the WAN will likely cause more problems and fragmentation or pmtu issues, etc.

 

[stevech]

perhaps somebody can recommend a product for using jumbo frames on the wan side; you might need something leaning toward the 'small business' side of things. the isp may have recommendations to offer as well

Not practical on a WAN.

 

[Shenfu]

Please forget about jumbo frames on the WAN side. Even if it is supported you will gain nothing on speed.

After a lot of google research, I think you all are spot on. Whatever gains from 'jumbo-frames' on the WAN do not look worth the extensive effort I have put into finding a capable router. So I will skip it, and now focus on finding a router that is:

1. Linux friendly - As a newbie I do not want to have to reconfigure kernel, do command line stuff, etc. Basically I want a router that is good to go, with minimum setup, and easy for a beginner to handle.
2. Has SPI & NAT.

Any suggestions by way of brands/model numbers would be appreciated, and thanks for setting me straight on the 'jumbo-frames'!

 

[microchip]

After a lot of google research, I think you all are spot on. Whatever gains from 'jumbo-frames' on the WAN do not look worth the extensive effort I have put into finding a capable router. So I will skip it, and now focus on finding a router that is:

1. Linux friendly - As a newbie I do not want to have to reconfigure kernel, do command line stuff, etc. Basically I want a router that is good to go, with minimum setup, and easy for a beginner to handle.
2. Has SPI & NAT.

Any suggestions by way of brands/model numbers would be appreciated, and thanks for setting me straight on the 'jumbo-frames'!

Get an ASUS router, it satisfies both your point. Really good hardware but firmware can be sometimes unstable. That's why I recommend using Merlin's firmware

 

[dellpe]

The default MTU size is 9216 bytes after you enable jumbo frame support on the individual port for 6500 series switches and for WS-C3560X-24T-L switches All Gigabit Ethernet interfaces support jumbo frames up to 9000 bytes.