[nzlug] Slow uploads to Trademe

[Mark Foster]

On Tue, 8 Aug 2006, cr wrote:

> Just an update - problem solved.   I couldn't find anything in my system log
> files so I asked on the Debian-user list and got a reply 'Maybe MTU
> problem?'  (which is about as cryptic as one could get).
> So after I found out what a MTU is   8)    and fiddled with the line 'mtu <n>'
> in my /etc/ppp/options  it now all works perfectly!!!
> (mtu 1024 improved things but not complete cure,  mtu 512 is the answer in my
> case).
>
> (..."Maximum Transmission Unit" -  roughly = 'packet size')
>
> cr


You should be aware having set an MTU other than the ethernet default 
(~1500) is going to result in vastly decreased performance across the 
board.

When you deal with large files you're going to find that they are going to 
be forced to fragment to get past your MTU restriction, which in turn is 
going to be reducing throughput and increasing load.

If you need to limit yourself to a 512 byte MTU to deal with Trademe, i'm 
a little concerned...

Mark.