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Date:      Sat, 21 Jul 2007 11:05:47 +0300
From:      Artyom Viklenko <artem@aws-net.org.ua>
To:        Eli Dart <dart@es.net>
Cc:        freebsd-net@freebsd.org, Julian Elischer <julian@elischer.org>
Subject:   Re: 6.2 mtu now limits size of incomming packet
Message-ID:  <46A1BE5B.60509@aws-net.org.ua>
In-Reply-To: <46A10860.50804@es.net>
References:  <200707150237.l6F2bAgZ011098@redrock.karels.net>	<469E0FFF.8070802@seclark.us>	<20070720172021.8EA3D13C4B3@mx1.freebsd.org>	<46A10063.9010902@elischer.org> <46A10860.50804@es.net>

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Eli Dart wrote:
> 
> The networks that are apparently working fine are most likely 
> misconfigured, IMHO.
> 
> Others have made a case for permitting an interface to accept as large a 
> packet as it can, regardless of configured MTU.  That's fine for theory.
> 
> My operational experience leads me to a different place.  If an 
> interface receives a packet that is larger than its configured MTU, I 
> would prefer that the packet be dropped as a giant and a giants counter 
>  incremented, regardless of whether the hardware can theoretically 
> receive the packet.  In modern networks, an MTU mismatch within a 
> broadcast domain indicates a broken network, IMHO.  If the devices in 
> the network are configured to enforce MTU for both tx and rx, more 
> problems get spotted during turnup, rather than surfacing later on as 
> difficult-to-diagnose problems that users only call about after they are 
> truly frustrated.  And, if you have a giants counter (or input error 
> counter) you can look at, it makes it straightforward to spot the problem.
> 
> (one could also stretch a bit and say that enforcing MTU on rx might 
> provide less surprise to code that consumes packets and has knowledge of 
> the MTU setting of an interface.....unfortunately I don't know enough 
> about the details of the network stack to know if this is a real concern)

100% agree! :)

-- 
            Sincerely yours,
                             Artyom Viklenko.
-------------------------------------------------------
artem@aws-net.org.ua | http://www.aws-net.org.ua/~artem
FreeBSD: The Power to Serve   -  http://www.freebsd.org



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