To jumbo or not to jumbo- opinions???

[wgstarks]

I recently purchased a used NetGear GS724T rather cheaply, and since I really don't know much about managing it I've left everything set to default and been doing some research on the various settings. I'm completely lost though when it comes to jumbo frames. I understand the basic idea, but I'm seeing so many conflicting opinions over wether or not it's practical in a home network environment that I'm really not sure if I should try to set it up or not. I'm hoping others here can give me some decent advice on the pros and cons of jumbo frames and if it will bring any real world improvements to my network.

 

If there are any other managed settings I should be looking at I'd welcome guidance on them as well.

[sureguy]

If you're working with large files, like movies jumbo frames can help make things faster, AFAIK with lots of small files things will be slower.

 

Your switches and routers will need to support jumbo frames IIRC.

[wgstarks]

It's mostly xbmc media so it's a mix of large video files and small artwork and audio files. Rough guess would be about 15-20 small files for every large file.

[c3]

AFAIK with lots of small files things will be slower.

 

Do you have data showing enabling jumbo frames will slow down transfer of files less than some size?

 

Biggest problem of jumbo frames in home is the devices often found there are not adequately tested with jumbo frames which can lead to device outages up to switch outages when they hang the switch. They are the ones designed with the 100m ethernet because it's all they'll ever need, and then the 100m part was replaced with 1g drop-in part.

 

And of course homes use wireless, which does not have jumbo frames.

[wgstarks]

AFAIK with lots of small files things will be slower.

 

Do you have data showing enabling jumbo frames will slow down transfer of files less than some size?

 

Biggest problem of jumbo frames in home is the devices often found there are not adequately tested with jumbo frames which can lead to device outages up to switch outages when they hang the switch. They are the ones designed with the 100m ethernet because it's all they'll ever need, and then the 100m part was replaced with 1g drop-in part.

 

And of course homes use wireless, which does not have jumbo frames.

I do have several devices that are 100m (TV, BD Players, AVR) don't think any of the 1G stuff has been converted from 100M though. That's all fairly new computers built within the last 6 years. Basicly it's an AirPort Extreme router connected to the ethernet switch and all the ethernet devices connected to the same switch. There are a few wireless devices (2 iPhones and an older laptop).

 

Really, the only thing that has me looking to improve the network speeds is file transfers to my unRaid server. I use my MacPro as a dvr and for ripping BD's and then transfer everything to the UnRaid server. If no one is streaming any media from the server then transfer speeds are fairly good I think. I can transfer a 50 GB file in about 6 or 7 minutes. If someone is watching a movie or listening to music in the living room then the same 50 GB file will probably take about 30 minutes. So I guess my goal is to improve my connection between the MacPro and the unraid server without causing disruptions on the rest of the network.

[Chris Pollard]

In my experience Jumbo frames aren't likely to make a massive difference to throughput.  Maybe 5% depending on the traffic....  Obviously if you have a whole datacentre full of servers then 5% can represent a significant about of money,  as well as the fact that jumbo frames are likely to reduce the overhead on the servers too...  for a home media server,  unlikely to make much difference.  If your devices support it, go for it and test, test, test.