NETGEAR Nighthawk R7450 User Manual page 38

Nighthawk AC2600 Smart WiFi Router Model R7450
The best MTU setting for NETGEAR equipment is often the default value. In some
situations, changing the value fixes one problem but causes another. Leave the MTU
unchanged unless one of these situations occurs:
• You experience problems connecting to your Internet service, and the technical
support of either the Internet service provider (ISP) or NETGEAR recommends
changing the MTU setting.
For example, if a secure website does not open, or displays only part of a web page,
you might need to change the MTU.
• You use VPN and experience severe performance problems.
• You used a program to optimize MTU for performance reasons and now you are
experiencing connectivity or performance problems.
CAUTION: An incorrect MTU setting can cause Internet communication problems. For
example, you might not be able to access certain websites, frames within websites,
secure login pages, or FTP or POP servers.
If you suspect an MTU problem, a common solution is to change the MTU to 1400. If
you are willing to experiment, you can gradually reduce the MTU from the maximum
value of 1500 until the problem goes away. The following table describes common MTU
sizes and applications.
Table 3. Common MTU sizes
MTU Application
1500 The largest Ethernet packet size. This setting is typical for
connections that do not use PPPoE or VPN and is the default value
for NETGEAR routers, adapters, and switches.
1492 Used in PPPoE environments.
1472 Maximum size to use for pinging. (Larger packets are fragmented.)
1468 Used in some DHCP environments.
Specify Your Internet Settings 38 User Manual