nanog mailing list archives
Re: MTU of the Internet?
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry () piermont com>
Date: Sun, 08 Feb 1998 12:27:39 -0500
Phil Howard writes:
By loading the images in parallel, with the initial part of the image files being a fuzzy approximation, you get to see about where every button is located, and in many cases you know exactly what it is, and you can click on them as soon as you know where to go.
By loading the images in parallel over multiple TCP connections, you also totally screw the TCP congestion avoidance mechanisms, and hurt the net as a whole, especially given how prevalent HTTP is these days. Unfortunately, as has been seen here, very few people working with the net these days actually understand the details of things the net depends on, and TCP congestion avoidance is one of them. HTTP 1.1 allows multiplexing in a single stream, and even (amazingly enough) ends up working faster in practice than multiple TCP connections. As I've noted, few people seem to understand this.
There is also a psychological perception of speed when images load in parallel. When someone complains about the slowness, and is given the low MTU solution, they often end up being happier.
I note that ignorance about what MTU means persists.
I still say the solution is a way to transmit multiple images in parallel over a single connection.
You mean, like HTTP 1.1? Perry
Current thread:
- Re: MTU of the Internet?, (continued)
- Re: MTU of the Internet? Kent W. England (Feb 05)
- Re: MTU of the Internet? Per Gregers Bilse (Feb 06)
- Re: MTU of the Internet? George Swallow (Feb 06)
- RE: MTU of the Internet? Tony Hain (Feb 06)
- Message not available
- Re: MTU of the Internet? Jay R. Ashworth (Feb 06)
- Re: MTU of the Internet? Sean M. Doran (Feb 07)
- Re: MTU of the Internet? Paul A Vixie (Feb 07)
- Re: MTU of the Internet? Phil Howard (Feb 07)
- Re: MTU of the Internet? Paul A Vixie (Feb 07)
- Re: MTU of the Internet? Phil Howard (Feb 07)
- Re: MTU of the Internet? Perry E. Metzger (Feb 08)
- Re: MTU of the Internet? Frank Kastenholz (Feb 09)
- Message not available
- Re: MTU of the Internet? Jay R. Ashworth (Feb 09)
- Message not available
- Re: MTU of the Internet? Marc Slemko (Feb 07)
- Re: MTU of the Internet? Paul A Vixie (Feb 07)
- Re: MTU of the Internet? Phil Howard (Feb 08)
- HTML layout (was Re: MTU of the Internet?) Stephen Sprunk (Feb 08)
- Re: HTML layout (was Re: MTU of the Internet?) Patrick W. Gilmore (Feb 12)
- Message not available
- Re: MTU of the Internet? Jay R. Ashworth (Feb 08)
- Re: MTU of the Internet? Marc Slemko (Feb 08)
- Re: MTU of the Internet? Phil Howard (Feb 08)