Synology DiskStation DS411j review

Q What are jumbo frames and why should I use them?

A Network traffic travels in units of 1,500 bytes called frames. While these standard-sized frames are good enough for most network traffic, increasing frames in size can speed up network traffic in some scenarios. These larger than normal frames are called jumbo frames. The most obvious scenario is when you’re transferring large quantities of data to and from a network attached storage (NAS) device, such as when streaming high definition video.

Jumbo frames are only supported on gigabit Ethernet networks, so they won’t be of any use on slower Ethernet networks or wireless networks. All your network-connected equipment, such as your computers, router and NAS, must all support jumbo frames, have it enabled and set to the same frame size to see any benefit.

Trial and error will be needed to find the right jumbo frame size for your network and your network storage needs. It’s not simply a matter of setting the largest-sized frames possible, since jumbo frames that are too large can slow your network down.