RESOLUTION
To correct this problem, install the fix mentioned below.
PMTU Discovery Overview
Windows NT 3.5 and 3.51 use PMTU discovery as described in RFC1191. When
a connection is established, the two hosts involved exchange their TCP
maximum segment size (MSS) values. The smaller of the two MSS values is
used for the connection. The MSS for a system is usually the MTU (Maximum
Transfer Unit) at the link layer minus 40 bytes for the IP and TCP headers.
When TCP segments are destined to a non-local network, the Don't Fragment
bit is set in the IP header. Any router or media along the path may have
an MTU that differs from that of the two hosts. If a media is encountered
with an MTU that is too small for the IP datagram being routed, the router
will attempt to fragment the datagram accordingly. Upon attempting to do
so, it will find that the Don't Fragment bit in the IP header is set. At
this point, the router should inform the sending host with an ICMP
destination unreachable message that the datagram can't be forwarded
further without fragmentation.
Most routers will also specify the MTU that is allowed for the next hop by
putting the value for it in the low-order 16 bits of the ICMP header field
that is labeled "unused" in the ICMP specification. See RFC1191, section 4,
for the format of this message. Upon receiving this ICMP error message, TCP
adjusts its MSS for the connection to the specified MTU minus the TCP and
IP header size, so that any further packets sent on the connection will be
no larger than the maximum size that can traverse the path without
fragmentation.
Using The Largest Possible MTU For Each Path Optimizes Efficiency
PMTU discovery is enabled by default, but can be controlled by adding the
following value to the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\tcpip\parameters
\EnablePMTUDiscovery (REG_DWORD, 0=disabled, 1=enabled)
When PMTU discovery is disabled, an MTU of 576 bytes is used for all
non-local destination IP addresses. (The TCP MSS=536).
PMTU Black Hole Detection in Windows NT 3.5 and 3.51
A number of vendors sell routers and other intermediate devices that are
not compliant. Instead of returning ICMP destination unreachable messages
to the originating host, they may silently discard IP datagrams that are
too large to be passed on to the next media in a path. These devices are
referred to as "Black Hole Routers."
Windows NT 3.5 and 3.51 TCP/IP can be configured to attempt to discover
these Black Hole Routers, and adapt the PMTU to be small enough to pass
through them. A registry value can be added to enable PMTU Black Hole
detection:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\tcpip\parameters
\EnablePMTUBHDetect (REG_DWORD, 0=disabled, 1=enabled)
If this value is not present (default), then PMTU Black Hole detection is
not enabled.
When PMTUBHDetect is enabled, after a TCP segment is retransmitted 1/2 of
TCPMaxDataRetransmissions (another registry parameter, default=5) times
without being acknowledged, the Don't Fragment bit will be cleared on the
remainder of the retransmission attempts. If the segment is acknowledged as
a result, the MSS will be decreased, and the Don't Fragment bit will be set
in future IP datagrams sent on that connection.
STATUS
Microsoft Product Support engineers have encountered a number of routers
and other intermediate devices that silently drop large frames, even when
the Don't Fragment bit is not set. Because the existing Windows NT 3.5 and
3.51 TCP/IP PMTU Black Hole Detection algorithm does not detect and adapt
for these devices, customers who encountered problems had no choice but to
disable PMTU detection. Therefore, Microsoft has made the following change:
When PMTUBHDetect is enabled, after a TCP segment is retransmitted 1/2
of TCPMaxDataRetransmissions (default=5 still) times without being
acknowledged, an MSS of 536 bytes (MTU=576) will be used on the
remainder of the retransmission attempts. The Don't Fragment bit will
not be set on any of these 536 byte segments. 536 bytes is the smallest
MTU normally encountered, and since the Don't Fragment bit is not set,
the packet can be further fragmented if necessary.
This change should result in more reliable transfer of large files over
wide-area networks with a mixture of intermediate devices, such as the
Internet. The modified TCPIP.SYS file is available from Microsoft Product
Support.
NOTE: PMTUBHDetect still defaults to 0 (disabled), so in order to take
advantage of this feature the value must be added to the registry shown
above, and set to 1.
For a complete list of TCP/IP configuration parameters and their possible
settings, see Knowledge Base article
120642.
This problem has been corrected in the latest U.S. Service Pack for Windows
NT version 3.51 and Windows NT 4.0. For information on obtaining the
Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base
without the spaces):