Specify Your Internet Settings

36

N600 WiFi Dual Band Gigabit Router

•

Use DHCP Server

. This method passes more information to LAN devices but some

IPv6 systems might not support the DHCv6 client function.

•

Auto Config

. This is the default setting.

This setting specifies how the router assigns IPv6 addresses to the devices on your home

network (the LAN).

10.

(Optional) Select the

Use This Interface ID

check box and specify the interface ID to be

used for the IPv6 address of the router’s LAN interface.

If you do not specify an ID here, the router generates one automatically from its MAC

address.

11.

Click the

Apply

button.

Your settings are saved.

Change the MTU Size

The maximum transmission unit (MTU) is the largest data packet a network device transmits.

When one network device communicates across the Internet with another, the data packets

travel through many devices along the way. If a device in the data path uses a lower MTU

setting than the other devices, the data packets must be split or “fragmented” to

accommodate the device with the smallest MTU.

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 ISP or other Internet service, and the

technical support of either the ISP or NETGEAR recommends changing the MTU setting.

These web-based applications might require an MTU change:

-

A secure website that does not open or displays only part of a web page

-

Yahoo email

-

MSN portal

-

America Online’s DSL service

•

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.

Note:

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.

Specify Your Internet Settings

37

N600 WiFi Dual Band Gigabit Router



To change the MTU size:

1.

Launch a web browser from a computer or wireless device that is connected to the

network.

2.

Type

http://www.routerlogin.net

or

.

A login screen displays.

3.

Enter the router user name and password.

The user name is

admin

. The default password is

password

. The user name and

password are case-sensitive.

The BASIC Home screen displays.

4.

Select

ADVANCED > Setup > WAN Setup

.

5.

In the

MTU Size

field, enter a value from 64 to 1500.

6.

Click the

Apply

button.

Your settings are saved.

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 2.

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

N600 WiFi Dual Band Gigabit Router

1460

Usable by AOL if you do not send or receive large email attachments, for example.

1436

Used in PPTP environments or with VPN.

1400

Maximum size for AOL DSL.

576

Typical value to connect to dial-up ISPs.

Table 2.

Common MTU sizes

(continued)

MTU

Application

39

4

4.

Optimize Performance

You can set up the router to optimize performance for applications such as Internet gaming,

high-definition video streaming, and VoIP communication. By default, the router uses Wi-Fi

Multimedia Quality of Service (WMM QoS).

This chapter contains the following sections:

•

Optimize Internet Streaming with QoS

•

Add QoS Rules by Service

•

Improve Network Connections with Universal Plug and Play

•

Wi-Fi Multimedia Quality of Service

Optimize Performance

40

N600 WiFi Dual Band Gigabit Router

Optimize Internet Streaming with QoS

You can use Quality of Service (QoS) to assign high priority to Internet streaming,

applications, and services.

Best effort traffic

Internet

High priority traffic

Figure 5. QoS can assign high priority to streaming from the Internet

NETGEAR recommends that you enable this feature only if you use streaming Internet.

When QoS assigns a high priority to streaming video, it also assigns lower priority to the rest

of your Internet traffic. That means other tasks like downloading content from the Internet

take longer.



To turn on Internet access QoS:

1.

Launch a web browser from a computer or wireless device that is connected to the

network.

2.

In the address field of the web browser, enter

http://www.routerlogin.net

or

.

A login screen displays.

3.

Enter the router user name and password.

The user name is

admin

. The default password is

password

. The user name and

password are case-sensitive.

The BASIC Home screen displays.

4.

Select

ADVANCED > Setup > QoS Setup

.

The QoS Setup screen displays.