Does packet length matter?
Packet length will influence file transfer speed. The process of packetizing data increases the total amount of data to be transferred. Thus, larger packet sizes will reduce the total amount of overhead for any given file to be transferred.Additionally, ACK/NAK protocols will have to wait for fewer ACKs and NAKs to be sent by the receiver if the packet size is larger. YMODEM achieves speed advantages over XMODEM by using a larger packet size.In some cases, however, you will actually be better off with smaller packet sizes. For example, if a data packet is corrupted it must be retransmitted. If many packets are being corrupted due to a bad phone line or improper flow control, you will be better off using a smaller packet size. The BLAST protocol allows the user to set the packet size in order to tune the protocol for maximum performance. This is useful in situations where you may regularly have a large number of corrupted packets when transmitting files to a particular machine. You shou
