Path MTU Probe
Discover the path MTU to a host by sending increasingly large DF-bit pings (binary search).
Path MTU = ICMP payload + 28 bytes (20 IP header + 8 ICMP header). Hosts that block ICMP entirely will appear unreachable here even if HTTP works.
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What is MTU?
MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) is the largest packet size a network path can carry without fragmentation. Ethernet's default MTU is 1500 bytes. If a packet exceeds the MTU of any link along the path, it's either fragmented (broken into smaller pieces) or dropped if the Don't Fragment (DF) bit is set.
What is path MTU discovery?
Path MTU Discovery (PMTUD) finds the smallest MTU along the entire network path to a destination. This tool probes by sending ICMP packets with DF=1 of increasing size (binary search). If a packet is too large for a link, a 'Fragmentation Needed' ICMP message is returned, revealing the actual MTU of that segment.
What causes MTU problems?
VPNs and tunnels (IPsec, GRE, VXLAN) add headers that reduce the effective MTU — a VPN tunnel with 1500-byte outer MTU may only support 1360–1440 bytes of payload. When path MTU is lower than what endpoints assume, TCP connections hang or perform very slowly (the 'black hole' problem). Setting TCP MSS clamping on VPN interfaces resolves most cases.
What is a common MTU for VPN connections?
WireGuard typically works at 1420 bytes; OpenVPN UDP at 1500 minus the tunnel overhead (typically 1400–1450); IPsec with ESP at 1400 or lower depending on cipher. If you're troubleshooting slow TCP over VPN, try explicitly setting the MTU to 1400 on the VPN interface and see if performance improves.