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To: Joao Carlos Mendes Luis <jonny@gaia.coppe.ufrj.br>
From: compland@ism.com.br (Helio Coelho Jr. - CompuLand Informatica)
Subject: Re: curious ping
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>#define quoting(Helio Coelho Jr. - CompuLand Informatica)
>// Hi:
>// 
>//    I have two machines attached to a hub. Both using SMC Etherpower. If I
>// ping from machine "A" to machine "B", with the smallest packet size
>// (64bytes), I got lots
>// of lost packets (about 30-40%). But if I raise it just a little bit
>// (108bytes) no
>// packet lost! Why this happens ?
>
>  You didn't talk about the traffic load.  One of the limiting factors
>of network processing is packet processing, meaning that bursts of small
>packets demand more CPU to process than large packets.  This could be
>your problem, if your receiving CPU cannot deal with the suplied small
>packets traffic.

It happens with or without traffic!
Helio.