network perf : em driver ?

[Ivan Voras]

R. B. Riddick wrote:

> We had that problem before: Some HTTP server implementations just dont bring
> it... :-) thttpd is quite efficient, I have heard...

This is a red herring. The OP reports he transfers a single file - http
server performance cannot even approach to influence the performance in
his case (and he's using apache!). There's absolutely no reason to
replace apache here.

> You can try

> 2. increase MTU (ifconfig em0 mtu 65536 or so; never tried that myself)

Don't do that. His ifconfig output lists his card doesn't support jumbo
frames, and most ethernet card's will wedge if you use MTU > 1500, let
alone a nonstandard one as 65536.

Even in 1999, standard 1500 byte frames could yield 400 Mbit/s
(http://sd.wareonearth.com/~phil/jumbo.html)

> 3. ports/benchmarks/tcpblast

I've found iperf to be more useful.