network packet size Option

Use the network packet size option to set the packet size (in bytes) used across the entire network. Packets are the fixed-size chunks of data that transfer requests and results between clients and servers. The default packet size set by Microsoft® SQL Server™ is 4096 bytes. If an application does bulk copy operations, or sends or receives large amounts of text or image data, a packet size larger than the default may improve efficiency because it results in fewer network reads and writes. If an application sends and receives small amounts of information, you can set the packet size to 512 bytes, which is sufficient for most data transfers.

Note  Do not change the packet size unless you are certain that it will improve performance. For most applications, the default packet size is best.

On systems using differing network protocols, set network packet size to the size for the most common protocol used. network packet size improves network performance when network protocols support larger packets. Client applications can override this value.

You can also call OLE DB, ODBC, and DB-Library functions to change the packet size.

network packet size is an advanced option. If you will be using the sp_configure system stored procedure to change the setting, you can change network packet size only when show advanced options is set to 1. All connections created after this setting is changed receive the new value.

To configure packet size