"Don Ray" writes:
> > > One possibility is that the link is handling short packets well but is
> > > scrambling long ones. You might try doing pings with long packet
> > > lengths and see.
> 
> Sure enough Perry,
> 
> When I ping (across the ppp link) with a total packet size of 1500 bytes I
> get 45% loss!
> When I ping (across the ppp link) with a total packet size of 296 bytes I
> get 4% loss.
> 
> Should I keep reducing until I get no loss and set my mtu/mru to that or
> does this indicate an improper, but correctable connection?

I would guess that you are suffering from i386 COM driver lossage.

I would expect that by replacing your COM driver with one of Charles'
more recent snapshots on ftp.netbsd.org in pub/NetBSD/arch/i386, the
problem may go away.

In any case, you should be able to get far more than 1500 bytes across
reliably at a time -- that loss rate is unacceptably high.

Perry