Tuning SQL Server Configuration - Professional SQL Server 2005 Performance Tuning - page 183

Figure 7-6
NetworkPacketSize
By default, network packet size is 4096 bytes. Once again, this has proven to work well in most scenarios.
However, if your application sends a lot of text or image data to SQL Server, it may be beneficial to adjust
the parameter to a bigger size, due to fewer network read and write operations.
By now you should be familiar with adjusting parameters with scripts. You can use sp_configure to
adjust network packet size to a size of your choosing. Alternatively, Figure 7-8 shows the properties page
where you can change it with the UI.
As with all other server parameters, test and verify that the change will result in performance
improvement before you apply it to production.
NetworkConnectionAffinity
Network connection affinity is an advanced feature that is only available for TCP/IP network
connections, which, fortunately for SQL Server, are the dominant network protocol nowadays. The idea is
that a different end point, which essentially is a port on the server, can be created. The new end point can
then be bound to CPUs on the server. This can be very useful to spread the load to different processors
on the server.