SQL Server and TCP Fragments

I have a SQL Server sitting in 1 network and a client sitting in
another network

We're troubleshooting an application and I've noticed something I find
odd in a network trace.

The Communication port of the SQL server has been changed and is now
4046

Everything is working, but its slow, I've looked at the network trace
and I see a query that results in a 17K result set has been split into
hundreds of packets

this is normal to a degree and IP Fragmentation would certainly
fragment a 15K packet, however in this case I'm seeing TCP
Fragmentation.

the conversation is resulting in TCP Packets with payloads of between
20 and 50 bytes...which is so in-efficient its causing performance
issues.

As this is TCP layer stuff it must be the application thats doing
this.

Is there a setting for this in the sql network configuration anywhere?

My thinking is if I want a 15K result set and my MTU is 1500 I would
expect in the region of 10 packets to recieve that data, as it is I'm
seeing 150

Any help appreciated.

Many Thanks

Cliff.