diff --git a/swift/obj/server.py b/swift/obj/server.py
index e8593fedab..0e902183a7 100644
--- a/swift/obj/server.py
+++ b/swift/obj/server.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import cPickle as pickle
 import os
 import time
 import traceback
+import socket
 from datetime import datetime
 from swift import gettext_ as _
 from hashlib import md5
@@ -90,6 +91,21 @@ class ObjectController(object):
             'expiring_objects'
         self.expiring_objects_container_divisor = \
             int(conf.get('expiring_objects_container_divisor') or 86400)
+        # Initialization was successful, so now apply the network chunk size
+        # parameter as the default read / write buffer size for the network
+        # sockets.
+        #
+        # NOTE WELL: This is a class setting, so until we get set this on a
+        # per-connection basis, this affects reading and writing on ALL
+        # sockets, those between the proxy servers and external clients, and
+        # those between the proxy servers and the other internal servers.
+        #
+        # ** Because the primary motivation for this is to optimize how data
+        # is written back to the proxy server, we could use the value from the
+        # disk_chunk_size parameter. However, it affects all created sockets
+        # using this class so we have chosen to tie it to the
+        # network_chunk_size parameter value instead.
+        socket._fileobject.default_bufsize = self.network_chunk_size
 
         # Provide further setup sepecific to an object server implemenation.
         self.setup(conf)
diff --git a/swift/proxy/server.py b/swift/proxy/server.py
index bbc439f5b6..bcd0eb562c 100644
--- a/swift/proxy/server.py
+++ b/swift/proxy/server.py
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 
 import mimetypes
 import os
+import socket
 from swift import gettext_ as _
 from random import shuffle
 from time import time
@@ -160,6 +161,18 @@ class Application(object):
         self.swift_owner_headers = [
             name.strip()
             for name in swift_owner_headers.split(',') if name.strip()]
+        # Initialization was successful, so now apply the client chunk size
+        # parameter as the default read / write buffer size for the network
+        # sockets.
+        #
+        # NOTE WELL: This is a class setting, so until we get set this on a
+        # per-connection basis, this affects reading and writing on ALL
+        # sockets, those between the proxy servers and external clients, and
+        # those between the proxy servers and the other internal servers.
+        #
+        # ** Because it affects the client as well, currently, we use the
+        # client chunk size as the govenor and not the object chunk size.
+        socket._fileobject.default_bufsize = self.client_chunk_size
 
     def get_controller(self, path):
         """
diff --git a/test/unit/proxy/test_server.py b/test/unit/proxy/test_server.py
index 071f62ae11..a16bf219e5 100644
--- a/test/unit/proxy/test_server.py
+++ b/test/unit/proxy/test_server.py
@@ -6716,6 +6716,65 @@ class TestSegmentedIterable(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEquals(''.join(segit.app_iter_range(5, 7)), '34')
 
 
+class TestProxyObjectPerformance(unittest.TestCase):
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        # This is just a simple test that can be used to verify and debug the
+        # various data paths between the proxy server and the object
+        # server. Used as a play ground to debug buffer sizes for sockets.
+        prolis = _test_sockets[0]
+        sock = connect_tcp(('localhost', prolis.getsockname()[1]))
+        # Client is transmitting in 2 MB chunks
+        fd = sock.makefile('wb', 2 * 1024 * 1024)
+        # Small, fast for testing
+        obj_len = 2 * 64 * 1024
+        # Use 1 GB or more for measurements
+        #obj_len = 2 * 512 * 1024 * 1024
+        self.path = '/v1/a/c/o.large'
+        fd.write('PUT %s HTTP/1.1\r\n'
+                 'Host: localhost\r\n'
+                 'Connection: close\r\n'
+                 'X-Storage-Token: t\r\n'
+                 'Content-Length: %s\r\n'
+                 'Content-Type: application/octet-stream\r\n'
+                 '\r\n' % (self.path, str(obj_len)))
+        fd.write('a' * obj_len)
+        fd.flush()
+        headers = readuntil2crlfs(fd)
+        exp = 'HTTP/1.1 201'
+        self.assertEqual(headers[:len(exp)], exp)
+        self.obj_len = obj_len
+
+    def test_GET_debug_large_file(self):
+        for i in range(0, 10):
+            start = time.time()
+
+            prolis = _test_sockets[0]
+            sock = connect_tcp(('localhost', prolis.getsockname()[1]))
+            # Client is reading in 2 MB chunks
+            fd = sock.makefile('wb', 2 * 1024 * 1024)
+            fd.write('GET %s HTTP/1.1\r\n'
+                     'Host: localhost\r\n'
+                     'Connection: close\r\n'
+                     'X-Storage-Token: t\r\n'
+                     '\r\n' % self.path)
+            fd.flush()
+            headers = readuntil2crlfs(fd)
+            exp = 'HTTP/1.1 200'
+            self.assertEqual(headers[:len(exp)], exp)
+
+            total = 0
+            while True:
+                buf = fd.read(100000)
+                if not buf:
+                    break
+                total += len(buf)
+            self.assertEqual(total, self.obj_len)
+
+            end = time.time()
+            print "Run %02d took %07.03f" % (i, end - start)
+
+
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     setup()
     try: