diff --git a/.rat-excludes b/.rat-excludes
index 37e68337de..90d78a831a 100644
--- a/.rat-excludes
+++ b/.rat-excludes
@@ -20,3 +20,4 @@ redhat/cassandra
 redhat/cassandra.conf
 redhat/cassandra.in.sh
 redhat/default
+.externalToolBuilders/**
diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 80e194d327..89b16bddb5 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 dev
+ * buffer network stack to avoid inefficient small TCP messages while avoiding
+   the nagle/delayed ack problem (CASSANDRA-1896)
  * check log4j configuration for changes every 10s (CASSANDRA-1525, 1907)
  * More-efficient cross-DC replication (CASSANDRA-1530)
  * upgrade to TFastFramedTransport (CASSANDRA-1743)
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/net/IncomingTcpConnection.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/net/IncomingTcpConnection.java
index 623641823e..27692b5b01 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/net/IncomingTcpConnection.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/net/IncomingTcpConnection.java
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ public class IncomingTcpConnection extends Thread
         this.socket = socket;
         try
         {
-            input = new DataInputStream(socket.getInputStream());
+            input = new DataInputStream(new BufferedInputStream(socket.getInputStream(), 4096));
         }
         catch (IOException e)
         {
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/net/OutboundTcpConnection.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/net/OutboundTcpConnection.java
index e9bc58f5ab..c83186df61 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/net/OutboundTcpConnection.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/net/OutboundTcpConnection.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ package org.apache.cassandra.net;
  */
 
 
+import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
 import java.io.DataOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.InetAddress;
@@ -164,7 +165,7 @@ public class OutboundTcpConnection extends Thread
                 socket = new Socket(endpoint, DatabaseDescriptor.getStoragePort(), FBUtilities.getLocalAddress(), 0);
                 socket.setKeepAlive(true);
                 socket.setTcpNoDelay(true);
-                output = new DataOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
+                output = new DataOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream(), 4096));
                 return true;
             }
             catch (IOException e)