Win-Doze tips and tricks
More speed...
easier ops!!
Dialup [telephone line] Modem Tweaks
**Note...this is a "generic" type listing....some may
apply to your system/OS, some will differ slightly in location
[files]
The first section is mainly for 9x and ME, but still contains
good stuff for 2k and XP.
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In Control Panel double-click the Network icon. Under the
Configuration tab, select the Dial-Up Adapter and click
Properties. Go to the Bindings tab and uncheck all boxes except
the TCP/IP box. Select the Advanced tab and set Enable Point To
Point IP to No (unless you routinely accept incoming calls using
your modem, in which case leave it enabled), IP Packet Size to
Large (576 is good for dialup, but DrTCP and TCPOptimizer will
"tweak" this setting as well), and Record Log File to
No. If you mostly use the Internet to download files and view
webpages, enable IPX Header Compression, otherwise disable it.
Next, select the TCP/IP protocol (if you have multiple copies of
the protocol installed, use the one for your dial-up
adapter/modem) and click Properties. Select the WINS
Configuration tab, and choose the Disable WINS Resolution option.
Click the DNS configuration tab, and select Disable DNS. Go to
the Bindings tab. Uncheck all the boxes.
Next, open your Dial-up networking folder and go to the
server-types tab. Make sure that TCP/IP is enabled (and
compression if you want web pages to load faster, and don't care
about ping), and everything else is disabled. This will help you
connect to your ISP faster.
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Changing your FIFO settings.
To do this, right click on My Computer. Go to Properties. Then
click the Device Manager tab at the top. Locate Modem, double
click on it, then double click your modem.
Click the connection tab at the top of the properties section.
Click the port settings button. Now slide the FIFO buffers all
the way right. If things don't work correctly when you attempt to
use your modem then you should change this back.
Now from the other menu click advanced. Make sure your modem is
using hardware flow control, use compression, and error control
for best results. It is also important for the flow control
setting to be set to hardware, because software mode is more
taxing on your CPU then hardware mode is.
Go back to Device Manager. Double click the Ports section, and
then double click the Communication Port your modem uses.
It will bring up a similar Properties section. Click the Port
Settings tab. Change Bits Per Second to 115200 or higher. Change
flow control to Hardware. Then click the Advanced... button and
it will bring up the same FIFO menu as above. Slide the bar all
the way to the right again.
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Registry Settings
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, there are a series of keys named
\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Net\000X (where X is a
number between 1 and 9). Under these keys, there is a value with
the name SLOWNET. Obviously, this is a bad thing, so you want to
change the value from the default of 01 to 00. Another key,
\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\COMBUFF, has a value in it
called Start, which is disabled. Change the 00 to 01. And a third
key, \System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\VCACHE, also has a
value called start, which should be changed from 00 to 01.
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Win2k tweaks
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Phone and Modem Options applet. Open the applet and select the
Modems tab. Select your modem and click on the properties button.
On the General Tab, set the Maximum port speed to 115200 or
higher (if you have connection stability or compatibility
problems, set it back down to 115200).
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Network and Dial-up Connections tab. Select your dial-up
connection icon, right click on it, and choose properties. On the
general tab, click the Configure button. Set the Maximum speed to
115200, and select all of the check boxes under the hardware
features. If you are more interested in ping times then you are
in overall speed de-select the modem compression box.
Under the options tab, the only thing that should be selected is
the display progress while connecting. Under the networking tab,
you actually have some real work to do. Follow these steps:
- Click on the settings button and enable all three tick-boxes,
unless you are more interested in ping times, in which case you
are going to want to disable software compression.
- In the components section, disable everything except TCP/IP.
- Click on the properties button and then select the Advanced
button. - Enable PPP header compression under the General tab
unless you are looking for better ping times and not overall
Internet performance.
- Under the WINS tab, disable LMHOSTS lookup.
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PORT settings:
From within the device manager (System Directory/Hardware tab)
select each COM port on your system and give it the following
settings (under the Port Settings tab) [Note: you may have to be
logged in as the Administrator to make these changes stick]:
Bits per Second - 115200+ (if you have compatibility or
connection problems with higher settings, return to 115200)
Data bits: 8
Parity: None
Stop Bits: 1
Flow control: Hardware*
*You may get the same or better performance with this set to None
- but it will depend on your system.
Under the Advanced button, make sure that the FIFO Receive and
Transmit buffers are on and are turned up to their highest
settings (14 & 16 respectively).
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REGISTRY:
In REGEDIT:
All of the following keys should be added to the key
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters].
"EnablePMTUBHDetect"=dword:00000000
"Tcp1323Opts"=dword:00000003
"SackOpts"=dword:00000001
"DefaultTTL"=dword:00000020
"EnablePMTUDiscovery"=dword:00000001
EnablePMTUBHDetect - This key enables Black Hole Detection over
your TCP/IP connections. It applies to all of your TCP/IP stacks.
It is best to disable this feature.
0 - Disabled 1 - Enabled
Tcp1323Opts - This key enables large TCP window support.
Disabling this setting limits the window to 64K.
0 - Disabled 1 - Window Scaling w/o Timestamp 2 - Unknown 3 -
Windows Scaling w/ Timestamp
SackOpts - This setting enables selective acknowledgement
support. This setting is more important to connections with large
TCP Windows.
0 - Disabled 1 - Enabled
DefaultTTL - This setting determines the default Time to Live
setting for your connection. 32 is the standard, but 64, 96, and
128 are also common. There are special instructions for modifying
this key. Input the data as binary and then click on the
hexadecimal radial button to convert to Hex before saving the
setting.
EnablePMTUDiscovery - This setting enables MTU Auto Detect within
Win2K. This setting is best enabled.
0 - Disabled 1 - Enabled
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XP tweaks
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Click on Start, Control Panel, then Network Connections. Right
click on your Internet connection & select Properties. Then
select Configure button.
Maximum speed (bps). Users of 33.6K Modems should set this to
56700, while 56K Modem users should select 115200.
Enable hardware flow control. Tick this setting to enable the use
of hardware handshaking with your connection. For best connection
stability & throughput ensure this setting is Ticked. Though
in some (rare) cases you may find Unticking this setting can
improve connection stability (Uses Software flow control
instead).
Enable modem error control. Tick this setting to enable the use
of Modem error control, which will attempt to ensure data
integrity in the connection, resending any damaged packets as
necessary.
Enable modem compression. Data compression provides faster
uploads/downloads depending on the data which is getting
compressed. Should you have a Winmodem then you can leave this
setting Unticked as these Modems do not support hardware
compression. For regular, hardware, modems Tick this setting to
enable the Modem to perform any data compression, which provides
lower CPU usage over using software compression.
Click Ok & select the Networking tab.
Type of dial-up server I am calling. Set this to PPP: Windows
95/98/NT4/2000, Internet.
Now select the Settings button.
Enable LCP extensions. LCP (Link Control Protocol) extensions
provide a way of establishing, configuring, maintaining, &
terminating a PPP connection. You should leave this setting
Ticked unless you experiencing problems connecting to your ISP as
a result of its enabling.
Enable software compression. Tick this setting to enable software
(CPU) data compression for your connection. This will provide
faster uploads/downloads depending on the data which is getting
compressed. Should you have a Modem which can perform compression
in hardware then I’d recommend you leave this setting
Unticked & allow the Modem to perform any data compression
– this should improve system performance slightly as the CPU
will not be required to perform a task which can be done on
separate, dedicated, hardware. Those with Winmodems should Tick
this for optimal upload/download speeds, albeit it at the cost of
some CPU cycles.
Negotiate multi-link for single link connections. You can leave
this setting Tick unless you experience problems connecting to
your ISP (Error code 733 according to Microsoft), in which case
Untick this.
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**Gathered over the years from different sources with a few of my
own additions...
Enjoy!!
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WyldFyre's REG tweaks [for 9x-ME]
These
tweaks are pretty universal, and safe...they will not only add to
internet service, but to your machines general performance as
well[works on dialups, cable, all internet access and speeds apps
as well].
I recommended that you back up your registry and/or write down
what you change, so you can restore it to original if your
machine doesn't like the tweak.
Basically these tweaks correct wrongful "default"
settings from the Win-Doze installation which decrease PC
performance, and the way the machine processes the information.
1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic
es\Class\Net\
there will be a key 000[X] , X being a number from 0 to 9....
[there may be more than one, check all these for this value, but
it is usually the 1st one '0000' most times]
Under one or more of these will be a value with the name SLOWNET.
Change the value from 01[enabled] to 00 [disabled]
{WHY is a NO-BRAINER??}
2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic
es\VxD\VCACHE
Value called "start", which is set on 00 [disabled]
needs to be set to 01 [enabled]
3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic
es\VxD\BIOS
or in some cases BIOSXLAT
[**NOTE** if BIOS is present, perform this tweak there...some
motherboards/chipsets only use the BIOSXLAT so if regular BIOS is
NOT present, the tweak goes there]
In the right pane create these new D-word values with the
corresponding DECIMAL settings..
PCIConcur 1 [enabled]
CPUPriority 1 [enabled]
FastDRAM 1 [enabled]
AGPConcur 1 [enabled]
**NEW ADDITION** If, under this reg key, there is a value called
"Start", make sure it is set to "01"
{enabled}
Once this is done, go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Contro
l\
and, if not present, create in the LEFT pane a new KEY:
PriorityControl
Highlight this key, and in the RIGHT pane, create a new DWORD
value called
Win32PrioritySeparation
Double click this, and set the DECIMAL value between 1 and 38. 1
being that your "foreground" or "highlighted"
app or window will be a little more responsive than background
apps/windows....
38 being the most responsive....
**NOTE** will cause the foreground app to utilize a bit more in
system resources, but it will respond faster, so find a
balance...my particular setting is 16, which seems to be a great
balance with no appreciable "bad" effects on
anything.....
4. THIS one is great....seems that every time you send a packet,
it is delayed slightly by your machine searching for this
non-existing computer.....
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr
entVersion\explorer\RemoteComputer\Namespace
If a value or key {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060FSBF} is
there, whether in left or right pane, delete it.
This will stop your machine from looking for this computer and
help with lag time, even a slight improvement in this area brings
great results with satellite access!!
**I can only tell you I use these [and more] but these are
perfectly safe and have worked well on every machine I have done
this to for years...which adds up to a lot of computers, as I
have set my customers up with these, too...
Of course, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!! and if ya don't feel
comfortable mucking around with the registry, DON'T!!
Enjoy, all!!
