List of Good Xp/2k tweaks

[illestdynasty]

These are some good tweaks for Win2k/XP users. Some are my own, but with a majority of help from Lobo and mnosteele52. Although I can't give you the "Super Secret Ultimate Tweaks" :)here is a good place to start.

**Note, Win9x users are out of luck.**


1. Open your Network Connections from the Control Panel – right click on your Cable connection and select properties, if you have the “QoS Packet Scheduler” installed highlight it and select uninstall.

2. Copy and paste this and make .reg file and merge into registry.

************begin copy and paste***********
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servi
ces\Dnscache\Parameters]
"CacheHashTableBucketSize"=dword:00000001
"CacheHashTableSize"=dword:00000180
"MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000fa00
"MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000012d

************end copy and paste***********

3. Open up regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace, find the key named {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}. Right click on it and delete it.

4. In IE click tools - internet options - general tab, settings - check for newer versions of stored pages - every visit to page, also set the amount of disk space to use for temp files to no more than 80MB.

5. Make sure you have the latest driver for your NIC from the manufacturer.

6. There is a setting under your NIC properties called "media type" or “duplex mode” make sure it is set to 10mb half duplex or 10base T mode.

7. Open your sys.ini file and under 386enh put IrqXXbuffer=7168 (XX = Irq assigned to your NIC, if single digit Irq use 0 then Irq i.e. 03).

8. Download Cablenut from here then open the adjuster and put in the following settings:

DefaultRecieveWindow = 256960
DefaultSendWindow = 64240
InitialLargeBufferCount = 100
InitialMediumBufferCount = 300
InitialSmallBufferCount = 500
LargeBufferSize = 40960
MaxFastTransmit = 256960
MediumBufferSize = 15040
PriorityBoost = 0
SmallBufferSize = 640
TransmitWorker = 32
EnableFastRouteLookup = 1
EnablePMTUDiscovery = 1
GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize = 256960
MaxFreeTcbs = 2000
MaxHashTableSize = 4096
MaxNormLookupMemory = 150000
SackOpts = 1
Tcp1323Opts = 1
TcpMaxDupAcks = 2
TcpRecvSegmentSize = 5840
TcpSendSegmentSize = 2920
TcpWindowSize = 256960
MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server = 40
MaxConnectionsPerServer = 20
DefaultTTL = 64

Leave all other boxes blank, select save to registry and reboot.
Check here to make sure your setting took effect:

Tcp/Ip Analyzer

9. Test your speed here Speakeasy choose the location nearest you and make sure to clear your IE cache between tests.

10. If you have the @home software installed on your pc, I HIGHLY suggest uninstalling it, they put you behind their proxy settings that won't allow you to change some of the settings above to get the speed you are paying for. The ONLY way to FULLY remove their proxy is click start - run - type regsvr32 /u ahiehelp.dll and select ok, this removes the dll file that limits you. After removing it go to IE - tools - internet options - connections - LAN settings - uncheck proxy server.

11. Open regedit and go to the following entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro
l\PriorityControl - on the right hand side right click and select new DWORD value, name it IrqXPriority (X = Irq assigned to your NIC), then right click it and select modify and give it a decimal value of 1.

12. Open regedit and browse to key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro
l\Session Manager\Memory Management Disable Paging Executive
XP pages sections RAM to the hard drive. We can stop this happening for a performance boost. (256+ MB RAM needed)
"DisablePagingExecutive" = 1

13. Diskcache plays a very important role in WinXP. However, the default I/O pagefile setting of XP is conservative, which limits the performance. Some better values for different RAM are given below.

1. run "regedit";
2. goto [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\IoPageLockLimit];
3. modify the value in Hex depending on the size of your RAM:
RAM: modified value(Hex)
64M: 1000;
128M: 4000;
256M: 10000;
512M or more: 40000.
4. reboot.

Though some good tools (such as "Cacheman") can do this, it is an interesting experience for you to work it out by yourself and let your XP fly.

14. Just like Windows 2000, Windows XP still fails to set the DMA mode correctly for the IDE device designated as the slaves on the primary IDE and secondary IDE channels. Most CD-ROMS are capable of supporting DMA mode, but the default in XP is still PIO. Setting it to DMA won't make your CD-ROM faster, but it will consume less CPU cycles. Here's how:

1. Open the Device Manager. One way to do that is to right click on "My Computer", select the Hardware tab, and Select Device Manager.
2. Expand "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and double-click on "Primary IDE Channel"
3. Under the "Advanced Settings" tab, check the "Device 1" setting. More than likely, your current transfer mode is set to PIO.
4. Set it to "DMA if available".

Repeat the step for the "Secondary IDE Channel" if you have devices attached to it. Reboot.

15. Righclick on My Computer, Go down to properties, Hardware tab, device manager, click the plus icon beside IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, go down to Primary IDE channel, rightclick and go down to properties, advanced settings tab select transfer mode to DMA if available if you haven't already and change device type to none under device 1. This will promote faster boot ups by saving time used to search for extra devices on the same IDE channel. This channel should be reserved for only your hard drive.

P.S. Just remember the same settings don’t work for everyone, you can experiment with different DefaultReveiveWindow/GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize/TcpWindowSize settings, good ones to try are 513920 – 256960 – 128480 – 64240 – 32120, there are many, many others to try, use your own just keep it an even multiple of 1460 and if u use 65536 or lower change Tcp1323Opts to 0.

P.S. If the tweaks don't work for you just open the adjuster again, clear all the boxes, select save to registry, reboot and you are back to defaults.

**NOTE** One thing to understand about tweaking all these settings, you won't see a tremendous difference in just web surfing (though you will see some improvement), but downloading files you should really see an improvement.

[Lobo]

3. Open up regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace, find the key named {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}. Right click on it and delete it.
Optimizer removes this



6. There is a setting under your NIC properties called "media type" or “duplex mode” make sure it is set to 10mb half duplex or 10base T mode.
This is for Cable only, not DSL

I'd be carefull doing all that:) :)

[illestdynasty]

Originally posted by Lobo
3. Open up regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace, find the key named {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}. Right click on it and delete it.
Optimizer removes this



6. There is a setting under your NIC properties called "media type" or “duplex mode” make sure it is set to 10mb half duplex or 10base T mode.
This is for Cable only, not DSL

I'd be carefull doing all that:) :)

just what does #3 do anyway?

Thanks,
illestdynasty

[Lobo]

It removes a scheduled tasks thing, read about it at this site:




http://members.aol.com/axcel216/

[Lobo]

In Optimizer, other settings tab at top, Lan Browing speedup removes that key, and will put it back if you want it:)

We are at SG, I recommend Optimiser, not other people's , unless someone really knows what they are doing they just need one:)

[Lobo]

To be on safe side turn on system restore overnight so you have a restore point, then turn it off again, it will have to be turned back on to restore in case above does not work for you:) :)

[CaptainSpeleo]

From most everything that I've read on this forum and on the TweakXP forum, #13 doesn't work with Windows XP.

I also recently read(I believe it was from Mnosteele) that #6 would be "10Mbps/full duplex" for DSL and "10Mbps/half duplex" for cable.

[EvilAjax]

Not bad..

TCP options string = 020405a001010402

MTU = 1480
MTU is not fully optimized for broadband. Consider increasing your MTU to 1500 for better throughput.

MSS = 1440
Maximum useful data in each packet = 1440, which is equal to MSS.

Default Receive Window (RWIN) = 20160
RWIN Scaling (RFC1323) = 0 bits
Unscaled Receive Window = 20160
RWIN is a multiple of MSS
Other values for RWIN that might work well with your current MTU/MSS:
506880 (MSS x 44 * scale factor of 8)
253440 (MSS x 44 * scale factor of 4)
126720 (MSS x 44 * scale factor of 2)
63360 (MSS x 44)

bandwidth * delay product:
Your RcvWindow limits you to: 806.4 kbps (100.8 KBytes/s) @ 200ms
Your RcvWindow limits you to: 322.56 kbps (40.32 KBytes/s) @ 500ms

MTU Discovery (RFC1191) = ON

Time to live left = 51 hops
TTL value is ok.

Timestamps (RFC1323) = OFF

Selective Acknowledgements (RFC2018) = ON

IP type of service field (RFC1349)= 11110010
Precedence (priority) = 111 (Network Control)
Delay = 1 (low delay)
Throughput = 0 (normal throughput)
Reliability = 0 (normal reliability)
Cost = 1 (low cost)

:p

[CaptainSpeleo]

EvilAjax:

Your Rwin value is awfully low for broadband. Since your MaxMSS is 1440, try an Rwin value of 253440.

http://9337387.home.icq.com/index.html

[EvilAjax]

Originally posted by CaptainSpeleo
EvilAjax:

Your Rwin value is awfully low for broadband. Since your MaxMSS is 1440, try an Rwin value of 253440.

http://9337387.home.icq.com/index.html LOL

Nah.. been there, tried that. I've been tweaking for a long time now and this low RWIN is the best of all. I'm capped at 768kbps.. I don't need a 6 digit RWIN.. Thanks anyway ;)

[EvilAjax]

My RWIN is MSS x 14

No need for a larger RWIN.. I've tried them all. Trust me. Larger RWINs work for an Optimum Online type of connection.. where you're capped at 10mbps down and 1mbps up... That's when you go nuts with the RWIN size. That RWIN value you recommended me is way too high for any DSL connection. First thing you do before recommending an RWIN value is asking for advertised speeds and caps... ;)

Can't tell from the Analyzer what my speeds are and how fast I'm going...

[Lobo]

He uses AOL so small RWIN for him:) :)

[CaptainSpeleo]

Didn't know he was on DSL and AOL. :rolleyes:

[Lobo]

Click on profile button in one of his posts:)

[EvilAjax]

Originally posted by Lobo
He uses AOL so small RWIN for him:) :) That's how much you know.. AOL has nothing to do with my connection speed... especially my RWIN value. Besides.. I tweaked my connection way before I installed AOL. :rolleyes:

[Lobo]

You love Welcome and you know it, big RWIN's are for OOL users,
do tell, I use big fat juicy one works fine, I don't have OOL, you don't need big RWIN because you are on DSL PPPoE, but if you like them itty bitty RWIN's, I know a place that loves them, Welcome:)

[EvilAjax]

Originally posted by Lobo
You love Welcome and you know it, big RWIN's are for OOL users,
do tell, I use big fat juicy one works fine, I don't have OOL, you don't need big RWIN because you are on DSL PPPoE, but if you like them itty bitty RWIN's, I know a place that loves them, Welcome:) Wow.. Looks like you've lost plenty of your tweaking knowledge Lobo. You should know that a RWIN value isn't made up because of the connection type.. but because of the advertised speeds and caps.. Right now with my itty bitty RWIN, I'm going faster than you are on your crappy cable connection... and I bet your RWIN has 6 digits in it. Nothing wrong with that... but the way you make it seem, rubbing it in... You're just embarrassing yourself. Look it up all you want.. Just because AOL is installed in the machine it doesn't mean you need a little RWIN. If your big juicy RWIN works so fine then why the **** do you complain about your CONcast speeds so much? Or is argueing and posting this nonsense a way to up your post count? Don't put up an argument when you don't know ****. I don't know what's up.. but you've changed. :confused:

Don't even respond... all we'll get is a couple of sentences that don't even make sense and a whole bunch of happy faces... :) :) :)

Subject: If you find new tweaks
Originally posted by Lobo
Use them if it's better for you:)

Nice post... or.. nice spam...

[Lobo]

Just have all that in your sig at SC when they crank back up, SG uses 6 digit RWIN's, so it should change because you say so:)

[Lobo]

I did not say this, the boss did:, I agree with it though, Cable connections:


Philip
Administrator

Registered: May 1999
Location: St. Pete, FL
Posts: 1492
ALL recommended RWIN values are under 1MB, so there is no way they would affect the PC performance.

Any usable CPU / RAM combination should be able to handle high-speed traffic, however slower computers overloaded with a lot of running applications tend to have slower transfers by default... Simply because there are not enough resources left to fully exploit the potential of the Netwrk card, Winsock and so on.

Still, higher RWIN is better in all cases. The only exception is that when you go above 65535, the header gets a bit bigger, so there might be a slight performance drop just above a RWIN of 65535

If there is high packet loss or latency on the line, higher RWIN is still better, simply because you have the potential of higher throughput...

Just my 2c.



:)

[Philip]

There is no point in fighting guys... Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, there is still room for a civilized conversation.


EA, according to your own Analyzer results:

bandwidth * delay product:
Your RcvWindow limits you to: 806.4 kbps (100.8 KBytes/s) @ 200ms
Your RcvWindow limits you to: 322.56 kbps (40.32 KBytes/s) @ 500ms

So, you would only notice slowdowns on high latency connections... You should use a large enough RWIN so you woudn't be limitted by it, that's all.

[EvilAjax]

I appreciate your suggestion.. I tried Default Receive Window (RWIN) = 253440
RWIN Scaling (RFC1323) = 2 bits
Unscaled Receive Window = 63360
RWIN is a multiple of MSS
Other values for RWIN that might work well with your current MTU/MSS:
506880 (MSS x 44 * scale factor of 8)
126720 (MSS x 44 * scale factor of 2)
63360 (MSS x 44) and my speed went down a few kilobits.. nothing noticeable though. Still, way too high for my connection..
Your RcvWindow limits you to: 10137.6 kbps (1267.2 KBytes/s) @ 200ms
Your RcvWindow limits you to: 4055.04 kbps (506.88 KBytes/s) @ 500ms... there is no way my DSL can ever acheive those speeds.

[Philip]

True... I'd try the highest even MSS multiple under 65535 and no scaling.