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Speed Tweaks
"Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy. Without precise calculations, we'd fly right through a star, or bounce too close to a supernova, and that would end your trip real quick, wouldn't it?"
Han Solo, Star Wars
Editing the Registry
The next few sections are about editing the Windows registry. The registry is where a Windows computer stores user and sytem configuration data.
Changing it can give you a lot of power over your system, or it can can create terrible problems. Be very careful when editing your registry and ALWAYS have a backup.
Several Web sites cover changing your registry in great detail. Here are some we recommend:
- SpeedGuide.net
- Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
- The Navas Group
Editing the registry
The first step is to back up your registry!
From the Start menu, choose Run and enter regedit. The Registry Editor will appear.
Pull down the Registry menu and select Export Registry File.
Name your file and save it on an external floppy disk. The Registry Editor also keeps its own backup, which you can load by typing scanreg/restore from a command line. This backup is overwritten after five editing sessions though, so don't rely on it.
Now you are ready to mess with your registry. If anything goes wrong, follow the above steps, but choose Import Registry File and load the original registry settings from your floppy.
These tips involve the creation of new key values in the registry. If you have already used a program to speed up your connection, check the existing values against the ones we recommend.
Use the window on the left like Windows Explorer until you get to the folder you want. Each folder is a key and contains a number of values. Create a value using the Edit menu if necessary. Click on the value you want to modify and then go to the Edit menu or right-click to modify the settings.
There are three values we want to create or change. They are:
MTU: This stands for Maximum Transmission Unit. It is the largest packet size your computer can send without breaking it up into smaller packets. Bigger is better.
MSS: This stands for Maximum Segment Size and is the largest packet your computer can receive from the network. In a conversation between two computers the smaller MSS value is used to determine packet size. This is related to MTU and is usually 40 less than the MTU (40 is the packet header size).
RWIN: This is the TCP Receive Window. It's related to MSS and determines how many packets the transmitting computer can send before it needs an acknowledgement. Setting this large lets you send more packets without waiting, but also requires you to send more packets if an error occurrs. RWIN is a multiple of MMS, usually three or four times.
Winsock: Not a variable, but the Window's Socket Library. This is the technical specification that handles communication between a TCP/IP application (like a browser) and your computer's TCP/IP protocol stack which interfaces with other computers.
