Re: Windows 7 TCP/IP tweaks - Tune your internet connection
 

Windows XP's default networking parameters were set more than 10 years ago (when XP was being designed). These default settings are certainly out of date for many high-speed setups today. Indeed Windows XP's networking was probably set for a 56k connection!

The solution is of course to tune XP's Internet settings. This usually involves modifying the registry to make RWIN settings more broadband friendly and there is free SpeedGuide TCP Optimisation software all over the internet that can help you determine the best Internet settings for a particular setup. Many sites offer free tools for testing and tweaking DSL and other broadband connection settings on XP systems.

Where some Web sites offer similar tune-ups for Win7's and Vista's networking. Don't bother! Win7 and Vista dynamically alter their networking settings by monitoring local conditions and speeds. (See the Microsoft Technet article on Win7's "Next generation TCP/IP architecture.") It's unlikely that you can tune Win7's or Vista's Internet settings any better than they tune themselves.

WINDOWS VISTA / 7 USERS: Vista TCP tuning (tweaking) is NOT advisable. The Vista / Win7 TCP stack does a reasonable job of tuning the receive window dynamically, there are no known registry tweaks that would optimize Vista or Win 7 better than its default configuration.

Re: Windows 7 TCP/IP tweaks - Tune your internet connection
 

you correct that XP's defaults are indeed more suitable for dialup.

The defaults only improve on XP if the lan connection is gigabit.

The main problem I have discovered with win7/vista auto tuning is it changes the window size in big chunks instead of small amounts at a time and of course it has no proper manual overide.

The autotuning works well enough on my VM 20mbit connection however on my adsl which can now only manage about 3-4mbit throughput it doesnt increase the tcp window beyond the non scaling enough. Still a big improvement over XP defaults tho.

To say no tuning is advised tho I am not so sure. A known tweak that is a positive the majority of the time is to enable CTCP congestion provider which makes it deal with things like congestion and packet loss much better. Also makes it burst up better to faster speeds on fast lan's. Some routers are unable to handle autotuning in which case a 2nd tweak is to disable autotuning which will also disable tcp scaling and force it to a permanent rwin of around 64k depending on the mss value.

Re: Windows 7 TCP/IP tweaks - Tune your internet connection
 

May well be the case. In my experience most difficulty arises usually in marrying suitable router settings, and many early routers have now had certain firmware updates that have not just been security related.

I have found that some isps don't use 1500 as an MTU setting for example, thus requiring not just the router to be set to say 1432 if specified, but also the pc's MTU setting also.

As you say, the autotuning usually works well, which is the reason that it may be hard to do any better by manual tweak anyway.

Re: Windows 7 TCP/IP tweaks - Tune your internet connection
 

Where does this file write these settings? To the registry?

How would you undo them if you needed to?

Re: Windows 7 TCP/IP tweaks - Tune your internet connection
 

Save the file as type .reg (registry). The settings are written to the registry. When you double-click the file (open it) the entries are merged into the registry.

If you want to remove the changes, delete the registry entries that the .reg file added.

Re: Windows 7 TCP/IP tweaks - Tune your internet connection
 

These are not registry tweaks and should not be changed there. For God sake, don't turn this in to a .reg file! These are command line tcpip settings. I am on a mobile phone right now, but the instruction to view your current settings will work in non-admin mode and you can always view your initial settings with this before you change anything. The instructions can easily be reversed. By the way, some games and sites (mostly EA stuff, poss. only EA stuff) will need ECN disabled temporarily to work).

Re: Windows 7 TCP/IP tweaks - Tune your internet connection
 

My apologies. Read too quickly, posted too quickly. Glad you caught it.

---------- Post added at 22:52 ---------- Previous post was at 22:43 ----------

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947239 I assume MS knows what they're doing, they document the RegEdit to allow IE, Windows Update, Outlook to use the full scope of TCP Autotuning. The text includes W7 information, even if the title and browser check deal only with Vista.

BTW - Mac OS X Snow Leopard also has browser speed limit. It's 512 KByte windowsize, so it's twice as fast as W7 or Vista.

---------- Post added at 23:05 ---------- Previous post was at 22:52 ----------

Please also pay attention to the NIC for best speed and reliability. Some of the TCP interface settings rely on collaboration between OS TCP stack and the NIC's own processor.

1. Go to the NIC vendor's website. Find, download & install the most current driver. There's still a lot of fixing & fine-tuning for W7 drivers. For example in early 2009 we found TCP throughput on our servers improved about 30% in tests when we updated to a more-current set of Broadcom drivers.

2. Review the NIC settings, typically an "Advanced" tab with the Driver info. Make sure all the assists are turned on. If you have 4 GByte memory or higher, double the number of "descriptors" or buffers for incoming & outgoing traffic.

Re: Windows 7 TCP/IP tweaks - Tune your internet connection
 

Yes, use the latest NIC drivers (but not the rubbish network manager software that NVIDIA lan drivers might offer). Check out the info on the net regarding any NIC settings for your brand of NIC, they can be very different.

Nice reg. tweak find on that MS page.

So, to update, after testing your system with the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/usi...d/default.mspx

For Win7 the following are my suggested files, save each as a text file with the names suggested:

TCPIPSet.cmd
ECN.cmd
TCPIP RWIN HTTP.reg
ECN.cmd can be used as a switch when dealing with Electronic Arts games and web sites. I've not found it necessary to switch ECN off for anything else yet. Note than the new reg file needs a PC reset after being applied to kick in. Also, ignore any inline spaces in the reg file when transcribing (though keep the blank lines), this forum seems to be going a little weird and has stuck these in 'Current' and before 'Windows' for no good reason.

Re: Windows 7 TCP/IP tweaks - Tune your internet connection
 

Hi Andy, are these still the recommended settings? I have XP tweaked and working well on a high speed wired connection but now have a W7 PC to optimise for wireless. Cheers.

Re: Windows 7 TCP/IP tweaks - Tune your internet connection
 

Hiya. Well, things have moved on a bit (this is an old thread).

These days, whether you are using WinXP, Vista or 7, you can download 'TCP Optimizer' from here:

http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

The settings should largely be the same as I have recommended before but this is a little more user friendly and has even more things to tweak. For Win 7 I have used the 'optimal' settings except I have set 'ECN Capability' to enabled (which is fine for most people's hardware and causes no issue with EA's web site or games any more). You can still use my test link to check your PC's ECN capability.

Note that ECN is not available for WinXP. Also, this is not about 'optimizing for wireless'. This is about getting the best TCP/IP transfer speeds which will affect both your wired and wireless connections. A poor wireless configuration can still cause issue beyond TCP/IP configuration.

For your wireless settings, scan the area for other wlans using the free utility 'Inssider' on your wireless PC. Set your router to use the best channel you can find (not 'Auto'). Also, make sure your router is set to only use WPA2 with AES encryption for your wireless. Due to the standards, AES must be supported in hardware, which means your laptop's wlan card will do all the encrypting PC side. If you end up using TKIP encryption then it may well (read 'almost certainly') be done on your laptop's CPU in software. May as well offload where you can.