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Cable Modem Tweaks and Speed Tips
Due to its' popularity, high speed cable Internet is becoming congested because of all the new users signing up. We'll help you learn a few cable modem tweaks which may speed up your cable Internet at least a little bit.
A few years ago, many Surfers upgraded from a dialup to a cable modem and the difference was amazing! Then a funny thing happened over the course of a few years. Your cable speed started to gradually decrease with more and more users putting a strain on your beloved cable service. Now realism strikes and you find yourself here in nearly the same predicament you were in with your dialup modem - you want more speed. You're not imagining this, it's true, you are looking for cable modem tweaks.
Not all, but some work extremely well with high speed connections such as Cable and DSL. If you want to learn more on easy to use and very effective cable internet accelerators please visit our "Download Software" page.
These cable modem tweaks concern the TCP (packet based protocol) RWIN (receive window) registry setting to help optimize your cable internet speed. This is really the best you can do without an accelerator solution and you will probably NOT experience any great speed gains with this tweak. Some can expect no difference and some may even need to reverse it.
We will provide the simple information on performing this registry tweak but we simply can not provide a complete tutorial on registry manipulation. So please only attempt the tweak if you really do know what you're doing.
I agree - you should be. Change the wrong settings or have a power blackout during a save process and you may have to reinstall your operating system, or even reformat your hard drive. ALWAYS make a backup of your registry before making any changes to it.
We are NOT responsible for any damages or problems you may encounter by reading or putting to use the cable modem tweaks below - you are tweaking and proceeding at your own risk.
The first thing you need to do is bookmark this page so you can
easily return here if you make a mistake. The TCP RWIN registry setting controls the receive window size which will impact your cable modem speed. Generally speaking, the TCP RWIN setting controls how large a window is set to pick up transmitted packets. These data packets need to have delivery confirmed before more data is sent. Therefore if the window is too small, there will be a delay if the new incoming packets have to wait for their predecessors to be confirmed delivered. A larger receive window allows a continuous flow of data packets. It's a sensitive adjustment because an oversized receive window may result in reloading of unnecessary data packets when there is a transmission error. So the TCP RWIN setting needs to be large enough to allow continuous data flow, but not overly large to hinder performance with the transmission errors that constantly occur. That basically describes it, I might not have it technically perfect, but you should at least get the general scope of what we're dealing with.
As far as we know, this cable tweak will only work with the following - Windows 95/98/ME. Windows XP users should approach with caution.
You should always backup your registry before attempting any kind of registry manipulation. If you are unsure how to do this, you really shouldn't be attempting this registry tweak. It is beyond the scope of this simple cable modem tweak page to provide a complete tutorial on registry editing. Perhaps in the future we will but until then please do some research on editing and backing up your registry before proceeding.
To start the registry editor (REGEDIT), which should already be on your system, simply click Start, then click Run. Type in REGEDIT and click OK. This should popup the registry editor. Please note, if you are more familiar with another editor such as Norton's Registry Editor, simply use the one you're most comfortable with.
In your left window pane, you'll need to open the following folders by clicking on them...
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
System
CurrentControlSet
Services
VxD
MSTCP
Make sure the MSTCP folder is highlighted so as to display the key values in the right panel. Double-click to open the DefaultRcvWindow key. Now the moment of truth, the value to put here is the subject of much debate... some suggest a value between 32120 to 32760. Some believe it should be set much higher. You could start with 32120 and if there's no speed increase, just experiment a little until you zero in on the optimal setting. After typing in the new value, simply click OK. BUT don't close the editor, there's one more key you may wish to change in this folder. Some believe setting the DefaultTTL key to 128 may help performance. Others prefer 64. Since this folder is open, you could try to adjusting this setting to 128 now.
Now try out the new settings but please bookmark this page just in case you want to return to redo or undo a step.
Please don't expect miraculous speed increases with cable tweaks, you'll probably need to download an accelerator to experience a much more substantial Internet boost with high speed connections.
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