A fantastic way to speed up your Internet connection !

Atomic Mitten · January 25, 2004

As some of you know I have been setting up a Network on my two computers.Well anyway, during my fiddling to get it working I discovered a Windows tweak that gives a truly amazing connection boost.

Not only does my Internet Explorer load pages much faster , but when I connect to WOL playing Emperor BFD, it connects really fast ! I mean fast !

Well here goes,before you do this set a system restore point,just in case you mess it up.

If you want to try it, then it is at your own risk.

This will work for anyone with a dial up modem,USB ADSL or even 56K, in fact a 56K modem will speed up alot.

Go to Start,click on run,and in the box that appears type in regedit,then press enter.

Then follow the instructions below,and set the MTU value to 1454.Then re-boot.Here are the instructions on how to do it:

Windows 2000 and XP:

Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE) on one of your "Client" machines.

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Services Tcpip Parameters Interfaces.

There should be several subkeys under the Interfaces key; most likely, you'll find three. View the contents of each key by clicking, and find the one that corresponds to your primary network adapter; it will be the one with more values than the other two, and will have an IP address value set to something like 192.168.0.x.

Once you've found the correct subkey, create a new DWORD value in it (Edit -> New -> DWORD Value), and name the value MTU.

Double-click the new value, choose the Decimal option, and type the MTU value determined above.

Click Ok when you're done - you'll need to restart Windows for this change take effect.

Repeat this for each Client machine.

Windows 98/Me:

Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE) on one of your "Client" machines.

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE System CurrentControlSet Services Class Net.

Under that branch, find a key (numbered, such as 0005) that contains has TCP/IP assigned to the DriverDesc value.

Select New from the Edit menu, then String Value, and type MaxMTU for the name of the new value.

Double-click the new value, choose the Decimal option, and type the MTU value determined above.

Click Ok when you're done - you'll need to restart Windows for this change take effect.

Repeat this for each Client machine.

Ignore the bit about Client computers,just look for your dial up connection as mentioned above,you should see an Internet address, like 217.44.44.189 etc.Depending on which country your in.It will be your IA Internet address.

Please let me know if it speeds up your connections alot or just a little bit.Thanks ! I hope this does for you what it has done for my connection speed. :)

SurlyPIG · January 26, 2004

It made a noticeable difference for me. I'm running 1024/256 cable.

Atomic Mitten · January 26, 2004

Thanks for replying ACElethal,glad it helped you. :)

Timenn · January 26, 2004

Do you also have an explanation on why the connection is speeded up? Or is it really a magical trick? :)

edsbrick · January 26, 2004

id like to try it but seems a bit scary if you mess up.

ed

Atomic Mitten · January 26, 2004

Do you also have an explanation on why the connection is speeded up? Or is it really a magical trick? :)

It might seem that way, windows is set to a default speed of MTU 1500 which is the speed that data packets are sent and received,unfortunately modems need a slower rate than this to prevent packet errors,packet errors slow down loading web pages and games.

So at a slower speed less packets are lost and your modem/windows doesn't wait so long for good packets,before loading the data inro memory,thus causing an increase in speed.

Well hope my explanation is understandable ?

Kyle · January 26, 2004

i'm a bit scared to try it...but i'll give it a whirl... :-

Kyle · January 26, 2004

i'm not sure if i did it right...i can't tell if it's faster or not... ???

i'm not sure if i picked the right subkey...would it hurt to do this procedure for all of the subkeys?

Atomic Mitten · January 26, 2004

To find the right subkey this link might help :

http://www.showmyip.com/

visit this site and write it down,then look for the subkey with the same IP listed in it.Or one very similar.

To Kyle,if you have a home network ? ie more comps connected to the main comp(host) then yes.

But if you only have one modem on one comp,then only the subkey described in the web page of my first post of the thread.The one where your IPA is shown.

Kyle · January 26, 2004

ok i found the right folder...now do i just create that dword thing in this folder?

Atomic Mitten · January 26, 2004

Yes as it says in the instructions on the annoyances web page,if you follow that exactly then it's easy.

Kyle · January 26, 2004

ok i did it...rebooted...and it doesn't seem any faster... ???

gryphon · January 26, 2004

it's not the speeds of the packets you send, MTU stands for Maximum Transmission Unit and in basic terms, it defines the maximum size of a packet that can be transferred in one frame over a network.

Kyle · January 26, 2004

so confused what do i do? ???

Atomic Mitten · January 26, 2004

That's what I was trying to convey Gryphon,without losing them in technical mumbojumbo. :)

Atomic Mitten · January 26, 2004

ok i did it...rebooted...and it doesn't seem any faster... ???

Did you try downloading something, or opening web pages,by using bookmarks ? If you have outlook express try that,see if it checks for e-amails faster.

Kyle · January 26, 2004

don't think i have outlook express...i can try downloading music with winmx and see if it's any faster...

Kyle · January 26, 2004

it seems to be slightly faster...not by much though... 8)

Kyle · January 26, 2004

If i wanted to reverse this process...would i just need to delete the MTU?

Atomic Mitten · January 26, 2004

Well in the first post,it gives you 3 possible values to enter in the subkey,try the next one up,

maybe 1492 will work better for you,maybe not,you can try it if you want.

;)

Kyle · January 26, 2004

i'm game...i'll give it a whirl...but i don't see the 3 possible values...but i'll try 1492

Kyle · January 26, 2004

still no difference atomic...how would i go about reversing this procedure?...should i just delete the MTU file?

or what is the 3rd value?

the only difference i've seen so far...is that the internet connection hit 28.8 exactly both times after i changed it...b4 it was usually either 26.4 or 24.0

Atomic Mitten · January 26, 2004

Kyle I suggest you visit the web site I posted the link to in my first post and read it through.

What speed is your connection,what modem do you have ?

I am presuming you entered 1454 in the new subkey that you created ?

If so just go back to that key and click on edit ,then enter 1492 in place of 1454.

Anyway you said that it had speeded up your connection, so why change it back ?

Kyle · January 26, 2004

Cardinal MVP288XF 28.8 Kbps V.34 Fax Modem PNP

and i don't see a web site link in your first post... ???

Atomic Mitten · January 26, 2004

Erm.Is that the only modem you have ? or do you have a cable connection too ?

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