Optimising your internet connection
Many people do not realise that their internet connection may not be operating at its best. Internet connection performance, like many system wide settings, can be tweaked and improved with great results.
One of the major tasks that can be undertaken to ensure that your internet connectivity is optimal is to match your TCP/IP settings to the connection speed offered by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). This involves changing the size of your TCP/IP MTU (Maximum Transfer Unit). The MTU defines the maximum size that your TCP/IP connection will transit as a single packet; this should be set to a lower size on slower connections. There are a whole host of excellent MTU tweaking application freely available for download on the Internet. The most well known of these is Dr. TCP.
Next on the agenda for internet connection optimisation is the RWIN (Receive Window). The RWIN acts as a kind of buffer for incoming data and also sets the upper limit upon the amount of data which can be received before confirmation must be sent to tell the remote host that data has been received successfully. If the RWIN is set too low, your PC will be forced to send confirmation data frequently, and on slower connections this can tie up a significantly large amount of bandwidth, far better to set the RWIN higher, leaving more bandwidth available overall. Once again, a host of great free RWIN optimisers are available for download directly from the internet.
Whenever you make a change to either your MTU or RWIN settings, make sure you take note of the original values so that you can restore them should you find that your internet connection has actually become slower. Most people find that they need to experiment with these settings to find the optimal values for their ISP.
Another option is to find a good, automated optimisation application. This software will ask for information about your ISP, your PC, how you connect to the internet and what you use your PC for. It will then make intelligent choices about the settings required for your MTU and RWIN automatically. Once again, be sure to save your original settings before committing any changes so that you may restore them should the software make a wrong choice on your behalf.
All in all there are major benefits to be had, especially for people who use a slower type of internet connection, by ensuring that their MTU and RWIN settings are optimal.
