Juice Up Your High-Speed Internet Connection
Scott Spanbauer
If you've recently moved to a high-speed Internet connection, you're undoubtedly finding new and frivolous ways to put the additional speed to work. Downloading digital movies, streaming the BBC World Service, or listening to Radio Estonia are just a few examples. But as the novelty wears off, one question inevitably arises: Can I make it go even faster?
Sure, you can download a 400MB file over a cable modem connection in less than an hour, but if it took only half as long, you'd have yet more time to download other stuff that you'll probably never get around to using. It's likely you can squeeze more performance--maybe a lot more--out of your high-speed link with just a few clicks of your mouse.
Many Web sites offer to tell you your connection speed, but the tests they use aren't always accurate. Microsoft's MSN Computing Central Bandwidth Speed Test and DSL Reports' speed-test page gauge your download and upload speeds by timing the transfer of a small file to and from your computer. While this technique provides a general speed readout, the results can fluctuate dramatically. You're testing the speed of the entire connection between your PC and the test site's server, and neither you nor the Web site has any control over the efficiency of the routers in between. Also, testing a small file can lead to inaccurate results, and if that file is stored in your browser's cache, the results will be muddled further. Over several minutes, MSN clocked my cable modem connection at anywhere from 850 to 1250 kbps. While DSL Reports indicated steadier speeds in the vicinity of 950 kbps, there's no assurance that either service is accurate.
To get a more exact measurement of your connection speed, transfer a large, noncompressible file, such as a multimegabyte.mp3 or.zip archive file, between your hard disk and any nearby server that you have access to. The home directory that your ISP provides, an office computer, or a nearby FTP server are all good choices. Download and upload the file four or five times, and track how long each transfer takes. To find your connection speed in kilobits per second, convert the file size to kilobits by multiplying the number of kilobytes by 8, then divide by the transfer time. We'll use an 8MB file as an example. A megabyte is 1024 kilobytes, so our 8MB file is 8 times 1024 times 8, or 65,536 kilobits. If the 8MB file takes 1 minute and 40 seconds to download (100 seconds), divide 65,536 by 100 to get the per-second transfer speed. In our example, the connection is running at approximately 655 kbps. Try the tests at different times of the day to detect speed troughs. The wee, wee hours of the morning will likely be fastest, and weekday early evenings the slowest.
If that's too much math, let your browser do the gauging for you. Both Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator do a pretty good job of tracking download speeds, which their download dialog boxes report in kilobytes per second. A 120-kilobytes-per-second transfer speed translates to 960 kbps. That's decent cable modem performance, but something tells me I could do better.
Let the Tweaking Begin
The TCP/IP networking protocols that keep the Internet humming do their magic by breaking files into packets. Several TCP/IP settings control how efficiently your computer receives these packets, and adjusting the settings can make your connection measurably faster. Go to DSL Reports' tweaks page to find a Java applet that tests your TCP/IP settings. Once you click on the Start button, the applet will probe your parameters and list suggested tweaks. Scroll down the page for explanations of the tweaks and a list of links to tools you can use to make the changes.
For a second opinion on which settings to tweak, visit John Navas's Cable Modem/DSL Tuning Guide. Both DSL Reports and the Cable Modem/DSL Tuning Guide focus on increasing the TCP Receive Window (RWIN) setting, and both offer Registry files that you can download to your desktop, then merge with your Windows Registry to beef up your RWIN setting. To enable the change, right-click the downloaded.reg file and select Merge. Navas provides a VBScript file called set_rwin.vbs that combines the Registry tweak with an Internet Connection Sharing bug fix. To run the script, download it to your desktop, then double-click it. You need to restart Windows to enable any Registry update. As always, you should back up the Registry before making any changes. For instructions on how to do so, see the May 2000 Answer Line.
After I ran Navas's script and rebooted my computer, I checked my download speed at both DSL Reports and MSN. DSL Reports told me I was running at a prodigious 3000 kbps, and while MSN's results still varied widely, the range started at 3000 kbps and extended as high as 8000 kbps. Not content with these artificial benchmarks, I decided to repeat the download of a 400MB Linux CD image I had downloaded prior to my tweaks. Instead of taking 50 minutes to transfer, as it had originally, the image flew onto my hard disk in a mere 32 minutes. Not a bad performance boost, considering that all it took was a couple of mouse clicks and a reboot.
Donate Your Extra CPU Cycles to Researchers
Did you just buy the latest gigahertz PC? Even if you max out its processor 12 hours a day (unlikely), that leaves 12 more hours when it sits there doing nothing. Got a few other PCs sitting around doing nothing, too? If they're connected to the Internet, you can do a good deed by putting them to work as data crunchers for worthy research projects. You may even earn a prize, such as an MP3 player or frequent-flier miles. And there just might be some cash in it for you. United Devices is a Texas-based online clearinghouse for unused CPU power, which it resells or donates to organizations performing computationally intensive research. The groups receiving your spare processing capacity include the Human Genome Project and the National Cancer Research Foundation's Centre for Drug Discovery in the University of Oxford's Department of Chemistry. Find out more about the projects from this page of the United Devices site.
To make your computer available for such projects, simply download and install the free 1.75MB UD Agent client software. (The system requirements are minimal.) Then, when your system is idle, the UD Agent puts it to work on a small piece of the current project. Will you get rich from this? No, but you may get a kick out of participating in an experiment in commercial distributed computing. If it should turn out to be a bore or a hassle, simply uninstall the software.
Does Windows Me Hate AOL?
Are Windows Me's reported conflicts with America Online part of the Microsoft Network's rivalry with AOL? Nah, it's probably just the usual upgrade-itis. Reports of problems between AOL and Windows Me include system freeze-ups, modem disconnects, and conflicts with Internet Connection Sharing. If you've had AOL/Me trouble, check the 'Frequently Asked Questions About AOL in Windows Millennium Edition' Web page.
Download of the Month: Sweeter Music With Opera, the Browser Alternative
When it comes to browsers, you've got your Bush and your Gore: Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer are just different enough that you feel like you have to choose one or the other. Internet Explorer is arguably the better browser, but some people would like a candidate far removed from the taint of the Microsoft name. Bush, er, Navigator, on the other hand, is sometimes a little slow on the uptake, and since being absorbed by America Online, it is hardly the rebel it was in its youth.
What we really need in the browser race is a Ralph Nader. And that's just what Opera is. The "other" browser incorporates e-mail, newsreaders, and a contact manager, and it supports all the latest Web standards--HTML 4.0, Cascading Style Sheets, XML, and JavaScript--but Opera flies coach. The basic version is a no-frills, 2MB download. If you want a Java run-time environment that's compatible with just about any Web site, the download swells to more than 9.5MB.
Simplicity has a price, however. Unlike with the bloated big-name browsers, you have to pay for Opera (or put up with the ads in the new "free" version 5). To get the browser without the ads will cost you $39.
For those of us who value our online privacy, there's a single feature that may make Opera worth the price: A Clear Private Data command deletes cookies and cached passwords with just a click. Of course, Linux and BeOS versions of the browser are available for those who eschew Windows (I only eschew gum myself). Green Party Ralph is probably using Opera right now to find a good price on an SUV.
Send your questions and tips to nettips@spanbauer.com. We pay $50 for published items. Scott Spanbauer is a contributing editor for PC World.