Advice on cable modem rwin settings

[Nuno]

FINALLY I´ve got cable service. Nothing fancy, just a 256k terminal, but enough to wonder how 45.2k was bearable

Ok, I´ve searched a bit on how to tweak the network settings, specially on http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks and I´ve got a little confused about the rwin settings.
I was using the XP default of 17520, but dslreports analyzer advised that I should kept it within 5840 and 7300. Right or wrong?

[Greebe]

All that will happen by having your RWIN set that high is you'll see better DL times from high ping sites. Lowering it won't neccessarily speed anything up.

Having a relatively high RWIN (with respect to your DL speed) will only cause problems if there is packet loss. The larger size just means that you'll have to reget a greater amount of data.

[Kosh Naranek]

Originally posted by Greebe
All that will happen by having your RWIN set that high is you'll see better DL times from high ping sites. Lowering it won't neccessarily speed anything up.

Having a relatively high RWIN (with respect to your DL speed) will only cause problems if there is packet loss. The larger size just means that you'll have to reget a greater amount of data.

In theory YES !

However RWIN is a multiple of MSS which operates with packet sizes of 1460 (Broadband MTU=1500) and a scale factor.

So.....RWIN should be set according to your MTU/MSS settings and remember to turn Selective ACKnowledgments on!
(and yes .. there are a ton of guides you can read on the subject and different ones will tell you different things)

I used to run with a low-latency setting of RWIN but not anymore now my RWIN is : 256960 whic gives me THE best ping on ANY UT server .... better than the previous one.


However .. what works for me might not work for you, since my connection is a 1Mbit Cable connection.

Try this : http://forums.speedguide.net:8117/

You can also read this ... :

http://www.speedguide.net/Cable_modems/cable_reg_win2k.shtml

Which are the settings I use on Win XP.

[Gurm]

Personally I find it hard to second-guess Windows XP. Just go with the default settings unless you're having a problem. Most of the so-called "tweaks" fail to help.

- Gurm

[Greebe]

Gurm tweaking the RWIN settings in XP does work and I have tested... but don't take my word for it do some tests yourself... XP is far from perfect.

[Gurm]

Greebe,

I know. I too tweak the RWIN when I intend to spend all day playing Wolf3D... but...

In general, a lot of the tweaks out there are either counterproductive or based on flawed thinking, doncha think?

- Gurm

[Liquid Snake]

The RWIN has really nothing to do with the MSS/MTU. It isn't neccesary to set it to a multiple of the MSS/MTU.

Since you have a (relatively) slow connection, 17520 is more than enough for your connection unless you do file transfers from a lot of high ping sites. You may want to lower it to see if it helps any, but I think it's best to keep it at the default if you aren't having any problems.

[Nuno]

Thanks guys. I´ll leave it to XP default setting by now as it appears to work best.
I´m on USB by now (despite having a network card and the RCA modem having both usb and RJ45 ports) just because of the easy setup. Actually I had more trouble setting up dial-up networking connenctions before.

I have one more question for you networking gurus Is it possible to connect directly two network cards (namely my pc and my laptop) without a hub or something like that? I´m sorry but I really am a newbie on networking...

[MultimediaMan]

Nuno,

You'll need either a switch, hub or crossover cable (A Type of RJ45 Cable wired differently).

If you intend to use the RJ45 connection for your cable modem, you will definitely need a hub or a switch if you intend to use your cable modem concurrently.

You can share your internet connection (If using Win98SE, WinME or WinXP) natively by sharing the USB Adapter and using your ethernet connection as your private network.

I would recommend using the Ethernet connection...that USB connection is purely software based.

[Nuno]

I see... so a "crossover cable" is what I´m looking for. How expensive is that? A hub is a bit more expensive that I was thinking...
Yes, I´m looking into a internet sharing setup but also on a faster connection between pc and laptop.
Yes, USB might be software based, but really, even downloading at full speed it only takes 1-4% of cpu that can have the hdd activity involved. I don´t think it´ll make all that diference going ethernet, but I suspect it would be a bit more dificult to setup...

[Helevitia]

Nuno, cross-over cables are cheap or you cna make one yourself. Either way, that is the best way to go as far as money is concerned. Here is a link:

http://www.johnscloset.net/wiring/crossover.html

Dave

[Nuno]

Thanks again. Very useful link. I´ll search for a crossover cable then. I don´t really have the equipment or the knowedgle to do one myself...