Win 2000 sp4 affecting cable modem speed

[Mike]

Hello,
I am running Win 2000 Pro SP3. I have Comcast cable as my
isp. Everything runs together really well. When I
install SP4, the cable modem performance goes right down
the tubes. Painfully slow browsing the internet. Then I
uninstall SP4 and go back to SP3 and the performance is
super fast again. I have tried installing/uninstalling
twice now with the same results.
Any suggestion?
Thanks,
Mike

 

[Carl Fenley]

I can't imagine what the difference could be. I have a cablemodem and
upgraded from SP2 to SP4 with no perceivable difference in performance.

Out of curiosity, are you configured to use a proxy-server under the
Connection tab of the Internet Options dialog?

- carl

 

[stand_58]

Could it be that SP4 is changing settings in your machine? If RWIN is the
wrong value for your particular speed/latency, that could make the cable
modem appear to be really dragging it's behind.


Carl Fenley wrote:
| | I can't imagine what the difference could be. I have a cablemodem
| | and upgraded from SP2 to SP4 with no perceivable difference in
| | performance.
| |
| | Out of curiosity, are you configured to use a proxy-server under the
| | Connection tab of the Internet Options dialog?
| |
| | - carl
| |
| | | | | Hello,
| | | I am running Win 2000 Pro SP3. I have Comcast cable as my
| | | isp. Everything runs together really well. When I
| | | install SP4, the cable modem performance goes right down
| | | the tubes. Painfully slow browsing the internet. Then I
| | | uninstall SP4 and go back to SP3 and the performance is
| | | super fast again. I have tried installing/uninstalling
| | | twice now with the same results.
| | | Any suggestion?
| | | Thanks,
| | | Mike

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the response Carl. I don't understand why it
makes such a difference in performance either. Anyway, I
am not configured to use a Proxy server (i.e. the checkbox
is not checked and there isn't anything filled in under
the "Address"/ "Port" and "Bypass proxy server for local
addresses" checkbox is not checked)
Mike

 

[Mike]

Not trying to be an idiot here, but how can I check the
RWIN value? Where is this "option" located?
Thanks

 

[Carl Fenley]

You may want to check the manufacturer of your network card for a new
driver. Things like CPU-utilization and PCI latency have a much larger
impact on performance than any of this registry windowsize hocus-pocus.

As far as the registry settings go, you can read about these 'speed tweaks'
on sites like this one:

http://www.cable-modems.org/articles/speed_tweaks/

Much of these registry tweaks, especially on Windows 2000, amount to voodoo
download perceptions. Depending on your network card and your use of the
Internet, these tweaks can actually cause more harm than good.

For example, I performed the registry tweak for Windows 2000 suggested by
the above site and downloaded the 240MB Dungeon Siege demo from the
following site:

http://www.microsoft.com/games/dungeonsiegeloa/downloads.asp

Throughput performance was 350KB/sec before the tweak and 351KB/sec after
the tweak. The difference is not statistically significant.

However, I do play the occassional online video game where, as the saying
goes, latency kills. According to the cable-modem.org site, their Windows
2000 voodoo registry tweak will disable the automatic adaptation to line
latency. Personally, I play online games more than I download big files, so
I think I'll keep my latency adaptation, thank you very much.

- carl