# Problem with Frank's modem tweaks



## rameam (Mar 15, 2003)

I d/l Cablenut, went through the tweaks 3 times, but both sites that Frank lists that analyze TCPIP say Max MTU is 1472 and MSS is 1432. I've only d/l one thing since and I dropped from slightly under 3 kb/s to slightly over 2. 

PCTEL platinum v90
Compaq Presario 5108US
Windows Me
ISP - Walmart (It's all I can afford!)

Any help would be tremendously appreciated!


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## 700mb80min (Jul 24, 2003)

Hi rameam , i don`t know where you found the settings you have , but try Speed-Guide under the " tweaking forum " and post your specs. Didn`t have much luck with cablenut , but TCP Optimizer did make a huge difference.


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## Bold_Fortune (Jan 3, 2003)

Cablenut tweaking is one of those things that some people swear by it; others, notice little, if no difference at all in performance. 

Myself, I'm not really big on tweaking for browsing performance. I'm one of those people who notices very little, if any, performance gains by it. 

Nothing much can help a slow dialup connection, and cable is so fast, it's pretty hard to improve on it.


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## Swiper (Mar 14, 2003)

For any dial up connection, your max MTU size should be 576. Changing it to 1476 or higher ( for broadband ), will NOT help your dial up connnection.

Change it to 576 for optimum performance on your dial up. ( as optimim as dial up can be anyways )


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## Bold_Fortune (Jan 3, 2003)

Oh, this is the only tweak that I've ever apply that I've ever notice a considerable improvement with my dialup connection. Since you mentioned modem tweaks, I'll post it for you. I got this from X-Setup...

There are a couple of warnings issued with these tweaks:

If using internal modems located in the Communication Networking Riser (CNR) slot, do NOT use these settings! Such cards rely on a very tricky method to work, which is incompatible with these settings.and stuff.

If you have a UART-compatible 56k modem, then you can increase this speed up to a maximum of 921600bps (900Kbps). The plug-in won't change the speed automatically, it will simply allow you to set it to a faster level using the Modem control panel applet.

Just copy and paste this to Notepad and Save As "Allow for Speed up to 921600bps for 56k modem.reg"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

REGEDIT4

; This file was automatically generated by Xteq X-Setup (http://www.xteq.com)
; 
; HIGHLY IMPORTANT: Before using this file be sure to read the documentation for
; "Record Mode". Not doing so might lead to unexpected results
; when using this file!
; 
; The WARNINGS ISSUED below informs you if any warnings were reported. If so, the
; plug-in(s) has invoked functions that can not be recorded to this file. In this
; case, this REG file might not work as expected. 
; 
; WARNINGS ISSUED: No - this REG file should work without problems
;

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Modem\0000]
"OldProperties"=hex:80,01,00,00,FF,00,00,00,FF,00,00,00,07,00,00,00,0F,00,00,00,77,07,00,00,00,10,0E,00,00,FA,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Modem\0000]
"Properties"=hex:80,01,00,00,ff,00,00,00,ff,00,00,00,07,00,00,00,0f,00,00,00,77,07,00,00,00,10,0E,00,00,FA,00,00

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Now select the Network and Dialup Connections and right click on your ISPs icon and select properties.

 General tab:

Highlight your modem and select configure, set the maximum speed to 921,600 and under hardware features all the boxes are checked.


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## rameam (Mar 15, 2003)

Thanks to all for your comments. They are all appreciated. Will try your suggestions and post back.


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## flavallee (May 12, 2002)

Have you also done the registry tweaks that are listed?

MaxMTU should be 1500. A MaxMTU of 576 is outdated information.

Read here.


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## rameam (Mar 15, 2003)

I went through the procedure three or four times making sure I had done everything listed. It just doesn't seem to help. I have about five different folders in the registry, and I wasn't sure which one was the right one, so I set them all at 1500. I have wmconnect which apparently uses an old AOL browser. Could that be the problem?

The first time I went through the procedure, after I completed the last two steps, the computer went a little crazy. I restored the registry, then did it again omitting those steps. I don't have any problem with the computer, but if anything, my speed has decreased. The TCP analyzer says I have something like 1472 MTU and 1432 MSS.

Any suggestions?


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## flavallee (May 12, 2002)

If you've had "AOL Hell" in that computer before, you need to clean out *all* remnants of it because it can interfere with Cablenut working properly. I've got the steps posted in my site.

A 56K dial-up connection is only going to do so much, no matter how much you tweak it. If you're getting a connection speed of 44,000 - 48,000 bps and a download throughput speed of 5.0 - 5.5 Kbps, that's about normal.


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## rameam (Mar 15, 2003)

I don't know what the connection speed is, but if I could get a d/l speed of 5, I would be thrilled. I normally get no more than 3, and most of the time a lot less.

If I go through and remove all the AOL, and wmconnect uses an old AOL browser, I'm afraid I won't be d/ling at all! I have thought about doing that, then reinstalling if the program no longer works. It is possible that I have some AOL that doesn't apply to wmconnect.


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## rameam (Mar 15, 2003)

I don't know what the connection speed is, but if I could get a d/l speed of 5, I would be thrilled. I normally get no more than 3, and most of the time a lot less.

If I go through and remove all the AOL, and wmconnect uses an old AOL browser, I'm afraid I won't be d/ling at all! I have thought about doing that, then reinstalling if the program no longer works. It is possible that I have some AOL that doesn't apply to wmconnect.

I have d/l the steps to do so from your website.


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## flavallee (May 12, 2002)

I misread your post. I didn't know that your *current* ISP uses AOL. If that's the case, don't uninstall AOL or delete its remnants.


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## rameam (Mar 15, 2003)

Thanks. I guess I'll just have to live with the slowness. Or is there something else I can do?


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## Swiper (Mar 14, 2003)

Where does it state on that page you submitted, does it say that MaxMTU ( for a DIAL up Connection ) should be 1500 

1500 is for cable modem connections.
1492 is for DSL that uses PPPoe
576 is for any/all DIAL up connections.


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## rameam (Mar 15, 2003)

Click on Frank's link above, then click on 56k modem tweaks in the list. It's there.


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## Swiper (Mar 14, 2003)

Its incorrect information from what I can find .

Here is how you test it: as per : dslreports.com website

*Finding the largest MTU, by EXPERIMENT
If your MTU is too low already, (maybe 576), the following method will not be able to detect whether you can switch to an optimal size..... So first follow "CHANGING MTU for PPPoE" to reset MTU to 1500, reboot, then come back to this!
The best value for MTU is that value just before your packets get fragmented. How do you find out that? by using ping! Open an MSDOS command prompt, and just use ping -l 1472 -f www.dslreports.com, (that is a dash-letter-l-for-lambda not a dash-number-one). Reduce 1472 by 10 until you no longer get the "packet needs to be fragmented" error message, then increase by 1 until you find the max command line number for ping.
Add 28 more to this (since you specified ping packet data size, not including a packet header of 28 bytes) AND THIS IS YOUR MaxMTU.
The MaxMTU you get using this method might very well be 1500, in which case, everything is pretty boring, and your MaxMTU must already be set ok, otherwise you could not get ping working up to 1472.
For PPPoE, your MaxMTU should be no more than 1492, to allow space for the 8 byte PPPoE "wrapper", but again, experiment to find the optimal value.. For PPPoE, the stakes are high: if you get MTU wrong, you may not just be sub-optimal, things like UPLOADING, or web pages, may stall, or not work at all!*


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## rameam (Mar 15, 2003)

Swiper,

I appreciate your response very much, but all that is over my head. I have no idea what you are saying.

The website link you listed is for high speed, but I have dial up 56k.


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## Bold_Fortune (Jan 3, 2003)

rameam said:


> Swiper,
> 
> I appreciate your response very much, but all that is over my head. I have no idea what you are saying.
> 
> The website link you listed is for high speed, but I have dial up 56k.


rameam, seriously, don't rack your brains over this. This kind of tweaking is pretty much splitting hairs. Even if you got it figured out (the advice given above) you wouldn't notice much, if any, improvement.

But, I also understand that telling someone not to bother with something they've got it in their head to do is usually pointless.


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## rameam (Mar 15, 2003)

Thank you, Bold Fortune.

I have tried for some time to get a little more speed on the internet, but nothing I have tried so far has helped. I suppose you just have to live with it until you can afford high speed.

I do appreciate all the responses to this thread.


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## flavallee (May 12, 2002)

If you get a connection speed of 44,000 - 48,000 bps and a download throughput speed of 5.0 - 5.5 Kb/s, that is about normal for 56K dial-up. You cannot perform miracles with it, but you do want to get as consistent a connection speed and throughput speed as possible.


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## rameam (Mar 15, 2003)

Thanks for coming back in, Frank.

As I said in an earlier post, I do good to get 2.8. My daughter, also running WinMe, gets slightly over 3. I have tried all the tweaks from your website, but if anything I'm slower, especially loading web pages.

If you have any more suggestions, please let me know. I would love it if I could increase speed any at all.


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## flavallee (May 12, 2002)

Those are all the 56K tweaks that I have. I have compiled them over the years and have put all of them to use. 

If your phone lines are bad or have a lot of static in them, that will account for a low speed. If you live out in the boonies and several miles away from any telephone switching station, that will also account for a low speed.


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## rameam (Mar 15, 2003)

Thanks for your help. I'll just chalk it up to the phone lines and live with it.


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## Bold_Fortune (Jan 3, 2003)

Let's approach the problem from a different direction. Let's do a little basic computing. Let's stop with the registry tweaking and start looking elsewhere.

See what things are eating up your resources. Check inside msconfig and see what programs are starting up with your system. Get rid of the useless stuff. (Almost all of it is.)

ME doesn't have Clear-Type does it? I don't know. But, if it does, shut that off. It's the single biggest resource hog Windows has to offer.

Uninstall all the garbage that your ISP dropped onto your system. You only need the connection.

...And lose all the garbage Compaq forces down your throat. Just do a clean install without all that crap. You don't need it. Bet you a nickle to a dime they installed RealPlayer, and it starts up with your system.

Lose any "automatic updating" or "connect automatically" or "do anything automatically" settings from Windows or your installed programs...like with RealPlayer and your Anti-Virus program. They set themselves by default to "automatically everything". Start doing your updating and your connecting to the program manually.

Call your Service Provider and find out their caps. Then tell them yours. Say to them, "Hey, this isn't right."

Go to PCPitsop and run through it's test. They sometimes will offer some handy advice.

How much memory do you have? An extra stick or two could never hurt. There is a great site on the internet that offers sticks at a great price. It's where I got mine...however, I can't think of the name of the site. Someone here must know which site I'm referring to. Wait, I think their ad is also on the PCPitstop site...maybe.

Run a good Spyware program like Spybot.

Check your Internet Explorer Privacy Settings:

Select the Privacy tab and choose Advanced check the box "Override automatic cookie handling" and for First-party Cookies - Accept, Third-party Cookies - Block, and check "Always allow session cookies. Now NO MORE SPYWARE COOKIES.

------------------------------------------------------------------

If you do have RealPlayer installed, and intend to keep it...bring it under control. Here's some settings for it for you.

Preferences-

General:
On startup display "Player only (no Media Browser)"
select "Clear content of the Now Playing List"
untick "Warn if user has changed....."
untick "Enable a history....."

Playback settings: untick everything

Internet Settings: untick everything except "Enable Cookies"

My Library:
untick "Include other....", THEN untick "Enable This Feature"

CD: untick everything

DVD: untick everything

Content: untick everything under Accessibility

Media Types: untick everything that isn't "Real"
(I do this during installation)

Automatic Services: untick everything

--------------------------------------------------------------------

A good Popup Blocker (Not the free ones...but a good store-bought one like PopUpCop) can help you with certain ActiveX and other important browsing settings.

For now, you can try these settings:

Internet Properties Advance Settings Preferences

Accessibility Section:

UNCHECKED...Always expand ALT tags for images

The ALT text is meant to be alternative text, primarily for use when the image is not being displayed. The most common mistake (if used at all!) is to provide a description of the image, without considering what job the image was doing on the page, leading to results that can range from the incongruous to the absurd. The ALT text is intended to be a suitable textual alternative to the purpose of the image: sometimes that might turn out to be a description of the image, but in practice that choice seems to be wrong far more often than it's right.

UNCHECKED...Move system focus with caret with focus/selection changes

When selected, this accessibility option moves the system caret (cursor or insertion point) when the focus/selection changes. This option improves the functionality of some screen readers and screen magnifiers that use the system caret (cursor) to determine which area of the screen to read or magnify.

Browsing Section:

CHECKED.....Always send URL's as UTF-8. UTF-8 (requires restart)

UTF-8 defines a character set that is readable in any language.

UNCHECKED.....Automatically check for Internet Explorer updates

Will alert you if a newer version of Internet Explorer becomes available and
prompt you if you want to download it.

CHECKED.....Close unused folders in history and favorites

If you are using the history or favorites window, specifies whether opening
a new folder will close the one that was previously opened by you.

It has been determined that some external programs access the Web using Internet Explorer functions in such a manner that the 'History' files are kept open. When these programs are active, the 'History' files can't really be deleted. In some instances, the files appear to delete but soon reappear.

CHECKED.....Disable script debugging

Used by web page developers to test programs and scripts on their web pages.

UNCHECKED...Display notification about every script error

Useful to developers when testing web pages, displays the actual scripting
error code when a page does not load properly due to a scripting error.

CHECKED.....Enable folder view for FTP sites

Specifies whether to display the folders on a FTP site similar to a windows
explorer view or a my computer view.

UNCHECKED.....Enable install On Demand (Internet Explorer)

Will automatically download and install components that a web page needs in
order to be displayed properly.

The Install On Demand feature specifies whether to automatically download and install Web components that can be installed by Internet Explorer Active Setup by using the component's cabinet information file (CIF) for Setup instructions. Typically, a Web page may need to download items to display the page properly, or to perform a particular task. For example, if you open a Web page that requires Japanese-text display support (Charset=euc-jp), Internet Explorer automatically prompts you to download the Japanese Language Pack component if it is not already installed and the Install On Demand feature is enabled.

UNCHECKED...Enable install On Demand (Other)

Components that can be installed by using self-installing program files that are registered with Internet Explorer 6 are controlled by the Enable Install on Demand (Other) setting.

UNCHECKED...Enable offline items to be synchronized on a schedule

You can set up web pages to be delivered to you at a specified time.

UNCHECKED...Enable page transitions

Specifies whether as you move from one page to another, the previous page
fades out and the new page fades in.

UNCHECKED...Enable Personalized Favorites menu

Specifies whether to have items displayed on your favorites
menu that you don't frequently use.

CHECKED.....Enable third-party browser extentions (requires restart).
I need this for PopUpCop to stay installed and work in my browser.

CHECKED.....Enable visual styles on buttons and control in web pages

UNCHECKED...Force offscreen compositing even under Terminal Server (requires restart)

CHECKED.....Notify when a downloads complete.

Indicates whether to display a message at the end of a file download to
indicate that the download is complete. Note, assigning a sound to the
asterisk in sounds in control panel will play a sound when a download is
complete.

UNCHECKED...Reuse windows for launching shortcuts

Specifies whether when you click on a link in a program such as Outlook
Express, if there is already a Internet Explorer window open, whether to
reuse that window or to open another session of Internet Explorer.

CHECKED.....Show friendly HTTP error messages

Specifies whether to display the error and detailed description of the
problem when there is a problem connecting with a server.

UNCHECKED...Show friendly URLs

Specifies if you want the actual web address of a site displayed in the
status bar or the shorter friendly name. For example whether to display
www.microsoft.com or Microsoft's Home Page. HJ states to have this one off.

CHECKED.....Show Go button in Address Bar

Specifies whether to have a go button. You can either use enter or the go
button after entering an address in the address bar.

Underline links:

CHECKED.....Always 
UNCHECKED...Hover 
UNCHECKED...Never

Specifies when to underline links, always, only when
mouse pointer is over the link, or never.

UNCHECKED....Use inline AutoComplete

Specifies whether you want Internet Explorer to auto complete addresses as
you enter them based on sites you have visited before.

UNCHECKED....Use Passive FTP (for firewall and DSL modem compatibility)

Use passive FTP for compatibility with some firewalls and DSL modems.
Does not require you to know the actual IP address of a FTP site.

UNCHECKED....Use smooth scrolling

Specifies whether a special type of scrolling is used to scroll through
pages at a predefined speed.

HTTP1.1 settings:

CHECKED......Use HTTP 1.1
UNCHECKED....Use HTTP 1.1 through proxy settings

Specifies to attempt to use HTTP 1.1 when connecting to Web sites. HTTP
(Hypertext Transfer Protocol), is the protocol that is used to display web
pages. HTTP 1.1 is a newer version than HTTP 1.0 and loads web pages
faster. Some Web sites still use HTTP 1.0, so if you are having
difficulties connecting to some Web sites, you may want to clear this check
box.

Multimedia Section:

CHECKED......Don't display online media content in the media bar Play animations

UNCHECKED....Automatic Image Resizing

Another change you might want to make is in the way IE handles images. By default, IE resizes images to fit the window. This often distorts large images and can be a real pain if you frequently use IE to view images on the Web. Just disable or enable the Enable Automatic Image Resizing option.

UNCHECKED....Enable Image Toolbar (requires restart)

UNCHECKED....Play animations in web pages.

I'm on a Dial-Up Connection, so this really helpd web pages to load faster for me.

UNCHECKED....Play sounds in web pages

Allows audio.

UNCHECKED....Play videos in web pages

Plays video clips.

CHECKED......Show pictures

Specifies whether to download and display graphics.

UNCHECKED....Smart image dithering

Smooths image displays.

Printing Section:

UNCHECKED....Print backgroud colors and images

Specifies that you want Internet Explorer to print background colors and
images when you print a Web page.

Search from the Address Bar Section:

When searching:

UNCHECKED....Display results, and go to the most likely site
CHECKED......Do not search from the Address Bar
UNCHECKED....Just display the results in the main window
UNCHECKED....Just go to the most likely site

Internet Explorer 5 allows you to enter words in the address bar for
searching the web and uses the MSN search engine for the results.

Security Section:

UNCHECKED....Check for publisher's certificate revocation.

I've unchecked this since that license fiasco effected clicking on some files and folders.

UNCHECKED....Check for server certificate revocation (requires restart)

Tells whether IE should check an internet site's certificate to see if it
has been revoked or is still valid.

UNCHECKED....Check for signatures on downloaded programs

UNCHECKED......Do not save encrypted pages to disk

Specifies that secured information such as on secure shopping sites is not
saved to your hard disk or to your temporary internet files folder. This is
useful if you are using Internet Explorer from a shared server and you do
not want other people to see your secure information.

I used to CHECK this, but I discovered it slowed the Backspace action on some sites

UNCHECKED....Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed

This will delete all files that IE has saved to your temporary internet
files folder each time you exit IE. Remember though, this may slow down
your browsing as IE will not be able to retrieve pages you revisit from your
temporary internet files folder.

UNCHECKED....Enable Integrated Windows Authentication (requires restart)

UNCHECKED....Enable Profile Assistant

IE can fill the whole form in for you, but only if the Web site supports
the Profile Assistant. Your profile information is contained in the
profiles on the contents page.

CHECKED......Use SSL 2.0

Specifies that you want to send and receive secured information through SSL2
(Secured Sockets Layer Level 2), the standard protocol for secure
transmissions. All secure Web sites support this protocol

CHECKED......Use SSL 3.0

Specifies that you want to send and receive secured information through SSL3
(Secured Sockets Layer Level 3), a proprietary protocol that is intended to
be more secure than SSL2. Note that some Web sites might not support this
protocol.

UNCHECKED....Use TLS 1.0

TLS stands for Transport Layer Security, and is a new security protocol being developed to supersede Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) which is the standard means for encrypting information transmitted across the internet. HeySportsFans website (as an example of a site) uses SSL to protect secure areas of the website, but does not currently support TLS. This means that if the "Use TLS 1.0" option is enabled, secure pages will not be displayed.

CHECKED......Warn about invalid site certificates

Specifies whether Internet Explorer should warn you if the address (URL) in
a security certificate of an Internet site is not valid.

CHECKED......Warn if changing between secure and not secure mode

Specifies whether Internet Explorer should warn you if you are switching
between Internet sites that are and are not secure.

CHECKED......Warn if forms submittal is being redirected

Tells whether IE should warn you if a form you submit is being redirected to
a web site other than the one you are using to fill out the form.


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## rameam (Mar 15, 2003)

I have very few progs starting. Only basic, needed.

I never heard of Clear Type.

If I knew how to uninstall all the garbage the ISP dropped on me, and still have a connection, I would. I would love to drop their browser, Real Player (which does not load at startup; I have it to keep wmconnect from bugging me every time I connect if I uninstall it), and everything else but the ability to connect.

Nothing does anything automatically. I do it all manually.

I don't know of anything on the sys that I have and don't need.

I have Google Toolbar which stops popups.

I've been to Pitstop, but get no help there.

I have plenty of memory.

I regularly run AAW, Spybot, AVG, etc.

I checked and unchecked. We'll see if that makes any difference.


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