After my ISP raised their speed I noticed that my laptop got up to 5000 kbps,
while my desktop (that is a much faster PC) only got about 4080 kbps at max.
Have tried disabling everything and when I got to avast (4.7.1043) I found…
Web Shield slows the speed tests with about 10-15% (even when I set it to scan only certain file-types)
Network Shield adds another 2% (about 100 kpbs) speed drop
I comparison ZoneAlarm doesn’t add anyting that is noticable at all
Why this bit performance hit???
(but there still got to be something more, even with ZA and avast! uninstalled and Window FW off I get only max 4676 kbps on my desktop compared to 5000 kbps on my slower laptop - even on WLAN. Any ideas?)
No, It can’t be the ISP, my laptop is connected via the same router as my desktop.
So they should get exacly the same speed, still my desktop gets 4600, my laptop 5000.
And the desktop is faster, have better netwrk card (gigabit at 100 Mbit).
So what could then cause this? It’s weird?
(but there still got to be something more, even with ZA and avast! uninstalled and Window FW off I get only max 4676 kbps on my desktop compared to 5000 kbps on my slower laptop - even on WLAN. Any ideas?)
You may want to take a look at diffferences in TCP Window Size between your two systems. Having too small a TCP Window Size relative to the speed of your ISP can restrict the maximum speed you can obtain.
There is a formula that can be used to determine TCP Window Size for XP systems that uses the official maximum speed of your connection to your ISP. However if you use the maximum stated speed of your ISP (mine is 6Mbps) then you will most likely be restricted to getting close to that maximum.
My ISP and others now provide much higher speeds (bandwidth permitting) for the first 30 seconds or so of a download and in fact at offpeak times I get a higher connection speed for longer periods than that. As I posted the other day in another thread - speedtests show that I get in excess of 20Mbps but to get that I need to have a higher TCP window size - mine is set to (decimal) 124100.
Where do I set this? And what is a good value.
I though both these PCs where with standard XP setup.
But if there is a difference I’ll copy the setting from the laptop
One difference only, receive window was 65535 on desktop and 64512 on laptop.
In this test the desktop was fastest. That is not true when I test against a “local” machine in Norway.
65535 is the default value for TCP window size in Windows XP when a (RWIN) size has not been chosen (ie no TCP Window size exists in the registry).
If you have a poor quality connection then a high TCP widow size will cause excessive retries and slow your connection, however in a good quality connection testing a higher TCP Window Size will not, in any way, impair your connection and may well demonstrate improved throughput.
I recently conducted a series of tests with my good quality broadband connection using lower RWIN sizes than I have that restricted my connection speed and I have decided to stay with the setting I posted earlier. There are many in the forums who swear by an even higher RWIN size.
No packet drops or anything. I’ll try switching the netwoek cables.
There’s got to be a reason for one computer beeing 10% slower.
Maybe I should borrow another network card and test as well
Lars, it seems that the service must be running in order to receive an IP address. Did you manage to keep it disable, boot, and the network working after that?
Works just a good without, our work PCs have it off two.
The initial DNS lookup of a name make take 1ms longer (need to ask a DNS server on the network)
but web-browsers (at least IE and FF) caches DNS entries themselves as well.
Have noticed no other problems (except higher transfer rates that is
What? The service?
How are set your avast! services?
Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services
Right click DNS Client Service > Properties > Set to manual
But I wouldn’t mess the system… I wouldn’t change anything (yet).
It is a service, personally if it isn’t broken don’t try to fix it.
From Lars-Erik’s post it should be plain it is a service “DNS Client” that needed to be disable. However, if you didn’t recognise this I would question if you should be disabling the service.
I apologise if you feel this is an insult, but messing with services without full knowledge of what effect it can have on your system is fought with danger and can really screw up your system.
