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Tweak RWIN - can it really double your speed?

macmonkey1981
Newbie
Posts: 4
Registered: ‎15-01-2008

Tweak RWIN - can it really double your speed?

Historically I've dismissed fiddling with RWIN and MTU settings as a waste of time. When I've done speed tests at the dead of night on thinkbroadband they're always returned around 2.5Mbps despite the router syncing at 7Mbps-ish and the IP profile being 6.5Mbps. Always thought this was PlusNet's network being hammered by file downloads in overnight usage time.
However....being very bored this evening (morning?) I changed RWIN size and now my speed test results have shot up to 5.7Mbps. Can changing that one little setting with DrTCP and a simple reboot of Windows really make all the difference?
8 REPLIES 8
prichardson
Grafter
Posts: 1,503
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Tweak RWIN - can it really double your speed?

It can indeed and your own experiance is testiment to this very fact.
RWIN is very specific to each connection type and as such, OSs always come with generic settings.
If you bear in mind that the only two connection types for most people was 56kb dialup or 100mb LAN. We are now in middle ground covering many different figures, with it set only to change further as various connection technologied progress.
In all, tailoring the setting specific to your connection and the thresholds based on diagnostics from that provided by DSL Reports for example, you can quickly boost performance of your computers settings.
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Tweak RWIN - can it really double your speed?

There's numerous examples on here of rWin tweaking giving massive improvements to download speed.
It really can help as much as you've just shown Smiley
artmo
Aspiring Champion
Posts: 19,524
Thanks: 421
Registered: ‎12-08-2007

Re: Tweak RWIN - can it really double your speed?

Can RWIN and MTU be altered in all OS's? 
orbrey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 10,540
Registered: ‎18-07-2007

Re: Tweak RWIN - can it really double your speed?

Certainly on all versions of windows (because afaik DrTCP is available for all versions of windows...). I'd be very surprised if you didn't have control over these in *nix OSs and I'm sure you can alter them in OSX.
zubel
Community Veteran
Posts: 3,793
Thanks: 4
Registered: ‎08-06-2007

Re: Tweak RWIN - can it really double your speed?

Except Vista, which tunes it (badly) for you Smiley
B.
kryten1st
Grafter
Posts: 92
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Tweak RWIN - can it really double your speed?

I followed all the instuctions for DrTCP and all seemed ok and I did notice an increase in speed.  Unfotunatley when I next came to play Battlefield 2 it would only find about 3 servers which I have never seen before.  After removing the setting from the registry I could find over 800 servers in battlefield 2 any ideas why this would happen?
orbrey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 10,540
Registered: ‎18-07-2007

Re: Tweak RWIN - can it really double your speed?

Possibly you'd set the MTU to a value too high for the servers to accept? You need to make sure the same value is set in your operating system and the router.
Hope that helps,
kryten1st
Grafter
Posts: 92
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Tweak RWIN - can it really double your speed?

Thanks orbrey I think for me it was curosity but maybe it's a case of if it aint broke don't fix it  Grin