Windows 98 Optimizations Guide

This guide works for all versions of Windows 98. It improves performance for all online programs or games that use the TCP/IP protocol to communicate. Make sure you have installed all the updates on the previous page before attempting the procedures in this guide.

Modem Setup

1. Open the 'Modems' control panel.
   
2. Select the properties for your modem.
   
3. Write down your modem's COM port (We will need this later).
   
4. Under the 'General' tab, set the 'Maximum speed' field to 57600 for 28.8k/33.6k modems or 115200 for 56k modems.
   
5. Unmark the 'Only connect at this speed' option.
   
6. Under the 'Connection' tab confirm that your 'Data', 'Parity' and 'Stop bit' fields are set properly (Usually 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit).
   
7. Click the 'Port Settings' button, mark the 'Use FIFO buffers' and move the 'Receive buffer' and 'Send buffer' sliders to the maximum values (14 and 16 respectively).
   
8. Click 'Ok' to return to the 'Connection' tab window.
   
9. Click the 'Advanced' button, mark the 'Use error control' and 'Compress data' options.
   
10. Mark the 'Use flow control' and 'Hardware (RTS/CTS)' options.
    
11. Confirm that the 'Modulation type' is set to 'Standard'.
    
12. Add any 'Extra settings' that you require or prefer (Consult your modem manual for details).
    
13. Click 'Ok' from the 'Advanced connection settings' window.
    
14. Click 'Ok' from the 'Connection settings' window.
    
15. Click 'Ok' from the 'Modems' control panel.
    
16. Restart the computer.

COM Port Setup

This section applies to all internal and external modems, most external ISDN adapters, and some internal ISDN adapters. If you have a device other than a modem replace 'modem' in the text below with your device's name (Eg. 'external ISDN adapter'). If you have an internal ISDN adapter that does not incorporate a modem this section does not apply. This section only applies to devices that connect to or emulate a serial port.

There are two ways to do this depending on your system:

1. Open the 'System' control panel.
   
2. Select the 'Device Manager tab.
   
3. Click the plus next 'Ports (COM and LTP)'
   
4. If your modem's port is listed (The one you wrote down earlier) follow method 1, if not follow method 2.

- Method 1 -

1. Open the 'System' control panel.
   
2. Select the 'Device Manager' tab.
   
3. Click the plus next 'Ports (COM and LTP)'
   
4. Select the properties for your modem's COM port.
   
5. Select the 'Port settings' tab.
   
6. Change the 'Bits per second' field to 57600 for 28.8k/33.6k modems, or 115200 for 56k modems.
   
7. Confirm that the 'Data bits', 'Parity', and 'Stop bits' fields match those set in the 'Modem Setup' section (Usually 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit).
   
8. Confirm that 'Flow control' is set to 'Hardware'.
   
9. Click 'Ok' from the 'Communications port properties' window.
   
10. Click 'Ok' from the 'System properties' window.
    
11. Restart the computer.
    

- Method 2 -

1. Select 'Run' from the 'Start' menu, type SYSEDIT and click 'Ok'.
   
2. Select the WIN.INI window.
   
3. Select 'Find' under the 'Search' menu option, type PORTS and click 'Next'.
   
4. In the 'Ports' section find your modem's COM port and change the values to the following:

   COMx:=57600,n,8,1,p (For 28.8k/33.6k modems)
   COMx:=115200,n,8,1,p (For 56k modems)
   (Where x is the COM port number of your modem)

5. Select 'Save' from the 'File' menu.
   
6. Select 'Exit' from the 'File' menu.
   
7. Restart the computer.

Dial Up Networking Setup

1. Open the 'Dial-Up Networking' folder from within 'My Computer'.
   
2. Right-click on your ISP's connection and select 'Properties'.
   
3. In the 'General' tab unmark the 'Use are code and Dialling Properties' option (Make sure the area code is written in the 'Telephone Number' box).
   
4. In the 'Server' tab confirm that the 'Type of Dial-Up Server' field says 'PPP: Internet, Windows NT Server, Windows 98'.
   
5. Unmark the 'Log on to network', 'NetBEUI', and 'IPX/SPX Compatible' boxes.
   
6. If you use a modem or other adapter that performs hardware compression unmark the 'Enable software compression' box (If you use an adapter that does not perform hardware compression ensure that this box is checked).
   
7. Confirm that 'Require encrypted password' and 'Require data encryption' are unmarked.
   
8. Click on the 'TCP/IP Settings' button.
   
9. If your ISP allow automatic IP addressing and DNS determination (most do), mark 'Server assigned IP address' and 'Server assigned nameserver address'.

   If your IP requires you to specify your IP and/or DNS address, mark 'Specify an IP address' and/or 'Specify nameserver address' and complete the details as given by your ISP.

10. Unmark the 'Use IP header compression' option.
    
11. Confirm that 'Use default gateway on remote network' is marked.
    
12. Click 'Ok' from the TCP/IP settings window.
    
13. Click 'Ok' from your ISP's Dial-Up Networking properties.
    
14. Close the 'Dial-Up Networking' folder.

Network Setup

1. Open the 'Network' control panel.
   
2. Select the properties for the 'Dial-Up Adapter'
   
3. Under the 'Bindings' tab, mark 'TCP/IP' and unmark evrything else.
   
4. Under the 'Advanced' tab, click on the property 'Use IPX header compression' and change it's value to 'No'.
   
5. Click on the property 'Enable Point To Point IP' and change it's value to 'No'.
   
6. Confirm that the 'IP Packet Size' option is set to 'Automatic' (There will be an opportunity to manually set the packet size later).
   
7. Click on the property 'Record a log file' and confirm that it is set to 'No'.
   
8. Click 'Ok' from the 'Dial-Up Adapter' properties.
   
9. Select the properties for 'TCP/IP'.
   
10. Under the 'Bindings' tab, unmark everything.
    
11. Under the 'NetBIOS' tab, unmark 'I want to enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP'.
    
12. Under the 'WINS Configuration' tab select 'Disable WINS Resolution'.
    
13. Under the 'DNS Configuration' tab select 'Disable DNS'.
    
14. Under the 'IP Address' tab select 'Obtain an IP Address automatically'.
    
15. Under the 'Advanced' tab mark 'Set this protocol to be the default protocol' option.
    
16. If you're using 'Windows 98 Second Edition' confirm that 'Allow Binding To ATM' is set to 'No.
    
17. Click 'Ok' from the 'TCP/IP' properties.
    
18. Click 'Ok' from the 'Network' control panel.

    If there are any adapters and protocols you do not use remove them (all you need for online TCP/IP games is 'Dial-Up Adapter' and 'TCP/IP') If you do this later visits to the 'Network' control panel will cause Windows to tell you that your network is incomplete - ignore this, TCP/IP games will work perfectly.

Registry Setup

For this section we need to alter settings in the Windows registry, if you make mistakes in here you can potentially cripple your system. If you're not comfortable with using the registry you should just skip this section.

- Disable Browser Web Check -

1. Select 'Run' from the 'Start' menu, type REGEDIT and click 'Ok'.
   
2. In the left hand side of the 'Regedit' window click the plus next to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'.
   
3. Click the plus next to 'SOFTWARE'.
   
4. Click the plus next to 'Microsoft'.
   
5. Click the plus next to 'Windows'
   
6. Click the plus next to 'Current Version'.
   
7. Click on 'Run'.
   
8. In the right hand side of the 'Regedit' window right-click 'BrowserWebCheck' and select 'Delete'.
   
9. Select 'Exit' from the 'Regedit' menu.
   
10. Restart the computer.

- TTL -

1. Select 'Run' from the 'Start' menu, type REGEDIT and click 'Ok'.
   
2. In the left hand side of the 'Regedit' window click the plus next to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'.
   
3. Click the plus next to 'System'.
   
4. Click the plus next to 'CurrentControlSet'.
   
5. Click the plus next to'Services'.
   
6. Click the plus next to'VxD'.
   
7. Click on 'MSTCP'.
   
8. In the right hand side of the 'Regedit' window look for a key named 'DefaultTTL', if you find it skip to step 10.
   
9. From the 'Edit' menu select 'New' then select 'String Value' and name it 'DefaultTTL' (You must capitalize exactly as shown).
   
10. Double click on the 'DefaultTTL' registry key and type 32 in the 'Value Data' field.
    
11. Select 'Exit' from the 'Registry' menu.
    
12. Restart the computer.

The next two sections require some algebraic knowledge, if you are not comfortable with algebra you may want to skip them. Also, if you connect through more than one ISP you should skip this section because settings that are good for one ISP may be bad for another.

- Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) -

First we're going to find out your ISP's MTU, if you already know this (the helpdesk might know but i wouldn't bet on it) you can skip to stage 3.

IMPORTANT: ONCE YOU START THIS SECTION DO NOT ATTEMPT TO USE THE INTERNET UNTIL YOU HAVE COMPLETED IT OR YOU MAY EXPERIENCE SEVERE PACKET LOSS

1. In order to find the MTU correctly we must first set it to a high value.
   
   1. Select 'Run' from the 'Start' menu.
      
   2. In the left-hand side of the 'Regedit' window, click on the plus next to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'.
      
   3. Click on the plus next to 'System'.
      
   4. Click on the plus next to 'CurrentControlSet'.
      
   5. Click on the plus next to 'Services'.
      
   6. Click on the plus next to 'Class'.
      
   7. Click on the plus next to 'Net'.
      
   8. Click on the plus next to '000x'.
      (There will probably be more than one '000x' entry here, look for the '000x' entry that corresponds to your 'Dial-Up Adapter' and replace the 'x' with the correct number.)
      
   9. Click on the plus next to 'Ndi'.
      
   10. Click on the plus next to 'Params'.
       
   11. Click on the plus next to 'IPMTU'.
       
   12. Click on 'enum'.
       
   13. In the right-hand side of the 'Regedit' window, right-click 'Automatic' and select 'Delete'.
       
   14. From the 'Edit' Menu, select 'New', then select 'String value' and name it 1500.
       
   15. Double click on '1500' and type 'Automatic' in the 'Value data' field.
       
   16. Select 'Exit' from the 'Registry' menu.
       
   17. Restart the computer.
2. Now we must find the correct MTU value for your ISP
   
   1. Connect to the internet through your ISP.
      
   2. Select 'Run' from the 'Start' menu, type COMMAND and click 'Ok'.
      
   3. At the dos prompt type 'ping -f -l XXXX [your ISP homepage]' (eg. BT Internet users would type 'ping -f -l XXXX www.btinternet.com' ). Replace XXXX with numbers until you find the highest value that your ISP responds to. Add 28 to this to find your MTU (eg. if the highest value you got was 548 your MTU would be 548+28=576)
3. Now we set the MTU
   
   1. Select 'Run' from the 'Start' menu.
      
   2. In the left-hand side of the 'Regedit' window, click on the plus next to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'.
      
   3. Click on the plus next to 'System'.
      
   4. Click on the plus next to 'CurrentControlSet'.
      
   5. Click on the plus next to 'Services'.
      
   6. Click on the plus next to 'Class'.
      
   7. Click on the plus next to 'Net'.
      
   8. Click on the plus next to '000x'.
      (There will probably be more than one '000x' entry here, look for the '000x' entry that corresponds to your 'Dial-Up Adapter' and replace the 'x' with the correct number.)
      
   9. Click on the plus next to 'Ndi'.
      
   10. Click on the plus next to 'Params'.
       
   11. Click on the plus next to 'IPMTU'.
       
   12. Click on 'enum'.
       
   13. In the right-hand side of the 'Regedit' window, right-click 'Automatic' and select 'Delete'.
       
   14. From the 'Edit' Menu, select 'New', then select 'String value' and name it your MTU value (eg. 576).
       
   15. Double click on the new string you have created and type 'Automatic' in the 'Value data' field.
       
   16. Select 'Exit' from the 'Registry' menu.
       
   17. Restart the computer.

IMPORTANT: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RE-SET YOUR MTU ONCE IT HAS BEEN SET WITHOUT FIRST RAISING IT BACK UP TO 1500 OR THE PING COMMAND WILL REPORT THE WRONG VALUE

- Receive Window (RWIN) -

The RWIN size should be about the same as your average download speed in b/s (bytes per second), this is usually between 3000 and 5000 for a modem. The RWIN value should be a mutiple of your MTU-40 (eg. if your MTU is 576 your RWIN might be (576-40)*8=4288). Setting your RWIN too low can result in high pings and setting it too high can result in packet loss (the download speed is a good guide).

1. Determine your RWIN using the instructions above.
   
2. Select 'Run' from the 'Start' menu.
   
3. Type REGEDIT and click 'Ok'.
   
4. In the left-hand side of the 'Regedit' window, click on the plus next to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'.
   
5. Click on the plus next to 'System'.
   
6. Click on the plus next to 'CurrentControlSet'.
   
7. Click on the plus next to 'Services'.
   
8. Click on the plus next to 'VxD'.
   
9. Click on 'MSTCP'.
   
10. In the right hand side of the 'Regedit' window look for a key named 'DefaultRcvWindow', if you find it skip to step 12.
    
11. From the 'Edit' menu select 'New' then select 'String Value' and name it 'DefaultRcvWindow' (You must capitalize exactly as shown).
    
12. Double click the 'DefaultRcvWindow' string and enter the RWIN number you determined above in the 'Value data' field.
    
13. Select 'Exit' from the 'Regedit' window.
    
14. Restart the computer.

Other Stuff

1. Open the 'System' control panel.
   
2. Under the 'Performance' tab click the 'File System' button.
   
3. Change the 'Typical role of this computer' field to read 'Network server'.
   
4. Move the 'Read-ahead optimization' slider all the way to the right (Full).
   
5. Under the 'Floppy Disk' tab unmark the 'Search for new floppy disk drives each time your computer starts' box.
   
6. Under the 'CD-ROM' tab move the 'Supplemental cache size' all the way to the right (Large).
   
7. Change the 'Optimize access pattern for' field to the correct setting for your main CD-ROM drive (If it's not 'Quad-speed or higher' you really should consider getting a new drive.
   
8. Click 'Apply' then 'Ok' from the 'File System Properties' window.
   
9. Click the 'Graphics' button.
   
10. Move the 'Hardware acceleration' slider all the way to the right (Full).
    
11. Click 'Ok' from the 'Advanced Graphics Settings' window.
    
12. Click 'Close' from the 'System' control panel window.
    
13. Restart your computer.

Always unplug all other devices connected to your phone line (phones, fax machines etc) while you're using the net because even if they're not in use they can affect performance.

If you have trouble connecting or keep getting cut off, phone your phone company (eg. BT, Cable & Wireless) and ask them to increase your line gain to 4 (this won't cost anything).

End

Well done, your Windows setup has now been optimized for TCP/IP connections. If you were optimizing for Quake 2 (and since you're on this site you probably were) you can now go to the Quake 2 Connection Optimization Guide.

If you have a question about anything in this guide or any suggestions about improving connections please don't hesitate to contact me.

[TNN][8]