Speed up your connection in Windows XP. By default, the packet scheduler limits the system to 20% of the bandwidth of a connection. Tip taken from http://www.astahost.com/info.php/speed-up-connection-windows-xp_t3099.html
To increase bandwidth:
- Open Run dialog box from Start menu.
- Type “gpedit.msc” (only in WinXP Prof.) and press Ok.
- When Group Policy run, go to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > Qos Packet Schedule
- in right side, right click on Limit reseivable bandwidth and select Properties.
- In Setting tab under Limit reservable bandwidth section select Enabeled .
- instead of 20 type 0 (zero) and then click ok, and close Group Policy.
- Now , go to Network connection and right click on your connection and select Properties.
- Go to Networking tab and cheek Qos Packet Scheduler to be ticked.
- Restart your PC
Comments:
1)
The reason your bandwidth is often limited to slight below actual bandwidth is becase of buffers.
There are buffers everywhere, There is an output and input buffer on your computer, anouther set on your ISP, anouther set on the server you are doanloading from, and maybe several other along the way.
if your connection is running flat out maximum, then these buffers tend to fill, and you get what is called Latency ! (the time it takes a packet o get from A to
Limiting your bandwdth only sligtly reduces bandwidth, but keeping buffers empty means you get a lightning fast latency.
for example, online gaming quality (lag / ping) has nothing to do with bandwidth, only latency. its true that higer bandwidths tend to have lower latency, but if you mess with your Qos, you may get increaced bandwidth, but very likely at the expence of latency !
Tweaking Qos to increace performance requires a good knolege of the network you are in, and a general rule like this may work for some machines, but not all.
2)
without this modification, start several downloads (pushing your bandwidth to the limit) and whilst it is in progress ping a website… (maybe this website).
now make the surgested modification and re run the above (re-download same files).
and compare the ping times.
Operating systems reserve bandwidth for a reason !